Kirsten Johnson on international humanitarian relief

   That's David Farrell, left and Kirsten Johnson, right.
   Farrell organized a speech by Doctor Johnson which I had the good fortune of attending as it was most fascinating. She's a doctor who has visited 160 countries and was named one of the Top 40 Under 40 this year for her impressive emergency care work in war zones. She explained that competition for resources (drought, crop failure, etc) pressure populations into war, so ethnic strife or ideology isn't always the big issue that it appears from the outside. She has specialized in rape and how it ravages and demoralizes populations and it's not just women getting raped, it's men as well, and she says they suffer terribly by it. 

   Johnson is affiliated with both McGill and Harvard and the main thrust of her work is to professionalize the humanitarian trade. She recounted a story of a field operation in Haiti where a certain American hospital set up shop very sloppily and proceeded to almost indiscriminately amputate limbs without the slightest attempt to heal them, people were literally trying to crawl out of the place rather than get that sort of medical attention. So there's a need for more standardization of approach. Some countries, such as Sudan, now won't indiscriminately allow organizations into the country unless they've got seriously-trained and qualified people at the helm, so there could likely be a growing university training program for humanitarian assistance. Anyway, a high-paced zippy speech, with some shocking tales woven in. If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, don't miss it.