Thursday, February 26, 2009

Look at others as human beings

The world is not in need of more guns and generals, but of more hospitals and doctors

In the World Health Organization (WHO) committee of HNMUN, being a medical student puts you among the privileged few. I was asked by an Armenian delegate sitting next to me: “What in the world is MDR-TB?” Before, a delegate (no doubt a medical student), have been using the acronym which stands for ‘multiple drug resistant tuberculosis’ and other technical terms such as prophylaxis, palliative, DOTS, etc, which sounds unfamiliar to the students of law, government, economics and politics (which made up the majority of the committee).

Other than being able to understand the technical terms, and being a walking dictionary to others, being a medical student gave us an advantage to look at problems substantively. Politicians and economists like to talk about the legislative stuff, and they talked a lot too. But they don't quite have the correct idea on the real situation we’re facing. “Developed countries must supply more AIDS-curing medicine to developing nations!” one said. Well, if there is a cure for HIV/AIDS, we would have eradicated it from this world long time ago.

Realizing the flaws, once in awhile, they would say “Let’s hear the medical point of view”, signaling the need of someone with medical knowledge to speak up front. Throughout the conference, I was invited to speak a few times, and I’ve never felt more purposeful in my life. When the world asked for your opinion, why shouldn’t you feel so? I guess one of the best things about being a doctor is that people believe whatever you say. I am lucky I did my research before. At other times, I would most probably take an ‘intellectual guess’ =P

However, one can’t possibly deny the strong correlation between politics, economy, social systems and disease. So, like it or not, we all have to work together. One time I raised an issue on economics, about how the policy in the IMF and World Bank affects the healthcare system in many developing countries, and the next day, they brought a representative from the World Bank into the committee, in case people like me who lacked knowledge on economics asks the same dim-witted question again. I didn’t talk about economics again that day. Leave it to the economists, I did =PIn the end, despite our academic differences, doctors, politicians and economists worked together to find single resolution. The best thing about health committees such as the WHO is that we couldn’t disagree upon each other concerning the main goals. Of course, no sane person would disagree on eradicating infectious diseases from the world, yes? In other committees, such as the Security Council, they had about a dozen of resolutions to be voted. We had only one resolution, and the voting is just for formality. It was inspiring to see each and every country, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, raising their placard, agreeing on single resolution.


HNMUN was a grand, once in a lifetime experience for me. It was a wide-eye opener. Where else would I get a world-scale experience if not attending the real United Nations General Assembly? But then again, it wouldn’t be the same, because in HNMUN, they send students instead of real diplomats to a United Nations conference. What you’ll get are scenarios impossible in the real world. The United States in alliance with Venezuela, Iraq having dinner with Iran, India working together with Pakistan and suddenly obscured countries such as Saint Kitts and Comoros’ opinions is taken into account. I’ve never knew there’s a country which starts with ‘saint’!

As students, we realize the politics and international affair of our countries, but despite that, we looked upon each other not based on race, religion or political views. That’s the best thing about Harvard National Model United Nations: we look at each other as humans. We believe that the only real nation is humanity. We're all humans, aren’t we?

11 comments:

Qarl said...

yes bro..


we r all human beings...


do u think msia alredi hv enuf doctors & hospitals?

i dunno

catfish1987 said...

aku mula membaca la blog ko ni..tp kan..lama2 aku baca..aku was2 la lut..ni semua cite pasal memuji diri ko je..ampes sungguh!!

Lutfi Fadil Lokman said...

ahaha...kate coffee talk. ko kn pharmacist, salah 1 efek caffeine kn 'elevation'. so ble mengopi smbil menulis blog,ak jadi narcissistic la...haha

fahimahjohari said...

mmg ske puji diri sendiri pn;p
hahaha, kiddin'
i tink kan makin lame makin pjg u post haha
buat buku jela;p

syed muhammad said...

aku x bace. exam... weh keli mne ko nyer blog. kalo boleh bwat twetter.
eg: pukul 10 mkn 2 ketul dedak.
pukul 10.02 makan lagi 2 ketul dedak
hehe. lawak bosan

AdlineLime^-^Tea said...

anyway...ur dream had come true...
hehehe...nice u hv that kind of oppurtunity...
n...hv a safe trip going back to UNPAD jatinangor ni...

nur_aishah said...

Slm
Lutfi..
bkn patut dh balik ke??
amek cuti extra nih...x aci btol.
Td nampak ramai ur batchmates dah buat study group(terpengaruh dgn ktaorg senior yg semangat ni kot..ehem)

Anyway,bgusla u dpt dat kind of experience.

wslm

catfish1987 said...

keh2..pandai ko membuat hujah yang membuatkan aku terpaksa akui..

big show--blog aku adalah..cari la catfish1987.blogspot.com..jemput la masuk reramai..

lut jgn marah..promote sikit..kui2..

amin h said...

haha

aku dh bookmark dah blog nih

sgt best utk dibaca

mimiqt said...

hey. good to hear u're back.

walaupun macam memuji diri, tapi menolak isu itu ketepi.. damn aku jeles. anyway ade buat kenalan ngn delegate from nz tak? i know some. :D

Lutfi Fadil Lokman said...

hehe. kdg2 memuji diri itu perlu...hahaha.xdelah

haa,x smpt la plak bkenalan dgn delegates frm NZ. ade from ur Uni eh? tw x sape yg wakil in World Health Organization...maybe knal muke la

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