WilliamsMemo30


 * Williams Memo 30 Describing Events**

The lights dim and pictures fill the screen. Pictures of desperate people, desiccated people. Their hair and clothes are ill kempt. Their bodies are alternately too swollen or too thin. These pictures tug on your heart strings. Then the images change. The same people that were so hopeless before are now smiling, uplifted. Their clothing is colorful and their teeth are bright. The images end; the light returns. This is the start of the Global Health Conference in New Haven, Connecticut April 2009. This conference is organized by the international NGO, Unite for Sight, and is in its sixth year. Unite for Sight believes in a model of social entrepreneurship to provide better health care for everyone, but specifically better eye care. The speakers in the next couple of days will discuss such topics as "The Health of Vulnerable Children", "Women's Health and Rights", "Responsible Health Practices", "Culture and Trust in Global Health", "Microfinance and Microfranchising in Health", "Strategies for Screening and Treating Eye Disease", "Health Care from the Grassroots." A special topic with add-on registration required is "Social Innovation and Health Delivery" Looking around, one sees the CEO of Unite for Sight, a vital and engaging woman less than 30 years of age. There are probably quite a few medical doctors, but they are only distinguishable up close by the MD on their name tags. There are many, many students in jeans, and suits depending on their personal style. Everyone attending this conference is working hard to combat preventable blindness, or other issues of global health. They are young, vital, intelligent. And there is not one blind or deaf person among them. The disabled are on screen, but not within sight. Analytic Point: neoliberal modernity means that the blind are also dumb (they have no voice to speak).