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Politics of Vegetaion!

In a previous posting, I talked to some extent about a teacher I had in school who died of breast cancer. She never sought biomedical treatment for her disease. She was afraid. She never tried local/ alternative health care in terms of homeopathy or Ayurveda. She went for the religious healing that did not help her save her life.

People subscribe to different ideologies and practices for their health outcomes. Their reasons are as varied as the ways they choose. But still, to a large extent the biomedical model has come to dominate the most of the world. As this week's readings elaborate more on this, we find out about the Flexner Report.
The Flexner Report (also called Carnegie Foundation Bulletin Number Four) is a book-length study of medical education in the United States and Canada, written by the professional educator Abraham Flexner and published in 1910 under the aegis of the Carnegie Foundation. Many aspects of the present-day American medical profession stem from the Flexner Report and its aftermath. (source)
At some point not too long ago I would not have thought twice about this information. But now the first thing that came to my mind was "Who asked for this study?" and "Whose agendas got pushed forward with this research/ study?" My newly forming critical mind wondered how different is Carnegie Foundation from today's leading institutions such as the JHU CCC which we know does a lot of things without actually doing anything worthy.

It was interesting to read about the politics of phytotherapy and the power of plants that heal people. As Mohan always says, "Nothing is apolitical in this world," and finding the politics of knowledge and power in plants almost amused me as I realized that it is true. Perhaps looing closely we will also be able to find the politics of power in the Mexican folk healers' use of spritual water and other faith based prescriptions to illnesses (such as the experiences of my teacher).

Finally, perhaps the grounds of biomedicine will actually become unstable once new grounds and players emerge in the market for health care, and the politics of knowledge will restructure complexly. Who will emerge as the new dominant health care option? Homeopathy? Spiritual healings? Or will the might of biomedicine simply increase?

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