Current Newsletter from the Sierra Madre
# 69, February 2012 -- To read the complete newletter click here.
East Timor – The Challenge for Human, Environmental and Political Health
David Werner
A Timorese patriarch contemplates the future.
Last November David was invited to Timor-Leste to share some of his expertise with Primary Health Care. He was acutely aware of the troubled history of this small nation. The United States played a central role in supporting Indonesia’s brutal occupation of Timor-Leste from the mid-1970s through the 90s: a serious crime against humanity that. For this reason David was grateful that the people of Timor graciously received him -- an American. On his part David "had long admired the Timorese people’s resolute struggle for liberation against overwhelming odds."
David's visit to Timor-Leste was arranged by SHARE, the humanitarian Japanese NGO that has been promoting community-based health activities on the island.
David felt that East Timor -- a land of contradictions -- could be thought of as the Canary in the Mine. With powerful and conflicting forces -- both local and international -- all coming to bear on this small island nation, we can see in it a microcosm of the larger world. As David puts it, "Faced with looming climate change from global warming, the imminent end of its oil reserves, and the island’s unsustainable dependence on imported produce, what happens during the next few years in Timor may foreshadow what may soon occur globally. Let us hope the people of Timor don’t just listen to outside development pundits and corporate interests, but find the courage and resolve to collectively build a healthy and sustainable future."
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About the Newsletter
This newsletter comes out 2 or 3 times a year. It contains observations on community based health and disaility initiatives in Mexico and many parts of the world. It also includes "situational analyses" and discussions concerning the politics of health at the micro and macro levels. Many of the groundbreaking articles that first appear in this newsletter are picked up and republished in other magazines and journals.
David Werner has been reporting on his groundbreaking health and disability initiatives through this Newsletter since 1967, and we are happy to continue publishing it.
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