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The Public Policy Experience

Here we are my last couple of days in Brussels and enjoying the last few coffees and brunches. It has indeed been an experience unlike any other. A massive thanks to EPHA for letting me take part in what they do and the contribution they make to our health. Their efforts are far reaching and their tasks are very challenging. Here is a little recap; Advocating for the health of our countries and the continent is not an easy task. There are so many layers to passing a policy that it takes much effort and discipline to stay and fight against the system. I have written other blogs that recaps my learnings and understanding of the policy making system.  

I have learnt: 

- What it means to advertise junk food and even alcohol to children. The implications this has on their health and lives later on. 

- How food banks and food vouchers don’t really help us bring people out of poverty but rather can have the opposite effect since it is not looked at from a health perspective but rather an economic one. 

- How the lack of education on healthy diets creates inequalities and the link between inequality and the enormous drain on public health care is ever so obvious. 

- I have learnt that public funding of research and development for new medicines are not required to show evidence of findings, and how the pharmaceutical companies are being seen in the wide ranging eye of the NGO’s. Their influence and the advantage they take of their influence and the many misunderstanding of the industry and its regulations.

- There is genuine concern across all related professionals in the access to medicine when it comes to the new “Adaptive Pathways” that allows for faster approval of new medicine without adequate time given to see any side effects and issues new medicines could carry. 

- Anti microbial resistance is a real threat to our lives and the lack of innovation in medicine will make this an even bigger problem for our children in the future.

- Industries have a lot of power and although we would like to believe that the interest of the public is always a priority the reality is that this is not the case and we need to hold governments more accountable for passing off policies that benefit Private organisations and hinder the health of our society. 

- I have also learnt the severe lack of health care provided in the eastern countries and the huge concern this is for the EU as whole as a sick population often means a very unhealthy economy also. 

- The global implications on trade agreements and the consequences to us all of Brexit. In particular, the consequences to the people of the United Kingdom.- The passionate people that are working hard to ensure that our health remains to be a priority and that we do not forget how far we have gotten over the last century and the diseases which we have managed to tame or even cure.   

I have also learnt about THE SYSTEM: Policy making system has been built on complexity. Rightly so its trying to ensure policies that cater for 28 of the most diverse countries you can imagine to exist. Its complex trying to create a standard in vastly different economic and cultural circumstances. I enjoyed learning how the actually policy process works which was my blog on the EU structure. It was also very fascinating learning who makes suggestions and who makes decisions. In the system you have the government, the industries, the NGO’s and civil societies, you have various agencies acting on behalf of various industries and regulators, you have the public and you have the member states. Everyone acting within their own interest and what they believe should be the priority. It is complex but also powerful. I enjoyed being in the centre of change and how it all takes place. Its surreal to believe that you are part of this and that some suggestions you may have made have made it across the board of influence. Unlike any other conventional job you actually make a difference to people across Europe and not just in your industry or just your area of interest. This was definitely the highlight. 

But BRUSSELS, I have spoken a lot about the different issues on the side of policy making and EPHA but living in Brussels has also opened my eyes to Europe and what an amazing continent this is. The city it self is always vibing and has so many interesting cafes, restaurants and markets that can keep you busy all year round. The city is full of internationals and what I found most interesting is the diversity that Brussels loves to embrace. Although from my perspective Brussels is a small city it has everything one would need for entertainment. There are so many events that are related to the EU and policy making and almost every large organisation will have a base here to ensure they are close to all the action. Employers find individual diversity very positive so you have people form all over the world working here. Brussels is close to many of the major cities such as Paris, Amsterdam and London and has a small yet various population. It's a happening city and definitely a place I could see myself coming back to. I have attached some of my favourite pictures that show a bit about how amazing this city is… even in the worst winter season 😃 

Of course I cannot finish this blog without mentioning the two most important aspects of my internship. Marta and Sofie! I am so grateful to have made such strong friendships with these girls that I hope will carry us on for many many years to come. I have learnt so much from them both and have truly felt their support in the ups and downs. This experience really would not have been the same if it weren't for the two of them and the laughs and tears we shared. Thank you for everyone who has read these blogs and hope you found them insightful. I enjoyed writing it and hopefully when I near my education I will have more insight I could talk about and share.   

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Sustainable Diets Healthy Planet

Just before I am about to finish my internship I thought I touch on one more topic of interest. Sustainable diets! What does this mean to you? We are facing yet another concern to our health and all that is connected to public health with our choice in foods. If you ever thought about what you should and shouldn’t eat, you probably just thought about this form your own personal needs. I bet people have told you a variety of diets to try and making this such a confusing this confusing experience. The right information is hard to come by, what you should and shouldn’t eat has been a tough challenge. But when it comes to your diets and your personal needs shouldn’t be the only thing that is essential to consider, but consider what the wider affect of our choices on the people around you are and the environment in which we all live in. When you live in a big city away form where our food is grown its hard to see the impact we are causing and the destruction that takes place. I don’t want to frighten anyone when I say this but our choice of food don’t just impact our waste-lines which will ultimately impact the diseases we may be susceptible to getting, which then impacts the cost of our health system but they impact developing countries, our eco system and the entire planet. We have come to learn that eating the diets we have currently designed for us in the West will have an expiration date and before we are forced to change our consumption patters it's a good time to become more mindful about what we eat now. We are not perfect so it doesn’t have to be a clear cut of your existing habits but small changes are the ones that work the best and are always the ones that last long. If you cannot persuade your parents to reduce their meat intake then be the change you wish to see. If you don’t make this change your future generations will see it and they will not be very forgiving when we leave them in a situation where they struggle at every turn.

Climate change is a huge problem, and the food industry is responsible for 30% of greenhouse emissions across the EU according to the European Environmental Agency (located in Denmark btw). Our food is heavily processed and by the time it reaches our plates it has polluted our planet. Animal agricultural alone is responsible for about 20% of all green house emotions in the world. Our dietary patterns have a strong influence over the demand drawn on the agricultural industry and our choices directly impact this trend of growing greenhouse emissions as well as our direct contribution to a worsening state of climate change. We cannot sustain this level of meat consumption and maintain a balance in our environment. 

All this without mentioning the health implications that our current diets have and the long term financial cost of our health care system. There is strong evidence that processed meat and red meat consumption has a strong link to chronic diseases and higher risk of early mortality rates. Not to say that moderate meat consumption cannot be healthy which in deed provides us with good quality protein and fat and lots of bioavailable micronutrients. It's the over consumption that is causing us harm and the environment that we are in. Here in Europe it is recommended that we consume approximately 500g of meat a week if we wish to stay within a healthy norm, whereas generally we currently consume almost 3 times this amount.

This also ties back with the Anti-Microbial resistance I wrote about a couple of weeks. As we consume so much meat and dairy the demand is growing to produce more. This demand forces companies to ensure production can be maximised, meaning that livestock is housed in smaller spaces not only violating animal rights for most of the time but more importantly they draw bacteria of one another and cause various diseases that are harmful to us. To ensure they don’t get sick farmers inject them with small doses of antibiotics meaning that the bacteria if not killed properly will also build resistants to the antibiotics which means if you get infected by this bacteria (can happen if you get food poisoning for example) chances are we won’t have any medicine to help you fight it, because also remember that innovation to antibiotics has slowed down significantly. The added factor of pharmaceutical pollution which is also a key factor to climate change and has to have a more sustainable way of dealing with it. 

Overall our demand on the meat and dairy industry is not something that can continue to grow at the rate of 1.8% per year as it does currently. So what can you do to help contribute to a more sustainable diet? 1: Get informed! What are you eating and how do your choices impact the rest of the world. You may not think that your choice makes a difference but I promise you it does. If everyone made a decision to change just something small then collectively the difference is also created. Just like we collectively made a difference to eat so much meat and dairy we can also collectively stop eating it. 2: Make it a meat free Monday every Monday. Financially it will benefit you also and for the meat you will not buy on Mondays you can get saving and planning a holiday and then you can have a meat subsidised holiday. 3: Go visit a farm. Go outdoors and visit some cows and pigs and chickens that may one day end up on your table. Have a chat to those guys see what they have to say about the conditions they live in. I promise you that you cannot walk away from that experience and not feel like you have not connected with them. 4: Vegetarian Recipes are awesome if you would like some I can definitely share, and not to promote Pinterest but that sh** is awesome with the most amazing recipes of all sorts.

Not to mention that increasing your intake of vegetables not only lowers your risks of getting cancer, heart disease or any of these chronic disease now being so heavily part of our society but vegetables protect you form this also. The more varied vegetables you eat and nutrients you get form them the healthier you will be growing older, the better you will feel and less money you will have to spend on medicines and hospital stays. If you have ever been in a hospital you know its not the greatest most euphoric experience you will live to tell the tale of. Is this how you wana spend your free time? Not sure about you but I prefer traveling the world, meeting people and getting the best out of life as long as I can. The answer to that is… EAT VEGETABLES!!!!!!!

Here are some more links 

https://epha.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Animal-Farming_Public-Health_Unavoidable-Transition-towards-Sustainable-Healthy-Diets_EPHA.pdf

http://www.eea.europa.eu/signals/signals-2015/articles/agriculture-and-climate-change

http://www.fcrn.org.uk/fcrn-blogs/tim-lang/sustainable-diets-rational-goal-irrational-consumers

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Healthy Prices from Rami fet on Vimeo.

This is an extension of my previous blog. 

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Access to your Medicine

In my time, here in Brussels I followed one particular topic that has me captive, “Access to Medicine”. We never think about this and how this affects us daily and what this means when you have a really tough disease like cancer, hepatitis, or diabetes. We never even realise what happens in the back ground for you to be able to buy a much-needed drug that can save your life. I mean have you ever really thought about what happens in this critical process?  If you consider yourself informed, don’t miss to learn more about this topic. Im going to try and shed some light on this although it is a complex topic which takes some time to understand.Brussels is tone of the biggest battle grounds on this topic and you should know you have some very passionate people fighting for you. There are so many factors that play a part to its intense complexity. You have the Big Pharma that consider their products valuable and treat it is so. They invest quite a bit of money into this and expect to be rewarded for it. At the end of the day they are in the line of making business. Medicine however, is not a typical product and under no circumstances can it be or should it be treated as one. Medicine and the right medical care is in fact a human right we all possess. This is outlined on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights set out by the United Nations. This is why this issue is so heavy weighted as the product you are dealing with is created and distributed by for profit organisations.  Don’t go thinking, “I live in a first world country and therefore I’ll always have access to all the drugs I need” this is not the case and don’t be fooled that you were privileged when it comes to this topic no matter how much cash you have.  

Here are the top three issues on Access to Medicine in what I have observed so far: 

Transparency: Drugs and the sales of drugs is essentially directed to governments, the negotiations of drugs are being held in a closed-door environment. Meaning that transparency on this topic is not really clear. Even in the EU, countries do not know how much the other member states are paying for their medicine and cannot have fair negotiations. EPHA, the civil society groups and other NGO’s are fiercely fight for more transparency on pricing and drug approvals. This lack of transparency with medicines is causing quite a bit of controversy and big pharma are fighting to ensure that these discussions are kept closed door. The discussions on this are interesting and come from all different perspectives but what is true is that the medicine industry has a strong impact on our health and the products that pharma produces are not like other products we consume therefore in my personal opinion there is an urgency for more transparency on our access to medicine. 

Patents: When a drug is first developed, it is initially patented under a particular name and brand so the doctor can prescribe it to their patients. This means that only the pharmaceutical company that has invented this drug can sell it as it belongs to them. From a business perspective, this works well as the company has full rights to this product. No other company can produce this exact drug for as long as it is under this patent. Patents can last for a bout 15 to 20 years and when they expire they are then allowed to be produced by other pharmaceutical companies as ‘generics’. A generic is a drug that is exactly the same as the original patent. Once the generic drug is on the market the monopoly of the patent holder is removed. The problem with monopolies without going into too much detail, why they are so bad is also hindering the innovation of new drugs and their efficiency to stop, prevent and cure diseases that the health industry is still dealing with. It is a real concern that innovation on new drugs has stagnated so badly. Here is why I recommend strongly that we look after our own health as although there are big pharmaceutical drugs out there producing drugs you don’t want to have something they haven’t bothered to research because they were busy researching how to make more money. Allowing so much monopoly over our drugs is not doing anyone a favour except for the drug companies producing this and therefore an overhaul of the patent system should be strong on the policy makers’ agenda. 

Pricing: And finally, the most important argument thus far on the whole access to medicine debate, the pricing of drugs has become astronomical. When you think about the cost of medicine and the fact that we have entered an era that is not sustainable not just for the poor the problem today is that the rich cannot afford many of the drugs themselves. The complexities of pricing are definitely not easy to explain in a short paragraph but essentially you should know that a lot of our tax dollars go towards paying for drugs that could be cheaper if the patents of the drugs were better regulated. The fact that a company has such a long monopoly means that they can put a price on a drug that can save peoples’ lives, and well can you put a price on your life? This being the biggest argument because when it comes to your health should there be a price tag on it? If there is a cure should we not all have access to this? As at the moment like I mentioned in a previous blog we hand out a cure basically as a last resort when all else fails that was cheaper and then we hope that we have come just in time to help someone, when perhaps its already too late. 

Of course, there are so many more sides to the fight on access to medicine. Having worked with EPHA I am grateful to know there are many very passionate people fighting for us and putting the industry on the spot when it comes to accountability. We are still very far away from all this being fair and just. However, a good fight is what we need to put up right now and hope the good in all of us will prevail. As a citizen, you should be made aware what is happening in the back ground for the lifesaving products that we should all have access to and if you have the opportunity to influence this in a positive way, whether you will one day work for a big pharma company or know what politicians will support this issue to work in our favour. I never really thought about this but I realise just how much our economy and distribution of our taxes are influenced by this.

Here is a couple of links and blogs by some EPHA policy officers about this topic. https://epha.org/behind-closed-doors-ever-less-transparency-in-pharmaceutical-policy%C2%ADmaking-in-brussels-2/ https://epha.org/eu-broadens-inquiry-into-drug-market/ http://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/lawmakers-warn-eu-pharma-industry-about-drugs-pricing/ http://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/interview/health-minister-drugs-pricing-will-top-maltas-eu-presidency/ http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/the-real-challenge-of-the-drug-patent-086949 https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/an-expensive-medications-human-cost/407299/ Happy reading 

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Anti-microbial Resistance (AMR) what is it and why you should be scared!

Let talk about anti-microbial Resistance (AMR) and why we need to worry about this problem more than what we currently do. Firstly, let me introduce you to AMR… AMR this is my blog, Blog this is AMR.  AMR is the resistance of harmful bacteria which is increasingly gaining momentum as our population is increasingly consuming an overload of antibiotics. Whether that be through the most obvious prescription antibiotics like penicillin the doctor gives us or if we indirectly consume antibiotics through our food system from heavily medicated farm animals. This yet another reason why I heavily advocate for a more conscious meat consumption. Although being vegetarian doesn’t exclude you form overdosing on antibiotics as all dairy animals are also heavily medicated. Also, even being a vegan there is also a threat to anti-microbial resistance through cross contamination in the environment.  Here is a little science lesson, there are bacteria around us all the time, in fact we are a cluster of a variety of bacteria that creates our more solid form. Without bacteria, we could not live as we do today, which means bacteria is essential to our lives and much of the bacteria types we know are good for us. It helps us with essential bodily functions like digestions and some of the bacteria helps us fight any bad bacteria that we are exposed to and keeps bad bacteria at bay. But too much exposure to bad bacteria will also kill us.  As you can see its very much entangled in the lives which, we are leading and since it’s very difficult to make significant changes to how we go about the world today that’s why it calls for a serious concern and we should really be looking at ways to protect ourselves from this. Currently around 700,000 people a year lose the battle to anti-microbial resistance, in the next 30 years that figure will be 10 million people. Over the last 20 years or so we have seen a heavy decrease in innovation in short term use prescription drugs as large pharmaceutical companies don’t see it as financially viable as it is to using long term medicine which can be used for many years and ideally for a life time. About 70 years ago antibiotics have been invented and this was a celebrated success globally as they have helped us fight some of the deadliest diseases to name a couple are Tuberculosis and Typhoid.When we realised how great antibiotics work when we use them properly we got a bit too happy and started overprescribing. We also quickly realised that antibiotics don’t just work on humans but also on animals.When we industrialised our farming, and started cramming large quantities of animals in smaller spaces they started getting sick form one another and figured great we can just inject them with antibiotics to save them from getting sick.Small enough doses are used to ensure our food continues to be produced safely and hence we have also eliminated many food borne diseases like this. But these small doses are also too small to kill all the bad microbials so just like us humans who have evolved and adapted to new conditions they too evolve and adept to new living conditions and fight back. They then create their own immunity and become resistant to the antibiotics we give them.  Below I have included some graphs which the WHO has released to show you a better picture of how it works and some suggestions of what you need to do to protect yourself.

The experience thus far with EPHA has really been invaluable to realise how important it is that we take ownership of our own health. To read up on different issues that take place around us and impacts us immensely. But with all the distractions like Facebook and the latest DJ.Trump tweet keeps us unaware of what goes on. I urge anybody reading this blog that you take some serious interest. Al though big industries like pharmaceutical companies don’t want to kill you, the reality is that money is a big driving factor around what they will focus on in developing. Government definitely has a bigger responsibility to wards us however sometimes we need to remind them that we are important to consider when making policies. I can tell you many crazy stories I have read about AMR but I have attached a couple of links to get you acquainted.

http://imunews.imu.edu.my/health/antibiotics-friend-foe/ http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/msf-takes-antibiotic-resistance http://ec.europa.eu/health/ngo_award/home_en

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The Inner workings of the EU

Its been a couple of weeks I know but now I have been in Brussels for 7 weeks and thought we can start to discuss some learnings I am suppose to gather while being here. Before I go off on another rant I really would like to share how policy is made on an EU level so that anybody reading this will also get an understanding perhaps why it takes some time to implement certain things and why it is difficult to get things through. Often through my education when I speak to my fellow student friends we start discussing certain aspects of politics and find ourselves in dismay how some decisions don’t make any sense. The expectations we have on our policy makers are not easy to convene and in this hopefully short and clear introduction to policy making you will to get to see where the disconnect really sits and why we increasingly struggle to get policy across.  In as sort of a description I can make it to keep you reading I have tried to explain how a policy is being implemented. I think this is good to know so that when you read news on what’s happening here in Brussels it helps to know where the different organisations sit in the process of policy making.  Here it is… You have three main institutions that work together to decide on a policy here at the European Union. The structure is quite similar to most democratic governments. You have the three main EU institutions that together have to come make a final decision.  1: The European Parliament: Represents the European citizens and tries to work in accordance with various committees to ensure that final policies have the best benefit for the people of the EU.

2: The European Commission: has the primary responsibility for proposing legislation, implementing policies and upholding treaties. Current presidency is held by Jean-Claud Junker from Luxembourg until October 2019.

3: The European Council: compromises of the heads of the member states and is in charge of the overall EU direction and political priorities.  

Every six months there is a new presidency of the EU Council. Currently the Maltese hold this position until June 2017 where Estonia. Each presidency will decide the areas of focus and will try and implement as many policies associated to their agenda in their six month presidency. There are many meetings and debates that happen on daily basis here in Brussels. Discussions and events that raise issues and common topics and these discussions happen between NGO’s, civil society, industry members both private and public companies. EPHA and other organisations sit as influencers of what type of policies should be considered as priorities by the commission as they have the best access to people and its citizens, they share the concerns of everyday people. These organisations don’t look at profit as a benefit to their cause and therefore try to be least bias as possible. After many discussions, advocating and lobbying the commission will come up with a Policy Proposal.  To ensure the proposal is sound the commission will employ specialists to evaluate this economically, socially and environmentally and the consequences this may carry. They create an impact proposal that sets out any advantages and possible disadvantages. This is where the commission further consults other interest parties such as NGO’s, industry representatives and civil society groups. Experts at this stage would give advice on any technicalities. Businesses and citizens have the opportunity to participate via public consultations, also at this stage national parliaments have the opportunity to express their concerns if they wish that they would rather deal with this issue on a national level rather than the EU.  Once the initial proposal has gone through the rigorous consultations, debates and discussions continue to take place, the proposal is then sent to the EU Parliament for its first reading. In this reading the Parliament looks through the commission’s proposals and request amendments. This may take time as different committees of the parliament will debate on the various amendments they do not agree with also. After the first Parliamentary hearing NGO’s, Civil societies and industries have the opportunity again to put in amendments to the proposal on what they would like to see in the policy. Ensuring their interests are being met or heard.  Once this has been finalised the proposal goes to its first hearing before the EU Council. Now this is where the heads of member states review this proposal and agree ensure that the proposal is in accordance to the direction and political agenda of the EU. If the Council has requested amendments then the proposal goes back again to the parliament for a second reading and so forth for three parliamentary readings.After the first parliamentary reading the following discussion usually are done as small group discussions and this is where the issue of transparency is often flagged as these discussions have a closed-door system and groups who have the most influence (generally the industries) draw on their financial capacity to get amendments pushed through.  If the Parliament and the Council cannot reach an agreement then they have the possibility to block each other in which case the proposal does not get adopted. If they agree then the Proposal will get adopted as either a directive policy where there is a proposed outline and an intended outcome of the policy but member states are left to implement it as they wish best or it can be a regulatory policy where there is a prescribed method of how the policy will be made into law by the member states. These policies generally have a two-year time frame in which they need to be implemented. As the EU does not possess an army (yet) they cannot force Member States to implement policies directed by the European Union however they would be met with fines and penalties as well as potential warnings. Generally whatever policy is out there is heavily considered so that member states can implement them appropriately. There you have it a piece of information to know and tell your friends about how smart you are. If you wish to learn more details on how this done I recommend this official website EU policy making.

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Pushing Humanity Forward with a Guaranteed Universal Income

Who ever knows me knows that I have interests on many issues and topics that make up our unique world of crazy. EPHA of course touches on so many of these topics that make fascinating dinner conversations. I guess mostly what is so exiting is that you can explore so many sides of history and politics and draw it back to this common ambition of connecting this volatile economy in a modern world of capitalism. One topic I have had quite an interest in is the Basic Income Theory that has recently become such a buzz word in diplomacy and the tackling of poverty and eradicating hunger. If I could be intensely involved with each and every aspect of the recently updated Sustainable Development Goals I would be a very happy content lady. Unfortunately I will have to be around a few more lifetimes to see that through. So I guess in this life time I will commit myself to the good of the public health sector because its public health that really encompasses all these 17 SDG’s and working on public health means that truly all these goals need to be developed and achieved. Here is a little back ground on why I feel this topic is interesting to follow. The World Health Organisation has updated their Development goals in 2016 and here is the kind of task they are now working on to achieve by 2030.  

What if I told you I believe there is a way to reach all the global goals set above in quite a short period of time? What if every country could agree to empower their citizens so that each and every one of them could dedicate their lives to work on on aspect of the above goals. If you engineered society to fulfil their true calling and enable them to innovate and design bigger better ideas nobody can tell how far we could actually get. So how does Public Health fit into the SDG’s? Guaranteed Universal Income and the concept this has carried for some centuries has been argued by the most right wing politicians all the way across the spectrum to the far left and everything in between. Imagine if every person was given a guaranteed income and instead of wasting their life away trying to make ends meet, they could instead use their time to be better participating members of the community? The idea that everyone should have a basic standard of living is a true concept of capitalism by the way, which unfortunately didn't turn out how Adam Smith initially conceptualised this back in 1776. The SDG’s essentially rests on the idea that people across the world from all walks of life could be free to focus on these goals and lift the level of innovation, but how can you ask this when the gap between poor and rich is getting bigger in the most 1st world of countries and not to mention what it looks like in any of the developing countries. Essentially this current state of peoples microeconomics is what will be the biggest barrier of the SDG’s and unfortunately I cant see them being met by 2030 as they are set out, unless a radical reform happens in which it allows people to work on this. A relatively small dedicated workforce will not eradicate hunger, neither will they change issues on climate change unless you enable the entire population to work on it. Idealistic, I know! So consider these arguments now, a GUI can create unemployment? I believe this is not true. There is almost zero people on this planet that are content not having a purpose in life. Talking to professionals over years I have developed a sense that depression stems from a sense of losing purpose. A GUI would however mean people wouldn’t do jobs they hated, which would further mean employers would have to lift working conditions and/or invest in technology. I am sure there are studies that show that people who are fulfilling their purpose lead a more content life. In fact I believe the society as a whole would be healthier because everyone would have the time and the opportunity to pursue their interests. This would also promote innovation and creativity. It would enhance equality and allow people to be involved in healthier relationships as many (in particular women) may not feel restricted to stay in a partnership who may be abusive or destructive purely because of economic circumstance.

A world with a Guaranteed Universal income where social welfare programs such as health and education is still provided and not just replaced with money would allow the entire society to progress further in their mission of development towards all of the SDG’s shown above. I feel that the actual completion of the SDG’s are almost solely relying on the idea that the society would have to be empowered financially. However the obstacle is in convincing the private sectors who are monopolising and hoarding money to let it flow and allow everyone to live a life of respect and dignity. Allowing people to fulfil their purpose and ideas on the topics that they are passionate about. I mean after all everyone is passionate about something no matter who you are, no matter where you come from and no matter how rich or poor you are. EVERYONE has something they would like to work on and and develop in. So if the Universal Income could lift a society a notch up, to reach any of the sustainable development goals then why would we even argue this idea? Lets not make the mistake to under estimate as to how much money is out there. The total wealth of the world sits at almost $60 Trillion USD according to the world wealth report and if you divided that by the world population it could mean that every man, woman and child could be more the $8 million USD rich. So there is a money, its not scarce in fact it is the most abundant resource we have. With so much money out there this is possible, but not favourable by people who hold this money and wealth, and I am certainly not advocating we should all have the same amount of money at our disposal but a Universal Income to lift people out of poverty and increase living standards is in deed a possibility. This is indeed a necessity if the society is to continue to thrive and the SDGs are to be achieved.

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The Danish model of Responsible Alcohol Consumption

Well its exciting stepping foot into the place of policy making and change The European Parliament. Todays topic: Responsible Alcohol Consumption: The Danish model. I’m excited to learn what this means and how the Danish Model is better than other models so far elsewhere. Here in this meeting you have the good guys and the enemy come to meet and discuss how they can project a more responsible consumption of alcohol that would ultimately benefit the society while at the same time profit the alcohol industry. Wait a minute... did I write that correctly??? Profit the public? as well as the industry? Say what????

So, what does Denmark do better than the rest of the world? They talk to their private industries. They come to common agreements and harmonise a common approach to tackle the issues on alcohol consumption and public health concerns. A Private Public Partnership has been established to collaborate on how alcohol can be advertised and distributed across the country in which vulnerable populations and young people (especially young people) will be less exposed to binge drinking and peer pressure on consuming vast amounts of it [alcohol].

Okay so when I first listened to this I was fascinated that we could have matured as humanity to discuss these big issues together between policy makers and profit makers. I mean when you think about it, this is creating a partnership between the people who have money and people who don’t?!?!?! I guess you can imagine how this could end up working? Publicising all the bells and whistles of a partnership all the while perhaps only a few get the better end of the deal. This is the assumption, and a path that this partnership could so easily take to. However, believing the best in people (especially the Danes) I hang tight to my innocence of the money-making business. I’m gona go with them truly wanting to make a dint in the 1/3 or all injuries in Denmark that are alcohol related. They definitely made a case for themselves. Well... it got them here to the European Parliament discussing how they will work together on this.

Me being me I don’t just ask the person next to me the questions I want to know answers to, but I want to know how this will work right from the people who designed the idea. So, the first person I decided I would approach was Niels Hald the Chairman of the Public Private Partnerships. I introduce myself and proceed to tell him that I, myself have travelled from Australia to reside in Denmark and study public health and would like to learn more about the type of activities they would engage to promote this and how they wish to achieve the lowering of irresponsible alcohol consumption? Essentially all he told me is through various campaigns and access of alcohol. I was a little flustered because I realised I came somewhat unprepared in asking him the questions that matter. As it was a short coffee break we were soon called in to sit down and continue the discussion and then a flood of questions came to me… ‘how would you ensure that the partnership doesn’t favour the profit of alcohol? How does this effect the lower socioeconomic sector? how will you limit alcohol to them? being Danish are you even aware that alcohol is cheaper than coffee?” … the questions just flooded through and as I intently listed to Xavier Monne the Director General of the European Food Safety Authority about his elaborate views on the collaboration of the private and public sector and the benefits this can eventually bring to the society. I found myself nodding to everything he said. Hoping to receive a moment for questions. I realised we ran out of time but as my luck had it, we had some networking to do and well… I’m good at that! ;) So, I approached the next person who held a seat at the speakers corner Paul Skehan Director of Spirits Europe (essentially the alcohol guy). So I asked the alcohol guy all of my burning questions, quite shamelessly in fact. I told him I was a public health student and if I was going to work in public health I need to know more answers.

Alcohol guy and I proceeded to have a fascinating conversation. His stand was over education. He told me about the type of programs they have created to educate young people on this topic and his passionate belief that our schools should have accountability on providing this sort of teaching. We spoke about the lower socio economic factor and honestly this was one aspect I was a little disappointed with as he really, didn’t have a concrete answer for me except for ‘education’ in which case basically this generation would be long forgotten and the hope is that the next generation would be better informed. He had a long-term vision on alcohol consumption and the lower socio economic society wasn’t really a focus point not just for the alcohol guy neither for the public Dane or the European health guy. I felt a little disappointed as this was a rather large aspect of the people the consumed alcohol and hold quite a large portion of our public health money for all the treatments they are receiving. 

High off a good and insightful conversation with people who influenced so much of our society I ran back to the office and spoke to my internship supervisor at EPHA Nikolai and he made me realise that well although the idea appears to work for now, we need to strive for a world where policy makers are left to make policies that positively affect society and the money makers should be left to making the money.

I totally get what he was saying and truly support this opinion but what do you do when this is just simply not the world we live in. Do you blindly fight for your cause until someone wins and stand your ground or do you support partnerships where you get to know and understand the private sector and their intentions on the market and hope, just hope that one day strategy and knowledge will prevail over money and power and that some-how you could outsmart them and confine them to certain restrictions and certain expected profit outcomes and allow the public to continue a life of abundant health without the influence of big money and any industry that holds their health second at best to their profit margins?

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Its a nice city :D and some of the conferences that I have attended so far. 

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War on a healthy life in Europe

Have you ever felt some times that some paths you take have open doors all the way through? Not sure if it is my pure luck or just me doing what I love but I am super incredibly happy that I had the opportunity with this internship. I realised that everything that happened in the last 2 years allowed me to get the chance to come to Brussels this year and allowed me to take part in learning about how policy is being changed and meet some of the people that are on the forefront of fighting for a better future and a better life for the humans in Europe and beyond. 

I get it’s a bit of a far-fetched thing to say that this experience has been 2 years in the making but had Franziska from the previous year not have done this experience this time last year and had I not made the effort to meet up with her and learn more about it I probably would not have applied, convinced that it would have been too hard and she would not have encouraged me to send the application as soon as possible. Strongly believing that everything happens for a reason, I applied to the internship with my dearest friend Sofie and both of us got accepted and told to pack our bags and start our adventures in Belgium. Soon enough the beautiful Marta also was lucky enough to join us and now here we are, with new EPHA colleagues discussing the cafe’s, restaurants and travel plans we must cover during our stay.

The first week of our internship we covered a very intensive introduction day. I honestly in all my years of education haven't had such a long run of intensive listening to each of the EPHA Campaign managers discussing their campaign and the fight they are facing with the legislators of Europe to standardise certain aspects the European law that will bring higher standards of health policy across each and every state. You would be surprised how quickly large organisations work around restrictions that our government puts in place and take advantage of the population all in the name of profit. The fight is real against this sort of behaviour form the most influential of organisations and its front lines are right here in Brussels. 

Discussing the colossal cost of medicine that individuals poor OR rich cannot any longer afford falls on the hands of our health system. So instead of using money on preventing chronic disease the money is spent in what I could only explain as a panic like state to try and save individuals that essentially have lost all battle fronts. Keeping patients that can still put up a fair fight without any options to push through for a win against whatever disease is trying to kill them, until they are essentially on their death bed and in the final hope to save them the government will pay yet another 2-3 hundred thousand dollars for a one month treatment plan. YES THAT HAPPENS AND YES THATS HOW MUCH YOUR DRUGS COST!

What an incredible piece of knowledge that helped shape this particular issue in my mind. Understanding that the government is only trying to fix patches of irreparable wounds of our public health systems, but the answer really is far harder and more complex than what seemed to be an obvious one around where money should be distributed. Its not like this isn’t the goal, but the cost of medicine for the sick is simply dis-proportionate. After all we are talking about human lives and how can that be less important than to make money?

I will not bombard you with ALL the information we have received within that one day. However, I will keep filling you in on the many learnings I gather and hope you too will experience this with me.

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