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Analyzing Current Medical Challenges from a Bahá’í Perspective

Analyzing Current Medical Challenges from a Bahá’í Perspective. Northern Ireland Summer 161 BE. What Medical Challenges?. LEE Jong-wook Director General World Health Organisation. Health Challenges: The Global picture. Widening gaps in health Life expectancy trends Communicable diseases

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Analyzing Current Medical Challenges from a Bahá’í Perspective

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  1. Analyzing Current Medical Challenges from a Bahá’í Perspective Northern Ireland Summer 161 BE

  2. What Medical Challenges?

  3. LEE Jong-wook Director General World Health Organisation

  4. Health Challenges: The Global picture • Widening gaps in health • Life expectancy trends • Communicable diseases • Non-communicable diseases

  5. Causes of Mortality • Childhood: • Perinatal • Diarrhoeal diseases • Pneumonia • Malaria • Adults 15-59: • HIV/AIDS • Other Communicable diseases • Tobacco epidemic • Road traffic accidents

  6. DALY = Disability Adjusted Life Years

  7. Burden of Mental Health Problems • Mental • Neurological • Substance use disorders • 13% DALYs • 33% YLDs • 150 million depression • 100 million alcohol and drug disorder • 1 million suicides • 25 million schizophrenia • 38 million epilepsy

  8. Tip of the Iceberg • Alcohol and substance abuse • Crime • Road traffic accidents • Family breakdown • Depression • Schizophrenia • Epilepsy • Cirrhosis • Cancer

  9. Neglected Global Epidemics: three growing threats • Cardiovascular diseases • raised blood pressure • tobacco use • alcohol consumption • cholesterol • obesity or overweight • Tobacco-related diseases • Road traffic casualties and traffic-related environmental hazards

  10. World Health Report 2004Changing History • A global emergency: a combined response • The treatment initiative • Community participation: advocacy & action • Health systems: finding new strength • Sharing research & knowledge

  11. Solutions • Funding • Global fund for HIV/AIDS - US$2.1 billion over 2 years to 224 programmes in 121 countries and 3 territories!!! • The Need: “A massive increase in resource transfers from rich to poor countries” • “Prevention” • Distribution of condoms • Educating sex workers • Providing sterile needles

  12. Urban Health: A Growing International Crisis “As the world becomes increasingly urban, the urgency and importance of understanding how the urban environment affects health grows exponentially.”

  13. Millennium Development Goals • To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • To achieve universal primary education • To promote gender equity and empower women • To reduce child mortality • To reduce maternal mortality • To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases • To ensure environmental stability • To develop a global partnership for development

  14. Message fromthe Director-General “Today’s global health situation raises urgent questions about justice. In some parts of the world there is a continued expectation of longer and more comfortable life, while in many others there is despair over the failure to control disease although the means to do so exist.”

  15. Message cont… “…A world marked by such inequities is in very serious trouble. We have to find ways to unite our strengths as a global community to shape a healthier future.” World Health Report 2003

  16. World Health Report “The founders of the international system more than half a century ago grasped theclose connection between health – understood as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being” – and the core values of justice and security. Neither of these two values can endure without the other…”

  17. World Health Report “As globalization accelerates, the interdependence of nations is perceived clearly. Treating others justly is now both a moral imperative and an aspect of wise security policy.”

  18. SOLUTIONS? DON QUIXOTE DE LAMANCHA

  19. Signs/Symptoms Visible Tangible Multiple Secondary Therapy will be only partially effective Disappear when cause is cured Basic Illness Invisible Subtle Single Primary Deterioration if not found and treated correctly Signs and SymptomsversusThe Basic Illness

  20. What is the basic illness? Is it lack of money???!!

  21. Global Priority $U.S. Billions Basic education for everyone in the world 6 Cosmetics in the United States 8 Water and sanitation for everyone in the world 9 Ice cream in Europe 11 Reproductive health for all women in the world 12 Perfumes in Europe and the United States 12 Basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world 13 Pet foods in Europe and the United States 17 Business entertainment in Japan 35 Cigarettes in Europe 50 Alcoholic drinks in Europe 105 Narcotics drugs in the world 400 Military spending in the world 780

  22. The Glory of God “What makes this insight possible for us is the light shed by the rising Sun of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation and the influence it has come to exercise in human affairs.” Century of Light, Introduction

  23. Where lies the illness? “The crucial need of the human race is to find a unifying vision of the nature of man and society... [and] a common conviction of the course and direction of history” The Universal House of Justice, Statement on Bahá’u’lláh, p.1

  24. Human Nature “True loss is for him whose days have been spent in utter ignorance of his self.” Bahá’u’lláh, Words of Wisdom We are all losers!

  25. Premises for discussion • Human nature is fundamentally spiritual • Capacities are latent within human beings • An external source of energy (= education) is needed to express these capacities

  26. Development of Human Potential “Every child is potentially the light of the world and at the same time its darkness.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

  27. The Purpose of Physical Reality:Preparation “The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child whilst still in the womb of its mother.” (Gleanings LXXXI)

  28. Human Free Will “All that which ye potentially possess can, however, be manifested only as a result of your own volition. Your own acts testify to this truth.” (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings LXXVII)

  29. Human Free Will The highest expression of free will is: To recognize the Source of Education for his day and to live by His Teachings. = To establish the LIFE LINE

  30. The Lifeline “I am the the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) “I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25)

  31. The destiny of the human soul “The purpose underlying Their [the Prophets] revelation hath been to educate all men, that they may, at the hour of death, ascend, with the utmost purity and sanctity and with absolute detachment, to the throne of the Most High. The light which these souls radiate is responsible for the progress of the world and the advancement of its peoples…”

  32. “…They are like unto leaven which leaveneth the world of being, and constitute the animating force through which the arts and wonders of the world are made manifest… All things must needs have a cause, a motive power, an animating principle. These souls and symbols of detachment have provided and will continue to provide the supreme moving impulse in the world of being… (Baha’u’llah, Gleanings 81)

  33. Who dictates new norms? “It is They (the Manifestations of God) that have, in every age, defined the meaning and requirements of modernity.” (Universal House of Justice, Message of 26 November 2003)

  34. Universal Effect of DivineRevelation “A new life is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth, yet none hath discovered its cause or perceived its motive.” (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings XCVI)

  35. Divine Revelation is the Motive Power of Civilisation “Verily, We behold all created things moved to bear witness unto Us. Some know Us and bear witness, while the majority bear witness, yet know Us not.” (Lawh-i-Aqdas, Tablet to the Christians, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p15)

  36. The purpose of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh “…To create an organic unity between the inner and outer realities of human life.” Universal House of Justice, Individual Rights and Freedoms within the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh

  37. Organic unity of inner and outer = Justice • Independent investigation of truth: “By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others” (HWA 2) • The Golden Rule: “If thine eyes be turned toward justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself.” (Tablets, p.64) • Moderation: “Whoso cleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation.” (G CLXIV)

  38. Moderation = Justice = Balance “All other things are subject to this same principle of moderation.” (Bahá’u’lláh) Moderation Balance Justice Harmony Golden Rule Organic unity of inner and outer Equilibrium Homeostasis

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