Globalisation, universities and the future of occupational therapy: Dispatches for the Majority World

Abstract

A scrawny, mangy dog chews steadily on a broken toy,the slimy remnant of a cheap plastic doll. It pauses and pants, oppressed by the heat, then gets up and sniffs the small wooden cross on the grave. The doll, last homage to the dead child, now lies in the dust. The dog squats by the cross, relieves itself and strolls towards some shade. By my side, in this makeshift graveyard overflowing with corpses, the young North American health officer stands silent. A year ago, despite strong local protest, he lobbied long and hard to have money earmarked for microcredit,sanitary infrastructures and social development moved into his medical budget. He needed some sophisticated diagnostic tool for a non-fatal parasitic infection, and won. Using his influence and status asa doctor, it was child’s play to sway the committee.

Today, he surveys with me the 25 or 30 graves of internally displaced persons who, over the past year, have died of illnesses directly linked to malnutrition and lack of sanitation. I ask him: ’How often have you used your test over the last 12 months, and has it saved lives?’ ’Seven, maybe eight times.’ He adds nothing about saving lives or not, and we then ride back to town in silence.

He gets off before I do and as he steps out of the Jeep, he turns towards me, choked up: ’I want you to know that,when I was in medical school, nobody ever taught me about the big picture.’