MBM Question #1 Response

It's nice to have hope, unless you're dead. Dr. Farmer has made an overwhelming impact on the lives of those in the developing world and he did this not by instilling hope, but by preforming hard work to improve the quality of life of the poor. Farmer is an extremely empathetic man, but he isn't doing his work in Haiti to make the Haitians feel good or hopeful; he is doing it to save their lives. Farmer is a true believer in the type of "social justice medicine" that Cuban doctors practice. (207) He knows that to "seek justice" (207) is not to say nice things and hope they get better, it is to fight zealously to end the "massive accumulation of wealth in one part of the world and abject misery in another." (218) Farmer would rather have an economic system that resembles Cuba in a place like Haiti than one more like the United States. Most people who live in the United States would consider this to be an attack on the freedoms enjoyed by the USA, however, Dr. Farmer recognizes that the freedoms enjoyed by the United States only instill a hope in the proletariat that they too can someday make it rich if they work hard enough. Farmer doesn't want hope to be the only thing keeping these people alive, he wants them to all have equal access to the essential services that they need to survive. After the earthquake in Haiti do you think that Dr. Farmer gathered people around him and expounded on the hope of the situation? Of course not, he went immediately to work by helping the injured, sick, and starving.