workingPaper
The Assault on Human Rigths and the Resilience of the Andean Dream: Health Inequities in Ecuador. IV Annual Distinguished Lecture sponsored by the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health; School of Public Health; University of Michigan
Fecha
2002-04-04Registro en:
Breilh, Jaime. "The Assault on Human Rigths and the Resilience of the Andean Dream: Health Inequities in Ecuador. IV Annual Distinguished Lecture sponsored by the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health; School of Public Health; University of Michigan". Ponencia presentada en The Conference on Health Impact Assessment and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Heath: Promises & Pitfalls of Measuring Effects of Policy & Politics on Public Health, August 16th, 2002.
Autor
Breilh Paz y Miño, Jaime Eduardo
Institución
Resumen
The point of departure for these reflections is life, since its protection is the central purpose
encouraging the defense of human rights and of public health. Life in the Andes has an
exceptional diversity. Particularly in Ecuador, my country, this diversity constitutes a
characteristic sign that is expressed in two main forms: natural megadiversity and
multiculturalism. Indeed, Ecuador’s small territory synthesizes practically all types of lifezones
that exist on Earth, having received the gift of high average rates of solar energy
and abundant nutritional sources, which have facilitated the natural reproduction of
countless species that show their beautiful vitality in the variety of ecosystems that
compose the Andean mountain range, the tropical plains, the Amazon humid forests, and
the Galapagos Islands. But besides being a highly biodiverse country, it is also a plurinational
and multi-cultural society, in which the activity of human beings, organized into
social conglomerates of different historical and cultural backgrounds, have formed more
than a dozen nations and peoples. Regrettably this natural and human wealth has not been able to bear its best fruits due to
the violent operation of a deep social inequity – unfortunately also one of the highest in the
Americas—which conspires against life and is reproduced in national and international
inequitable relations. This structural inequity has changed its form throughout the centuries
and currently has reached its highest and most perverse level of development.