Geography "Traps"

(start at 43.40...or watch the whole thing)

We had a great introductory discussion today as a part of our introduction to the geopolitics of malaria. One of the extensions of this discussion focused on how geography can frame or limit a state's or a society's realities as they relate to global public health. For those of you who are interested, please feel free to peruse any and all of the following resources. Both Diamond (1998) and Hausmann (2001) offer some great perspectives on the challenges that face governments in sub-Saharan Africa-enjoy. 

References

Diamond, J. M. (1998). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co. (*pdf) Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3

Hausmann, R. (2001). Prisoners of geography. Foreign Policy, january. Retrieved November 4, 2013, from http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2001/01/01/prisoners_of_geography?page=full 

The geopolitical challenge of malaria

Today IB Glopo Year 1 embarks on our final case study in Global Public Health; that of malaria. One half of the world's population, over 3 billion people, are at risk of contracting malaria; well over 200 million individuals contracted the disease in 2010, with over 600,000 deaths (WHO). And yet, the challenge of treating the disease is not simply one of medicine; its politics, financing, development, geography, culture, and more. As a result, the study of malaria as a geopolitical challenge is an appropriate capstone to our course of study.

We'll begin by watching Bill Gates' keynote on the subject. This will be followed by teams of students navigating a webquest on malaria. Please note that you'll need a hard copy of this reporting sheet to document your data and as a frame of reference for further analysis. We'll then play Malaria in Wazuzu as a vehicle to understand the complexities of treating malaria in a developing country. Finally, we'll have the chance to see some solutions to malaria in action. Of course, we'll debrief regularly throughout the process; this means that we should plan on at least a a week or so to work through all of this material. The complete plan for this lesson can be found here; be sure that you add this to your files as well.