-Bangladesh Healthcare Presentation-
I found this presentation fascinating in its style, simply because the speaker was able to do the entire ten minute presentation in his target language. The topic as well struck home with me as I intend to go into the medical care field in impoverished areas such as those that were described in the presentation. What I found particularly intriguing was that in a nation in which the government only spends 3.5% of its GDP on health care, the costs that individuals must pay for treatment remains extremely low. This lies in direct contrast with my own research of the Polish health care system in which, since only 4.5 % of government spending is directed toward healthcare, doctors do not treat patients with adequate care unless they receive substantial bribes that can amount to an average Pole's yearly salary. The provision of treatment for $1 to $1.50 in Bangladesh therefore seems absurd and reflects the different moral solutions that cultures arrive at when presented with the same issue. The Polish requirement of extremely high fees for medical service is not in every case a malicious act, but rather one of necessity to purchase equipment to provide adequate healthcare to the public while the Bangladeshi's affordable fee of $1 does not allow for the provision of state of the art equipment and therefore provides largely inadequate health care. I also found it interesting that the Bangladeshi culture relies heavily upon the village pharmacy for medical care. This adaptation of the medical care system is shared by Poland and many other european countries and it strikes me as particularly strange that the United States is so reluctant to adopt this system as self-medication extremely reduces the costs which individuals must pay to receive treatment and would be appreciated by many in the current recessions which have plagued our country.
-Education In India-
What I found fascinating about this presentation was not necessarily the educational aspect of the Indian culture but how the education of men and women reflected the lack of progression that their culture has experienced while much of the rest of the world has adopted a sense of sexual equality. According to the statistics presented, women's education in India is not considered a priority either by them or by their parents. Young Indian women are burdened with household chores and other responsibilities to such an extent that their education is often neglected and when the opportunity arises for a family to further invest in the future of their daughter they do not due to the effectual permanent transfer of the daughter out of her family and into another with marriage. In the Polish culture, such a practice would be entirely unheard of since the family unit is valued over all else in life and the intentional removal of someone from the family or a neglect of any aspect of a family member's well being would be unthinkable. I am curious however as to why there is such a slow progression of the concept of sexual equality in India since it does not have a religion or other cultural hallmark to prevent it from adopting the western understanding. Polish's cultural malleability in their ability to accept such changes has occurred almost instantaneously in the past regardless of the contrary understandings that it presented to the widely held catholic religious doctrines that presented a barrier to such progress.
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