And Mike Leavitt's blog proves all over again the central point blogvangelists, including me, make about blogging: Blogging has the potential to humanize...to humanize a huge corporation (a la Scoble's work at Microsoft.) To humanize those who hold different views from you. And in this case to humanize our government.
While he only committed to blog through the month of August, we'll see if he got bitten by the blogging bug. I have to say I hope so.
Recently Leavitt was in Africa, most recently in Rwanda, and he wrote long, substantive posts about both what's happening in Africa, but also his perspectives on what he saw, learned, experienced.
His latest post, about Rwanda, genocide and AIDS is very long in blog terms, but also very well-written, interesting, just personal enough.
He addresses something I've thought a lot about since attending a very high-level women's advisory board meeting in NYC in January...
At that meeting one of the few male attendees was a man who had just left the UN as their envoy to Africa, and he spoke about the AIDS crisis in Africa, and how they are making progress in every area (treatment, distribution of medications etc.) except one: Changing the predatory nature of some of the men in Africa, which is spreading AIDS amongst young women like wildfire.
Why? Because somehow there exists a myth that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS. So men with AIDS are raping young women at an astounding rate. And until we change the hearts and minds of those men, we will continue to wipe out an entire generation of women.
Leavitt refers to this same issue, although a bit more obliquely:
Actually, the question of how hearts are changed has been on my mind through out this African trip. The entire continent of Africa is being ravaged by another kind of brutality: disease. In all four countries I visited, the HIV-AIDS virus is waging war, systematically and venomously destroying families, communities and ultimately nations.I’ve been to the front lines and seen the evidence of caring people from all over the world, rallying to help. I’ve seen researchers who left the comfort of their university lab to live at the epicenter of the epidemic pursuing every lead on how to defeat the heartless killer. I’ve seen health workers organize clinics to administer medicine. I’ve seen caring people struggle to meet the needs millions of orphans left in the wake of this disease.
I see our nation and others with us, sending tens of billions of dollars to fuel this effort. There has never been a more noble humanitarian effort made to stand between mankind and disease -- and yet, we are losing. While we succeed in treating the sick and providing life and hope for millions, new cases are growing faster than our ability to treat them.
Whether it is in the outback of Africa or the streets of American cities, we cannot treat our way out of this epidemic. Prevention is the only way to succeed. Prevention requires change of behavior. Changes in behavior happen only when there is change of heart.
He also says:
The condom use part of our ABC policy (Abstinence before marriage; Be faithful in marriage and consistent Condom use in high risk behavior) is important because it recognizes the realities of human behavior but here’s another reality: In a world saturated with AIDS, any society that counts on the C (Condoms) part of ABC to facilitate a continued practice of males routinely having multiple and concurrent sexual partners will be overrun by AIDS and its harsh economic, social and health consequences.
Which may be the only part of his post where playing politics seems to come in, and where I get a not-so-fresh feeling from his rhetoric.
Why does he not acknowledge that rape and misogyny are a part of this equation? The language seems to paint a picture of a hedonistic society engaged in rampant consensual sex, and paying for it...which subtly supports the administration's conservative perspective...instead of painting a picture of a patriarchal society that treats women like vessels. Which might get uncomfortable, given that's not too far off from the attitude of some of President Bush's evangelical base.
I'll grant you that I am particularly on the lookout for the unwarranted politicization of topics around health and science, given this administration's proclivities in that direction, so I may be a bit paranoid.
In general, I think Leavitt adds a global perspective to the medblog conversation, and I, for one, hope he keeps it up.
Hat tip: Hospital Impact
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