Latham e a saúde materno-infantil

Abstract

It is a characteristic of post-modernity to say that history does not have, or, at least, will not have a direction. A civilizing process is under way, but it is no longer subject to the control of human beings, to government bureaucracy or participatory management by the whole community, in the manner of Thomas More's Utopia. On the other hand, there is the theory that history is made by great figures, Thomas Carlyle's heroes of war and peace, arts and religion, science and technology. The march of cultures and civilizations is spearheaded by heroes, not necessarily by way of self-sacrifice, as in the history of the martyrs, but by the force of ideas, the capacity to argue and mobilize that shapes opinion and speeds up the course of events. According to this view, the milestones of history are, to a great extent, an extension of the biography of iconic figures. Michael Latham, 1 a professor at Cornell University, who died in April, may be considered an example of one of Carlyle's heroes. Born in Africa, he became active in the struggle against inequality and made a great impact on the processes of health and disease at the level of whole populations, both in the former context of patriarchy and/or political, social and economic colonialism, and in the more recent phase of asymmetrical globalization, which creates inequities and generates exclusion. Whether it be in the older context or in its latest manifestation (globalization, a centralized capitalism controlling its peripheral dependents) the binary opposition of health and disease appears to be the corollary of a process with distinct patterns of morbidity and mortality, as shown, for example, by scholars and activists in the field of collective health, such as Nájera In Spain, Breilh in Ecuador, Berlinguer in Italy, and Samuel Pessoa, Josué de Castro and Sérgio Arouca, here in Brazil. In addition to illustrious figures in the field of health, economists, sociologists and political thinkers have also referred to health, in terms of standard epidemiological indices, as an area which tells much about the economic and social well-being of geographical regions, countries and smaller populations. Names that spring to mind include the economist and Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen, 2 Robert Fogel, Gordon Conway (author of the Second Green Revolution) 3 and Ignacy Sachs, specialist in the development of what used to be called Third World, with vast experience of Brazil. These introductory remarks serve to highlight the enormous contribution made to the theory and practice of humanized health-care by Professor Michael Latham, retired (but never inactive) Emeritus Professor at Cornell University, in the United States. Born in Tanzania, in Africa, but educated in the Anglo-American system, Latham has a foot in both worlds and is familiar with their problems, values, lifestyles and development prospects. And he drew on this dual background and outlook in his work as a teacher, researcher and humanistic thinker who addressed the overriding problems in the field of maternal a...