Sept. 26-30. 2016. PAHO WHO 55th Directing Council

It’s been a while. Time flies and I am back to my blog. This time, I am in Washington D.C., the capital city of the United States. I still remember the moment when I was in Sierra Leone. Yes, I think I was there with full of passion. I miss at that instant. I gave responsibility to myself of being a messenger from on-the-ground to let my people know what’s going on in Africa during the Ebola outbreak. Well, I thought I would always go back to Africa again and would resume writing my blog. But you know, our life is filled with various requirements that we have to deal with, livelihood, due dates, reports, friends, family, food, clothing, shelter… endless lists! Just doing those priorities are already overwhelming, so finding time to do extra stuff is always hard. I’ve never admitted that I might be too self-centered, which seriously conflicts with being a selfless public health professional.

The definition of “health” by World Health Organization (WHO) is:

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.”

This is where my heart goes to. It was simply unfair to me that people in least-developed countries don’t even have access to clean water and die from diarrhea. Can you believe that? Children are dying from diarrhea… I began my public health career because I thought I could contribute to WHO’s mission, health is a fundamental human right. However, dreaming our ideal world and taking action is always a different story. During the bible study in this evening, one of the members was shocked and told me “Read the news!” Well, I didn’t catch up with the news, President Park’s leaking confidential documents to her friend in my home country fast enough. I was embarrassed and couldn’t help but to see members were so outraged by this recent news. How am I supposed to know the real-time news in South Korea while I am crazy about getting a good score at class in the United States? But think about this. Even if you are really resenting, nothing would change. It just happened, and probably it’s already been happening for a long time even before you know about that. And most importantly, you’d have never stopped that because you’ve had no connection to politics at all. I think I’d have been more comfortable if I hadn’t noticed that because I know I wouldn’t and couldn’t intervene personally in that issue to solve the problem.

Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization

Going back to the ambitious definition of health from WHO, why does this matter to me? Why do I try to care about the people in the rural area of Africa who I’ve never met and could be hardly going to know me? Where is my real identity in this effort, thinking about the health of unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar culture in Africa while indifferent to what’s happening in my country? It’s just nonsense. When you jump into the airplane to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to the country where suffering from Hurricane Matthew, in what sense do you do that? Is it from the humble heart of caring about the dignity of people and wishing to accomplish the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations (UN)? Or is it from the arrogant mindset that you’re the one who is in the position to offer the necessities like an angel? Or is it for displaying your showmanship and proving you’re a nice person to people around you? It’s hard to judge. Only you know what you have in mind. You may donate a certain amount of money to support a child with the pure thought that you feel really sorry because the only thing you can do is to simply donate with one click. Or, you’re taking advantage of vulnerable people to write the paper, get a promotion, and shine your image of helping hands. Caring about people is not simple. Yes, this is public health that I’m doing.

To be honest, working at WHO was my dream. It still is. But perhaps, I should have been dazzled by the splendid image of WHO. Who would disagree that WHO is awesome because it is the only international government organization that takes responsibility for leading and guiding international health? Who wouldn’t want to look like a cool and fancy person who wears a formal suit at this UN’s specialized agency? But if you do public health just because you want to have this superficial image of the organization, you’re putting the cart before the horse. I’ve always mentioned WHO in my personal statements and say “I want to be Dr. Lee Jong-wook!” When I was a master student, my academic advisor was dubious and asked me “You’re so ambitious but too general. So what do you want to do?” Yeah… at that time, WHO seemed to be ambitious but general to me, so I was just the simple image of that. In D.C., there are so all kinds of cool buildings. Wow, White House! Wow, IMF! Wow, World Bank! Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/ WHO building is right across the street from my home! But before being captured by that illusion, let’s think about the real purpose of the existence of these organizations. All the WHO meetings, discussions, guidelines… Are these for who? Do all countries respect and follow WHO’s soft power of regulations, guidelines, and recommendations well?

The 55^th Directing Council, 68^th Session of the Regional Committee of WHO for the Americas was held in D.C. during 26-30 September 2016. The council meets every year and I was privileged to attend this meeting. Heads of delegation from 47 countries in the Americas gathered to work on, approve, and declare the major public health issues.

What I hope is that all works from WHO would have a great impact on our societies. Getting out of its grandiose image, it’s time for WHO to prove its real functions without constraint to limited budget. I want to see that people around the world would clearly understand and know the role and importance of WHO, and appreciate their existence. The disease outbreaks, such as Ebola, Zika can be prevented under the strong surveillance system, and we don’t even have to worry about the situation to find the funding resource to respond and develop vaccine because those diseases would never occur. We can’t lose our hope to achieve our vision, everyone has the right to the highest possible level of health. Certainly, we can make the world free of needs, free of wants, and free of poverty, hunger, and diseases, if we all have true hearts that better of others.

P.S. Newsletter about PAHO/WHO Directing Council has been posted. :)