KPLU-Humanosphere’s event April 26 at Seattle Town Hall — Can Seattle Save the World? – was clearly a huge hit, drawing in an estimated 700 people. Humanosphere blogger Tom Paulson summarized some of the more memorable comments from the four panelists:
-We all “tolerate poverty” — because our lives are subsidized by the suffering of others, said Bill Foege (Gates Foundation) (paraphrasing MLK). That is, poverty makes our middle-class lifestyles possible, by keeping the prices cheap on so many products.; “I’d like to see half of all development money go to educating consumers,” about the choices we make, said Joe Whinney (Theo's Chocolate). Having consumers be educated will have more impact than any amount of philanthropy.;
“It’s the most unproductive debate in global health,” said Chris Elias (PATH), referring to the debate over whether we should invest in technologies vs. strengthening local health systems. (“You need to do both,” he said. Design your technology to fit into real-world systems.); Some people in the 20th century thought DDT was a “magic bullet” against malaria, even though it took a systems approach to wipe it out in the U.S., and now the discussion in Seattle seems to be centered on looking for new magic bullets, said Wendy Johnson (UW). Whatever new technologies we develop, they should be equitably distributed.