Back to the task at hand...

Alright, I've gloated enough for the morning. It is bound to continue for at least several months. There's certainly a sweet, familiar taste of contentment and fulfillment when your hated rival falters. In this case it is an annual occurrence that you can plan for. Ha ha ha, you consanguineous degenerates.

In any case, we went to hear a lecture on Friday about Women's issues in Health in India. One of the things that was discussed is the proliferation of prenatal diagnostic clinics (ultrasound) that will determine the sex of the baby. This is important because of the 2 child limit here. Because in many families, boys are desirable, elective termination may be the result of finding out the baby is a girl. There apparently is a big problem with that here. In Kerala, it seems as if steps have been taken by the government and other advocacy groups to attempt to limit this behavior. By limit, I mean to not base elective pregnancy termination on sex, but rather on other things. I was wondering while this professor was talking about the moral justification of electively terminating a baby with a survivable condition such as Down's versus terminating a baby because of sex. It is entirely possible that I misinterpreted her statements and arguments, but I was left wondering why it is OK to abort a Down's baby but not a female. She did mention that disability advocacy groups are increasingly involved in the dialog, which I think is a good thing.

I don't mean to equate Down's syndrome with being a girl/woman. Rather, if people have the freedom to proceed with elective termination, why is one reason acceptable and another is not? I certainly don't think people should be selectively terminating girls, but on the other hand, freedoms come with consequences. It would seem to me that the root of the problem is the inherent value placed on boy children over female children. If I have mischaracterized her arguments and misstated her position, I am deeply apologetic.

The next stop was a center that promotes HIV/AIDS awareness and education for male sex workers. It was really quite something to see. It coordinates its efforts with other advocacy and education centers that focus on other high risk groups like female sex workers, etc. The group can be viewed as a model for how community based healthcare programs should be developed. It began as an NGO and through grassroots efforts in the local community developed community buy in and acceptance. It developed a database of its efforts and had clear health goals and a well defined target population. It was able to assess clear outcomes. Because of the well layed plans and early success of this center, the NGO was able to transfer control and responsibility to local governmental authority to continue its efforts. I was particularly impressed with the center's ability to alter public perception of these sex workers in only 5 years. I believe that part of that is a sort of shared denial between the sex worker and the family of the worker. When we asked if the families knew the father/brother was gay and a sex worker, the immediate and definitive response was no. Given the size of the community and the prominence of the center, I find it difficult to believe that people don't know. Rather, I think they choose to pretend to be unaware so the issue simply doesn't come up. It was interesting to see on one hand, a government funded agency specifically targeted at the health and education of male sex workers (which would obviously never happen in the current USA). On the other hand, no one will publicly live as a gay man because that is unacceptable. So, once again, I'm left thinking about how the US can, at times, seem so conservative compared to other parts of the world, and simultaneously so far ahead of those same parts of the world. Food for thought. For anyone interested, I will give details of the educational component of that lecture in person.

Finally, we went to a surgical hospital (finally, something that I can directly relate to) that offers a variety of subspecialty surgical services at a tremendously reduced cost. I spoke with the chief of surgery there, a neurosurgeon, about trying to follow outcomes. He said that was a good idea and now wants my help. So, I think I have found a little project in Kerala. Awesome.

The only picture from this is a demonstration of what a circumcision is. It's worth seeing.