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Rawd Alach

Alleviating Structural Violence

People are abused everyday; either due to abuse laid on them by others or abuse they have laid on themselves.

Structural violence is a form of abuse in which its participants do not receive reprimand. This makes it easy for people to legally abuse others.

Stopping structural violence such as the social and economical marginalization of a population requires a comprehensive evaluation of the many aspects driving and affecting people’s lives.

Ray and his group were driven into the business of drug dealing due to many social and economic factors.

In his book titled In Search of Respect, Bourgois suggests solutions in order to alleviate the structural violence that the people in El Barrio were subject to. His solutions included the controversy proposal of decriminalizing drugs.

Bourgois reasons that if drugs were decriminalized then the profitability of drug trafficking would be annihilated.

Hence, the violent street culture that goes along with drug dealings would also be annihilated.

I disagree with this idea and although it appears to makes sense, it holds flaws within itself.

If drugs were decriminalized then many more people would have access to the now legal mind-altering drugs.

This would cause an emerging of whole, new communities of drug addicts, hence bringing on more structural violence against more people.

The solution to structural violence may not be held in a simple do-this get-that plan of action.

However, as Bourgois points out, it can start with not punishing the poor for working legally.

I agree with Bourgois that there should be incentives given to help the people in poverty pursue legal venues.

Therefore, those people would able to fulfill their material needs as well as their self fulfillment needs without using illegal methods. However, in order to fully eradicate structural violence, Bourgois rightly states that there should be a full reevaluation of ethical and political aspects based on human values (Bourgois 2003).

The Haitian people have been suffering from structural violence largely due to racial discrimination and misconception regarding the origin and spread of AIDS.

Farmer expresses dismay in the role the media plays in spreading misconceptions about the Haitians.

He emphasizes the importance of having clear communication between the scientists and the media to not spread false information about the Haitians in regards to the AIDS epidemic. Such an assertion is sound and sensible.

The media should be used to educate the people about the state of AIDS all over the world and not to place blame on the Haitian people. “Blaming the victim” is a devastating phenomenon affecting the Haitians, disrupting their lives.

Solutions are not derived from blaming the sick. Rather, societies and government should work to educate and aid the ill.

AIDS is the enemy not the people who suffer from AIDS.

Farmer emphasizes that abuse and discrimination against the Haitians is a form of structural violence that can be stopped. And it should be.

Reflections on Anthropology 332

This course has been enlightening in the sense that I feel I have learned an interesting bit about each of the topics we have discussed.

On my first day in class, I remember genocide being spoken about. Before doing the reading or being in class, I had no idea what the genocide in Rwanda was.

I was horrified to learn all that I learned. The genocide in Rwanda made me realize that people can be totally blind to their actions.

They fall into a state of total delusion to the events around them, and sometimes they make themselves believe what is easiest for them to believe.

Of all the books we have read in this course, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Be Killed With Our Families is the book that I was most effected by.

It amazed and terrified me all at once.

The other book that I was very interested in was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. This book astonished me due to how much miscommunication there was between the doctors and Lia’s parents.

I kept thinking where did who go wrong? There are so many answers to that question and they all boggle me.

I wonder if I was involved in Lia’s situation could I have made a connection with her parents? What would it have taken to break the language barrier in an effort to save Lia’s life?

Lia was only one child, one person, just like the rest of us. Everyone is one person, but each person has an effect.

My heart broke for Lia because she was just an innocent child. She could not speak for herself; rather she was in the hands of her parents and her doctors.

Her story can be benefited from in that people need to acknowledge the need to cultural communication.

Communication across cultures is sometimes a hard task to achieve, but if it is achieved its benefits are great.

I would like to reap those benefits.

Therefore, every time I would learn something new and interesting about a culture, I would speak about it openly with my friends, coworkers, and or family.

People should deal with cultural issues rather than avoid them. In this country, multiculturalism is inescapable.

It is essential that people learn how to correspond with each other keeping cultural views in mind.

Throughout the course, there have been many questions posed that encourage healthy thinking and problem-solving.

I would like to believe that with simple thought about each topic a simple solution can be found.

But every time I try to apply that idea, the many factors which are part of each problem begin to bombard me causing my thought bubble to explode.

But I will continue my quest for solutions, because I know that many of the successful results that people have achieved begun with one, simple idea. Ideas are not extinct and neither am I.