Mountains Beyond Mountains (MBM)

Mountains Beyond Mountains – Resource Guide 3
Dr. Susan Liebell, Department of Political Science

Proposed Topics for Mountains Beyond Mountains

1) Basic Rights. (p. 91) “To build a school was to unite the practical and the moral. Clean water and health care and school and tin roofs and cement floors, all of these things should constitute a set of basics the people must have as birthrights.”

What kind of rights do we have as citizens and as humans? Can we name different categories of rights (political, civic, social, human)? What list of rights would we guarantee to all? How does this list compare with the rights in the U.S. Bill of Rights? France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man? Geneva Convention? [add to this list]

What are the connections between these different categories of “rights”? What is the link between “public health” and “political freedom”? (p. 194). How are political and economic rights linked?

Kidder reaction to pro-Cuba on p. 208: “I just wondered what price in political freedom its people paid for that achievement.”

p. 136: “electricity, clean water, schools, medical care, and jobs” [peasants who come to Port-au-Prince, what they are looking for]

2) Distribution of Resources. How should we distribute resources? Farmer declares in favor of giving more of the world’s wealth to the poorest: the O for the P/preferential option for the poor. What distribution of resources would be fair? Perfect equality? Inequality but with a certain threshold of goods for everyone? [go back to basic rights and decide what that threshold would look like]

How should we distribute resources within the United States? How should we distribute resources across the world community? Are there any differences we would apply in these two cases?

Do we agree with Farmer that we should have a preferential option for the poor? (210)
If you knew that you were a poor person living in Haiti, would this change your view on the “fair” distribution of resources?

p. 42 ($68,000 in NYC v. free watch in Haiti)

3) Farmer invokes “do unto others” (p. 185) but he is also very conscious that we think of ourselves as different from the other. Thus, he asks whether you would want “your son” given all the chances that John was given in his airlift to Boston (p. 279). Farmer suspects that you have two different standards: one for you and one for the poor. What if we had to make rules for the distribution of basic rights and material goods without knowing our place in the world? What if we imagined ourselves – as John Rawls suggests – under a “veil of ignorance.” We do not know who we will be – rich, poor, black, white, brown, religious, secular, male, female – but we must form rules that we would be in agreement with when we find out our identifies. Would this change the rules that we would make?

294 **** “…you’re saying that their live matter less than some other’, and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.”

4) Reparations. (p. 197) Farmer refers to the 19th century slave trade that created Haiti as a colony of France. He looks to France to help create better health care in Haiti in the 21st century as a form of reparations for past actions.

What does France owe Haiti? On what basis does France owe Haiti money, services, respect, technology transfer, etc. If we know how to cure a disease, must we cure it in all countries? Only those we have wronged in the past? Under such a theory of reparations, who would the United States owe reparations to?

Imagine that you live in a house that your family has owned for two generations. You begin a family history and you learn that the house and land actually belonged to a Mexican family and the land was taken from the family during the Spanish-American War. You have documents that show the family’s name, the price they paid for the house before the war, and, remarkably, you have located the family. They are living in a small apartment. What should you do? What would you do?

188: “kidnapped from West Africa”

5) Education and Literacy. (p. 91) “If we had known how to write perhaps we wouldn’t be in the situation now.”

Why is education important? Is it a right? How much education are we entitled to? On what basis are we entitled to an education? What kind of skills must a person have to be a citizen, autonomous, community member, worker, etc.? What kind of information must a person have?

2003 Youth Literacy Rate (15-24) for Haiti is 67% [Cuba = 99.8%] [Brazil = 99.5%] [U.S. = ]
2000 Women’s Literacy Rate for Haiti is 47.8% [Cuba = 96.6%] [Brazil = 85.4%] [U.S. = ]

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Education and voodoo, 34-35

6) Family v. Social Obligations. As we read, MBM, we find many people who regard Paul Farmer as a great man, a saint, a leader, or a crusader for social justice. Farmer is clearly willing to sacrifice his own self-interest for the common good. One thing that Farmer seems to sacrifice is a life that includes time spent caring for his partner (Didi) and their two year old child. He does not make meals, read stories, go to school plays, or take care of his daughter while his wife pursues her career. How do you feel about the choices that Farmer has made? Would you think differently if his name was Paula Farmer and his husband lived in Paris with their daughter? Is a virtuous man the same as a virtuous woman? Would you feel differently about Paul Farmer if he were a single man? a priest? Should “saints” have families?

p. 210: Patients 1st, prisoners 2nd, students 3rd. Where do others things fit?

p. 16: “People call me a saint and I think, I have to work harder. Because a saint would be a great thing to be.”  see also 187 on what Farmer gets out of saving people.

p. 148: “Somehow Farmer found time for the ceremonies, and for a second wedding reception back in Boston.” [How does Kidder feel about this?]

Didi in Paris: “Didi and their two-year-old spent the academic year in Paris, where Didi was finishing her own studies in anthropology.” (23)

p. 108: “Lives of service depend on lives of support. He’d gotten help from many people.” [who does Kidder mean here?]

p. 212: criticism from friends for not spending time with his family. Is it “moral envy”?
p. 213: spend summers together in Cange. What does Didi study?

) Cosmopolitanism v. Nationalism. If “the only real nation is humanity,” what does it mean to be a patriot? Do we fight to defend America/the world? American/world security? American/world values? Should we think about the number of people who are killed in a war or the number of Americans? What does it mean when we list such numbers?

How do we feel about Farmer’s characterization of the U.S.? Cuba? Haiti? Cuba v. Haiti: p. 193+

p. 143: TB will be paid attention to because it is airborne, because it can affect/infect affluent world: “Forgive me for saying this, but the great thing about TB is that it’s airborne.”

p. 181: “the world’s health”
p. 209: “the only real nation is humanity”
p. 286: you should compare suffering/triage

7) Developed v. Developing Nations. What does it mean to be a “developed” country? How should we measure our “standard of living”? What measures are available to us? [See UNDP Human Development Reports and rankings].