Book Announcement | The Examined Illness: A Philosopher's Confrontation with Deadly Disease

The Examined Illness

Intellect is pleased to share that The Examined Illness: A Philosopher's Confrontation with Deadly Disease, by Darrel Moellendorf, is out in paperback and hardback.

A visceral personal memoir of being seriously unwell – and the consolations of philosophy during sickness. Being a patient is part of being alive. Disease and serious illness often strike randomly, and when they do, we quickly become subject to the impersonal forces of biochemistry and pharmacology. We rarely think about sickness beforehand and are often totally unprepared for it when it happens. Suddenly, there we are, subject to a standard treatment protocol. Darrel Moellendorf learned this by experience during a month confined to a solitary and sterile hospital room where he received a life-saving stem cell transplant. His room was somebody’s workspace, his schedule was somebody’s work routine, his immune system was systematically crushed, and his prognosis was out of his hands. There was no assurance that it would all work out.

Having spent thirty years teaching philosophy to college students, He was facing the biggest test of all—perhaps the final exam. These are his reflections before, during, and after his cancer treatment, written in real time. He writes, “My brain was sometimes addled by the chemotherapy that sapped my energy and destroyed my immune system, but I wrote out of the conviction that living well includes living well with disease, and eventually living well facing death.” This memoir expresses the conviction that the virtues of patience, courage, trust, and hope serve us well. A measure of good humor also can’t hurt.

Part of the Global Health Humanities series.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introductory Note

Part I: Diagnosis
1. First Thoughts and Second Opinions
2. Healthcare for All Pt. 1
3. Patients and Patience
4. Father to Son and Back
5. Give It Up for Lent!

Part II: Inside
6. Day 7: The Countdown Begins
7. Day 6: Carpe Diem
8. Day 5: Vegetarianism Is Not an Option
9. Day 4: Sweatin’ and Shakin’
10. Day 3: Making Decisions When You Can’t Think
11. Day 2: Nausea and Fatigue
12. Day 1: Courage
13. Day 0: Communion
14. Day +1: Confinement
15. Day +2: Waiting and Anxiety
16. Day +3: Relaxed
17. Day +4: Toiling and Spinning
18. Day +5: Healthcare for All Pt. 2
19. Day +6: Patience and Hope?
20. Day +7: A Letter Arrives
21. Day +8: Anaemia
22. Day +9: Why I Write
23. Day +10: Why I Dyed My Hair Blue
24. Day +11: Shorn
25. Day +12: Tired, Itchy, and Hiccupping
26. Day +13: Waiting
27. Day +14: Signs of Progress
28. Day +15: Turn Me Lose, Set Me Free
29. Day +16: Fresh Air
30. Day +17: Postponement

Part III: Recovery
31. Home Sweet Home
32. Home Update
33. The Social Determinants of My Survival
34. Letting the Days Go By
35. A Thread of Good Fortune
36. Magical Thinking
37. Hope Kept Me Eating
38. Sunshine, Suffering, Rebirth, and Freedom
39. Food Aversions
40. Inching Towards Normalcy
41. Human Fatigue and Canine Anxiety
42. Healthcare for All Pt. 3
43. Still Wearing My Helmet
44. Same as It Ever Was
45. Who Is That Masked Man?
46. Inspiration in the Oncology/Haematology Waiting Room
47. With a Little Help from My Friends
48. Springtime on My Face
49. Feeling the Love … and the Likes
50. Disease, Bodily Alienation, and Transhumanism
51. Dem Fingernails
52. Traversing the Rim of the Valley of the Shadow of Death
53. The Examined Illness

Epilogue: Living with Mortality
References

Please visit our website for more information:

www.intellectbooks.com/the-examined-illness

--

My source: Georgia Glasspole

Marketing Executive (she/her)

Intellect  | 0117 9589910 | georgia AT intellectbooks.com

iii WCCS26: World Conference on Complex Systems 20-22nd April

Chaos
Making a New Science 
by James Gleick

When I first learned of WCCS26, I saw a connection, an affinity across the conference themes. This was reinforced when I read the final program for WCCS. Here was a home for the model, a way-point for Hodges' model. For an independent scholar, it was quite a trip to Ben Guerir, to the north of Marrakech; 13 hours (brief by global standards). It was a place to wave wildly, making use of the opportunity to present Hodges' model, to say - "Dear All, can you do anything with this?".

It is almost 40 years since I read James Gleik's, Chaos: Making a New Science. That was in Cornwall I think? Now, something more than book - a complexity conference.  

 After the first two keynotes - two panels: 

 Panel 1 - Complexity, Society & Global Challenges

▪ Carlos Álvarez Pereira - No Limits to Hope: Escaping from the unreasonable effectiveness of Modernity
▪ David Chavalarias - The Artificialization of Cultural Evolution: the Impact of Very Large Digital Infrastructures on Individuals and Society
▪ Louis Klein - Noospheric Singularity and the Mirror of Tamkeen
Panel Chair: Karima Kadaoui

These confirmed I was in the right place. Well, it was bit late if I wasn't! I was reminded of the slow movement, and how in healthcare, specifically client-nurse intereactions you had time to manage your time, that is your caseload to deliver person-centred care. I don't mean time-wasting, as in social chat, tea and custard creams either. This is what being professional is about, truly trying to make a difference - that lasts. So we worked through: What is; (science) what we understand; and (tech and law) what should be. Ecologically, we often refer to the size of our footprints. Panel one considered this individually and collectively - institutionally. Fascinating to reflect upon these themes and how modernity is stamping about in a rather chaotic way? We are seemingly power-less to stop this.

c/o Carlos Álvarez Pereira
No Limits to Hope: Escaping from the unreasonable effectiveness of Modernity

Three reports to the Club of Rome were displayed, spanning 'NO LIMITS TO LEARNING - Bridging the human gap' 1979; 'Limits and Beyond' 2022; 'NO LIMITS TO HOPE - Liberate the potential for Collective Learning' 2026. Should we be troubled, worried even, that the latest followed after a mere four years? There are of course, many reports as per the link above.

David Chavalarias - The Artificialization of Cultural Evolution: the Impact of Very Large Digital Infrastructures on Individuals and Society spoke about the beneficial and malign impacts of social media AI tools. Covid featured as might be expected. Within the sciences, what was worrying, was an innovation slowdown associated with AI, non-AI use, chartered around a central point (centroid). I believe the slide referred to:

Qianyue Hao & Fengli Xu & Yong Li & James Evans, 2026. "Artificial intelligence tools expand scientists’ impact but contract science’s focus," Nature, vol. 649(8099), pages 1237-1243, January. 

There was one slide:

Is this the demise of any efforts to achieve SOCIO-technical synergy? Even to the extent of realising benefits for the human in socio-technical systems? Did Covid not teach us anything about the informational difference technology can make? When so many technologies are muted by a virus? This is what we need: things to think about, question and critique. 

There used to be a series of A3 step-by-step oil painting magazines in the 1970s. One presented a desert campfire, clearly set in the east. I did try it, though not sure were the result is now. ... Such a scenario was presented by Louis Kleinand the Noospheric Singularity and the Tamkeen Process - Regenerative Hermeneutics, with the following reference provided:

Klein, L., & Kadaoui, K. (2024). Realising metamorphic transformation in the mirror of Tamkeen: Growing a shared understanding from co-reflected lived experiences. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 41(5), 738–749. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3058 

There was much I could identify with. And, once again, I cannot continue at this pace. We have only covered (touched!) panel one. Hopefully you now have an idea of the depth of the conference programme. More however, will follow.

See also: thefifthelement.earth

Chaos - cover: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/826080.Chaos

c/o RollingStone UK - "U2 surprise-drop politically charged ‘Days of Ash’ EP with six new songs"

The collection delves into ICE, Israel, the West Bank, Ukraine, Iran — and features a guest vocal by Ed Sheeran

U2 (RollingStone UK - Picture: Anton Corbijn) 

By Andy Greene

'U2 have emerged from a long hiatus with a surprise six-song EP, Days of Ash, available now, in which they address political flashpoints around the world, including ICE raids in the US, the Iranian uprisings, the war in Ukraine, and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The six songs — ‘American Obituary’, ‘The Tears of Things’, ‘Song of the Future’, ‘Wildpeace’, ‘One Life at a Time’ and ‘Yours Eternally’ (featuring Ed Sheeran and Taras Topolia) — are all on streaming platforms. They’ve also created lyric videos for each one.' 

Continued ...

Previously: conflict : war : hope : peace

Book: SNÖ

'Snow. A single word, for an infinite variety of water formulations, frozen in air. The study of snow is physics, chemistry, meteorology, anthropology, geography, poetry and art. It is hope – annually renewed. And it is history, too.

Earth saw its first snowfall 2.4 billion years ago. The world's oldest skis, made by hand five thousand four hundred years old, pre-date the pyramids of ancient Egypt. To humanity, snow has variously been an ally and an adversary; an inspiration to countless artists and a place of breathtaking tragedy and survival. But it’s always been there. And now it is melting. 

In 1927, the snow was already more than nine metres deep on Japan's Mount Ibuki when a remarkable 230cm fell in 24 hours, bringing about the greatest depth of snow - 11.82m - ever recorded. Yet it is a fact today that, ironically not only has this mountain's resort been forced to close due to lack of snow, most people in the world have never been near snow: never felt the soft crunch of snow underfoot, never held snow to see it melt in their hands, let alone stood on a pair of skis.'  continued ...

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compass defined compass unified mental expanse beauty memory lived experience signature of change sadness signifier	SNÖ by Sverker Sörlin
culture poetry - arts social history shared loss recreation - leisure Two kids. Uncles! In car, drenching us driving through slush in the gutter 😎

Sverker Sörlin, Elizabeth DeNoma (Translator) (2025). SNÖ - A History. London: Doubleday.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/467833/sno-by-sorlin-sverker/9781529947878

Previously: Grief, mourning and commemoration in the North

My source: Clark, P. A gear shift to adapt to a warming world. Books. Genre Round-Up, Environment.  Life&Arts. FT Weekend. 23/24 August 2025. p.10.

John Denver - Season Suite (Full) The Suite is in this order:

1. Summer
2. Fall
3. Winter
4. Late Winter, Early Spring (When Everybody Goes to Mexico)
5. Spring

"Despair" by Bertha Wegmann

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Despair by Bertha Wegmann (Danish, 1847 – 1926)

Okoro, E. A time to rest and recharge. The Art of Life: Life&Arts, FTWeekend. 17-18 May 2025. p.2.
https://www.ft.com/content/6c2d4362-a464-45e4-8288-a80d5e8a730f

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Wegmann

How Bertha Wegmann communicated the 19th-century female experience. Christie's

Image: https://high.org/collection/despair/

Alliance for Responsible Citizenship

Last month on two occasions, I came across the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (which is a registered company). 

In the Sunday Times, "Philippa Stroud: ‘Everyone’s moaning — I think humanity can sort things out’":

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/philippa-stroud-alliance-responsible-citizenship-km8z26b8b

and Financial Times "'Part megachurch, part political rally: inside London’s ‘rightwing Davos’".

https://www.ft.com/content/7ff1614c-38a2-4b5c-81d3-80cea1196dad 

Apparently, a right wing, conservative movement with a three-day conference, one commentary suggested it has struggled to define itself, which is understandable given the ongoing (increasing?) prompts for its creation.

You recognise early on in your nursing career and not just as a student (pre-Project 2000 UK), but as a Nursing Assistant that character is a key element in your professional development. By the time you qualify, you more accurately see that without a doubt it is your formative education that is a critical factor. That and your 'home' circumstances - and not necessarily the two-parents good, one bad formulation. This is why with students excluded from school, society is taking a wrong turn. There is obviously a problem but what is the 'correct' approach?

An 'alliance' already suggests a given level of organisation. By definition 'grassroots movements' must struggle to establish and retain their identity.

This is a project Hodges' model can help address - with a balanced but not necessarily a neutral output.

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identity personality attitude aptitude character faith individual beliefs religious engagement courage hope threshold concepts my destiny well-being trust	future physical thresholds  waste climate change circular economy AI truth - information disorder science technology PAST - work - FUTURE our future destiny - (what does the clock say?) future generations?
grassroots social movement arts family community culture - diversity social - cultural identity society - support social change social capital social contract social values our shared destiny our children's children welfare - living wage employment - leisure quality of life	power political systems past policy UK: 'Troubled Families' economics organisations, institutions corporations political (manifest! - colonialism ) destiny policy systems political engagement health of leaders trust international law - justice control of fraud, corruption, crime human rights political thresholds

NPR: What is your wish to improve life on earth in 2025?

Dola Sun for NPR

With thanks to NPR, 'an independent, nonprofit media organization that was founded on a mission to create a more informed public'. NPR asked 11 global health professionals to share their wishes for 2025.

Read in full here:
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/01/06/g-s1-40820/2025-world-wishes-haiti-bird-flu

We asked global thinkers how to improve life on earth in 2025. Here are their wishes

My wish: Honor the legacy of Jimmy Carter Dr. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor, project director, VaxSocial HPV Vaccination Initiative, Nigeria

My wish: World, awaken to the medical emergency in Haiti Dr. Ousmane Abdoulaye, Port-au-Prince in Haiti, medical coordinator, Haiti Mission, ALIMA — The Alliance for International Medical Action

My wish: Nothing too grand. Just a small wish that things for us go back as they were three years ago — when women could go to parks or markets but most of all go to school. Maryam S., Afghanistan, former Master's student of Pashto literature. She asked to be identified by her first name only out of fear that her criticism of Taliban policies would put her and her family in danger.

My wish: Make monumental strides in using advanced technology to detect emerging pathogens Dr. Abraar Karan, physician and researcher, Division of Infectious Diseases & Geographic Medicine, Stanford University

My wish: Let us recognize that violence has never been the true solution to conflict KR Raja, Madurai, India, lawyer advocating for criminal justice reform and the founder of the Indian charity Global Network for Equality, which supports children orphaned by crime

My wish: I dream of a future where there are safe and healthy conditions for workers, where they are free of discrimination and can earn a fair wage. Ashila Dandeniya, Colombo, Sri Lanka, founder and director of the Stand Up Movement, a women-led organization that advocates for workers' rights.

My wish: Make progress in developing treatments to reduce deaths and complications from dengue André Siqueira, head of the Dengue Global Programme at Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative and public health researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation's National Infectious Diseases Institute in Brazil

My wish: For trekkers and travelers to help clean up the waste they leave behind — and to help protect our natural treasures Raj Kumar Shrestha, trekking guide, Kathmandu, Nepal, and founder of Let's Clean Up Nepal, an environmental conservation organization

My wish: Use digital innovation to enable health workers to deliver their care, especially in places where resources are constrained Dr. Junaid Nabi, public health researcher specializing in health-care reform and innovation, and a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute and a Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council

My wish: May the year bring peace to the world Dr. Atsbha Merhawit, Ayder Hospital, specialty in endocrinology and diabetes, Mekelle, Ethiopia

My wish: Follow the rules of war regarding the welfare of children Joe English, New York, N.Y., emergency communication specialist for UNICEF ==

What is your wish for 2025?

Best wishes, Neil

HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil AT hifa.org

n.b. My wish: That "Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model" continues to emerge as a generic conceptual framework shared and understood by all learners for lifelong learning.

Thanks Neil. I will post this with HIFA link.

Praying ... for PEACE

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PRAY	PREY
PRAY	PREY

Young Carers Choir - 'Love is Enough'

'Young carers face many challenges throughout the year and Christmas can be an especially tough time.

When their friends are having fun, young carers’ responsibilities don’t stop. That’s why we’re delighted Sir Ed Davey and the Bath Philharmonia’s Young Carers Choir have come together to record for a wonderful Christmas song – Love is Enough. 

The song, in support of young carers through Carers Trust and the Bath Philharmonia, has been written by young carers and shines a light on their lives.' 

continued ... 

'Nurse Emmanuel' by The Unthanks

'Nurse Emmanuel by The Unthanks is taken from the album The Unthanks - In Winter, out now. Listen to the whole album here: https://linktr.ee/theunthanksinwinter The song is written by Vanessa Lampert and Adrian McNally, set to the tune of O Holy Night, and is in tribute to the NHS, the work that medical professionals did over Covid, and the message that the NHS is in our hands, to protect and appreciate.'

My source: 'X' @TheUnthanks

Prev. 'music'

'Little Shrew' (Snowflake)

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Chappell, P. Heathcliff, it's me again: more new music from Kate Bush on the horizon, The Times, October 26th 2024, pp.18-19.

Nobel Peace Prize 2024

'The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo. This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

In response to the atomic bomb attacks of August 1945, a global movement arose whose members have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons. Gradually, a powerful international norm developed, stigmatising the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. This norm has become known as “the nuclear taboo”.

The testimony of the Hibakusha – the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – is unique in this larger context. ...'

Press release. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Sat. 19 Oct 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2024/press-release/>

Previously: Nobel Prize :: peace

1989 SHADES OF GREY, Computer Aided Learning program, BBC Micro. Simulation of nuclear weapons, Based on Fanchi, J. Local effects of nuclear weapons, BYTE, Volume 11. Issue 13. Dec., pp. 143–155. Computer Aided Learning program, BBC Micro, published by Open Software Limited.
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2024/03/jones-publications-list.html

"Is climate change affecting our mental health?" BBC & OU

"Heat waves and extreme weather aren't just affecting our physical lives, there's growing evidence they're impacting our mental health too."

Produced and directed by Lily Freeston, 29 May 2024

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Earth Day 2024 - No escape

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What is that out there? Bioscape. Incredible whole Beautiful mote - in my eye? Are your - dreamscapes - yours? Your inscape alone: mindscape - your inner eye?	Landscapes, seascapes, skyscapes, spacescapes  speak to us. Everyone. Stories of deep time. Stories of truth and truth emerging. See both sides of the cloudscape. Snowscapes in retreat. Cityscapes on the march. Yes! No! Yes! No! Yes! ... Soundscape*
The sums have it. What tablescape awaits us?	For us - no escape.

*gone quiet.

My prompt:

Esslin, Martin. Chapter 1 Samuel Beckett, The search for the self. The Theatre of the Absurd. London: Pelican, 1982. (3rd Ed.). p.84. ('psychological inscape')

  © Peter Jones

When you 'give no quarter'^

When the only thing
on the table is your history,
there is no space, even as corners multiply.
No longer is there space for a future,
no longer space for hope,
no space for a peace to be thought of -
let-alone shared.

When you give - absolutely! - no quarter
and act to prove the same,
Yes, you stand.
But how do you stand?
You stand to lose insight,
and so much more - 
you stand to lose
humanity

 

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CON-SCIENCE	SCIENCE geo-
Time & Land	politics PEACE?

^Easy for me - many of us - to say?

Listen also:

BBC Radio 4 Start the Week War crimes justice

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001vktw

Where do you/we find peace? Discuss.

'Geography of Hope' & 'The Great Conversation'

c/o Resurgence & Ecologist

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hope	geography
peoples - places	value / values

"... Stegner explained - we need such [wilderness] places because they remind us of a world beyond the human and also because they allow us to see ourselves as part of the 'environment of trees and rocks and soil ... part of the natural world and competent to belong to it". Taken together, he concluded, such places constitute a 'geography of hope'. ...

There are, as Stegner knew, certain thoughts and feelings that can had only in certain places: cognition is site-specific as well as motion-sensitive. It has long seemed to me that we might imagine landscapes as holding specific ideas and experiences just as they hold certain stones, minerals or species; that we might even talk of landscapes as growing ideas as they grow plants. And that, by extension, when we lose certain places - when they are destroyed incidentally, or deliberately - we lose not only the life that they held but also the thoughts that they enabled." p.38.

Mcfarlane, Robert., The Geography of Hope, Resurgence & Ecologist, Nov/Dec 2012, 275:pp.38-39.

https://www.20-20-vision.org/

Elia T. Ben-Ari, Defender of the Voiceless: Wallace Stegner's Conservation Legacy, BioScience, Volume 50, Issue 3, March 2000, Pages 253–257, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2000)050[0253:DOTVWS]2.3.CO;2

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intrinsic elements	PERIODIC table
we are elements too - part of nature	value / values "We have broken the great conversation."

"But does the natural world need our writing? Paul Evans, in his Country Diary in The Guardian, wrote of the importance of observing and describing the world with passion; that communicating 'the significance of ephemeral and overlooked things to a world which couldn't care less' is a political and spiritual act." p.41.

Reason, Peter., The Great Conversation, Resurgence & Ecologist, Nov/Dec 2012, 275:pp.40-41.

In the media and many Resurgence & Ecologist issues, there is a stress on our taking time to be slow. I'd written in the margin of Mcfarlane's article; "Relativistic care: The faster we run (travel) the more mass we consume". While by Reason's text I'd scribbled; "H2CM is a statement of intent, in idealised care. In practice it is an outcome."

The Architecture of Care: Emergency shelters

 

The emergency shelters will last for at least 20 years.
Copyright Chiara Becattini

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mental health / illness psychic trauma sense of security sense of (new?) place meaning: temporary - permanent?	earthquakes, natural disasters emergencies sustainable shelter Refugee shelter - design (to last 20 years, not disposable, 'C'-footprint) 2.5 million homeless Turkey  Enforced displacement
Refugees Shelter - Hope - HOME Dignity	Forced displacement war, conflict meaning: temporary - permanent? UN statistics 17 years = temporary?

Essential Homes Research Project
Giardini Marineressa, Venice, Italy. 2022 - ongoing

"An increasing number of communities are suffering the consequences of natural disasters, wars or other humanitarian crisis, forcing them to leave their homes and countries to stay in refugee camps."

My source: Heathcote, E. (2023) Norman Foster tackles the emergency shelter. FT Weekend, Venice Biennale. 20-21 May. p.5

 See also: https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/05/24/norman-foster-designs-forward-thinking-emergency-shelter-at-venice-biennale

"163 Days"

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	163 Days - Hannah Hodgson
Poetry in [not in] motion

“Hannah Hodgson takes us to the paradoxical heart of poetry itself: to be held inside a pain both intensified and soothed by the sheer brilliant presence of the poet’s mind.” – Caroline Bird

Hannah Hodgon is an award-winning poet and a palliative care patient. In her compelling debut collection 163 Days, she uses a panoply of medical, legal, and personal vocabularies to explore what illness, death and dying does to a person as both patient and witness.  

163 Days is the length of Hannah’s longest period of hospitalisation to date. In this long poem, she probes various truths, personal and medical; truths which clash like a tray of dropped instruments in a silent operating theatre.

The speaker is a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. Doctors struggle to diagnose her complex conditions. Through daily, diary-like poems we see the children’s ward through Hannah’s eyes. It is decked out in primary colours. Volunteer clowns visit. At seventeen she is ‘too old’ to be here, ‘too young’ to move to the adult ward.

The mundanity of hospital life is marbled by a changing landscape of mood, hope and loss. Her symptoms are painful. She has numerous tests and procedures to keep her alive long enough to figure out what’s wrong. A gap yawns between the person she is, and the person in her medical notes.

In ‘Aftercare’, Hannah navigates the worlds of both nightclubs and hospice care as she embarks on a new version of her life as a disabled adult. 163 Days is an important collection, in which Hodgson’s true voice takes poetry into difficult places.

Listen to the BBC radio play adaptation of 163 Days on the New Creatives website here.

163 Days by Hannah Hodgson, Seren Books ISBN-13: 9781781726471
Publication Date: Monday, March 28, 2022

My source:
Hannah's book in Kirkby Lonsdale, The Book Lounge 17th February 2023.

Book: v "Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights"

 

A few points from the book to close:

Extending Human Rights beyond HIV: The Struggle against Tuberculosis (pp.229-231).

Afterword: Resilience in the Fight for Human Rights in Global Health - 

the first lesson of first aid.

"You can best care for the world when you take care of yourself." (p.459).

 

The index is very good. I might have expected more on corruption, fraud, and counterfeit healthcare products, but then this could be a distraction. It is alarming to read of the ongoing criminalization of groups in Asia, Africa and globally concerned with substance misuse and sexual health.

Even though I can extend thanks to OUP for my copy. Reading this book is a great investment in time.

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

"You are not alone. Together, we can build a brighter future." p.460. The book's closing sentence is an appeal to practitioners and as the past 18 months and the future will surely continue to reveal places a stress on self-care.	Tuberculosis HIV Ebola COVID Malaria ...
'laws on the streets*' ETHNO- 'duty to assist' p.448 UK?	'laws on the books' -NATIONALISM (chapter 20) Human rights literacy (p.143.) Universal Periodic Review - "a basis to assess the human rights situation in states throughout the world, seeking a holistic, equitable, and balanced approach to reviewing the situation of all human rights in all countries." (p. 166.)

 

 

Many thanks to OUP.

 

*Do people have an address? p.145.

[ Previously: https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2021/01/book-review-iii-leave-no-one-behind-lnob.html ]

Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights. (2020) Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier (Eds.), Oxford: OUP. ISBN: 9780197528303.

 

Book: iii "Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights"

When you've several books to get to, a steady stream of figures and tables can help give the illusion of a speed-read. There could be many such breaks in this book, but what there are are focused, informative and fit the COVID situation in being prime for take-away purposes. It is here that the educational, learning and teaching utility of the book is found, and in the references.

Reading this book I thought about the way healthcare is situated and how care-of global politics health is local, national, international and glocal. The global health workforce are joined in the books they read. Then they apply their learning in their respective corners of the world, seeking to put the patient, the person, the public at the center. As such Section 1 is essential reading for all health and social care professionals:

Introduction: Global Health & Human Rights

Lawrence O. Gostin & Benjamin Mason Meier
I. The Human Rights Movement: International Norms and Principles 

Chapter 1. The Birth and Development of Human Rights for Health
Benjamin Mason Meier, Thérèse Murphy & Lawrence O. Gostin

Chapter 2. Global Health Law: Legal Foundations for Social Justice in Public Health
Lawrence O. Gostin, Matiangai V. S. Sirleaf & Eric A. Friedman

Chapter 3. The Right to Health and Health-Related Human Rights
John Tobin & Damon Barrett

Chapter 4. The Rights-Based Approach to Health
Flavia Bustreo & Curtis F.J. Doebbler

individual
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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

"Given the integral link between global health and human rights, global health law necessarily works in synergy with human rights. Accordingly, global health law includes not only the scope of law for global health, but also a normative perspective, with global health law seeking to enable all people to realize the right to health (Magnusson, et al. 2017). This normative perspective is not uncommon in law: environmental law is concerned with protecting the environment, trade law is concerned with a free and fair system of trade, and human rights law is concerned with protecting and promoting rights. The particular force of global health law's normative perspective comes in how it is not confirmed to laws directly related to health, but rather has significant implications for a wide range of laws in other legal regimes, requiring a focus on health in all policies." p.59. Chapter 3. The Right to Health and Health-Related Human Rights John Tobin & Damon Barrett

 

More to follow...

Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights. (2020) Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier (Eds.), Oxford: OUP. ISBN: 9780197528303.