Global Health Complexities and Challenges, Integration and Impact

At an event on maternal and children’s health, discussing Millennium Development Goal including the third one "To promote gender equality and to empower women," out of 9 presenters there were only 3 women. In other disciplines like security studies some people might explain the discrepancy citing that women make up a smaller proportion of the discipline. While I don’t know the graduation rate of women involved in global health disciplines (e.g. Masters in Public Health). I can tell you that there were 10 men in a room of 60 people (excluding presenters). If my work is representative of the field, I am one of two males at Research!America, which has over 20 employees.

You know you live in Washington D.C. when you spend the day talking about how to reduce:
The injustices to women in sub-Saharan Africa
The 20 thousand kids who die everyday from neglected diseases
and the 85 million people that will be thrust into poverty this year.
But no one will talk about or to the homeless man outside Johns Hopkins University.

I did enjoy most of the event and learned a ton. Considering I took over 20 pages of notes, I might post a few interesting insights later.

Exercise can make you smarter

The New York Times wrote a piece today explaining what kind of exercise can make you smarter.

Another article in the NYT quotes Stephen Walt responding to Bin Laden's encouragement to read his book.
Read Walt's post directly here.

Why is Captain Kirk climbing a mountain?

Ex-Ante vs Ex-Post?

I am really glad you asked, because I am reading a book called The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. In the sections I read this weekend the author Paul Collier refreshed my memory.

Ex-Post is Latin for "after the fact". In models where there is uncertainty that is resolved during the course of events, the ex post values (e.g. of expected gain) are those that are calculated after the uncertainty has been resolved.
Ex-Ante is Latin for "beforehand". In models where there is uncertainty that is resolved during the course of events, the ex antes values (e.g. of expected gain) are those that are calculated in advance of the resolution of uncertainty.

In the context of aid ex-ante policy conditionality was traditionally favored over ex-post conditionality. This meant that aid was conditioned upon the promise of governments making governance changes, as opposed to aid that was delivered after the government made the changes (i.e. after the uncertainty had been resolved.)

After an inquiry from my boss this morning I wrote the aforementioned. Turns out she asked to see if it would be worth going to an event this Friday on funding models for neglected diseases.

So what does that mean in context of funding models for development of drugs to treat neglected diseases? Since the event invitation says they are advocating ex-ante mechanisms my guess is that Dr. Paul Herrling will tell us that funding for neglected diseases after the uncertainty has been resolved is not practical. This is because traditional pharmaceutical models finance the development of those drugs from the expectation of sales of that drug. There are a number of reasons but Dr. Herrling will probably tell us this is because neglected diseases are neglected because the market to fund the development of drugs for these diseases is too small to justify the cost of their development. Without the expectation of profits to pay for the development of the drugs, they won’t be researched. This is why ex-post funding models fail to provide funding for neglected diseases.

Dr. Herrling will instead say that the successful development of drugs for neglected diseases has to be funded upfront. This could be a boon to our message because it essentially says that someone/thing(e.g. the U.S. government) needs to provide the funding for the development of drugs to treat neglected diseases upfront.

We will see since I am going to the event.

Valanx

I have been thinking about some of the peculiar aspects to living in DC. The first, in hopefully a long list, are the posters on the metro rail. They aren't your normal advertisements for consumer products. You don't see posters advertising Pepsi, or the new sandwich at Burger King, instead they are for participants in NIH drug trials, buying F35 engines, or new Hummers.

To support the legislation you can text. It's guerrilla advertising. It's interesting to me because it opens your eyes to the type of people you are riding the metro with everyday.

Weekend Update

On Sunday I visited the Sackler Gallery.


(The gallery is actually to the left, but I like this picture better)
Immediately after walking in I came across a large curved piece of steel. The single piece of steel is constructed so that objects in the mirror change shapes along the continuum of the piece of art.



As I turned to go down to the main exhibit hall I caught the infamous no pictures sign out of the corner of my eye. I closed my eyes as fast as I could to avert seeing the sign, but to no avail. I had seen it, and I packed my camera back into my bag. (A potential topic on this blog in the future are the lack of picture taking opportunities in public art galleries in DC. (As much as I can recollect this was not true in any museums I went to in Europe .)

I happened upon a tour of their traveling exhibits in progress, so I slipped in and listened. Unfortunately, I only caught the tail end of the Tale of Shuten Doji exhibit, but a new tour of the Tsars and the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin started a few minutes later. I was drawn to the exhibit by the Washington Post's going out guide best bets, which featured a gold encrusted and bejeweled bull's horn. Better pictures from the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.

Another painting from the National Portrait Gallery

I feel so privileged to be in the nations capital. There is an endless amount of stimulating cultural and intellectual endeavors.
This Saturday I went downtown to check out the National Portrait Gallery.
They had the preamble to the U.S. constitution spelled out on state license plates.
A painting of the apocalypse
A shrine made out of gold and silver aluminum foil made in the early 20th century by a man who had visions from God

"You don't make it with your hands.
You form it with your hands.
You make it with your mind."
-Edgar Tolson

The Gibson

Last night I got a call from Abigail. She told me that Garrett was in town from North Carolina, and they were getting together at Alex's apartment with Alia. So I headed over there for a study abroad reunion of sorts. After a few beers we finally headed over to the Gibson. This is a bar I have wanted to go to since I got into town, so I was pretty excited.

The Gibson is owned by Thievery Corporation band members and is something like a speakeasy. It's in a nondescript building with a door buzzer that reads "The Gibson" in small print.

We pressed the buzzer and a minute later a doorman opens the door and asks us if we'd like to come in. We walked into a small hallway and the doorman tells us he has a great table inside for 5 people. We take him up on his recommendation and he walks us into a dark room sparsely populated by antique style incandescent bulbs and candles. It fit my impression of a lounge/speakeasy, but without the low lying smoke clinging to air.

We sat down and were promptly greeted with water and an overwhelming list of eclectic cocktails.
I snatched a menu so I could illustrate the eccentricity of cocktails, but the print is too small to read. Rather than transcribing the entire menu I'll just tell you what I had.
The Vieux Carre- Old Overholt Rye, St. Remy XO Brandy, Dolin Rouge, Benedictine, Peychauds Bitters, Angostura Bitters. Honestly, the drink was so complex I couldn't hope to detect the subtleties. Nonetheless it was great to unwind and nostalgically reflect on our trips around Europe.

I think I will try the Harvard on the Pike next time--Vanilla Infused Herradura Tequila, Pimms #1, and Ginger beer.