In my previous post dated 21 June 2015, I expressed a deeper insight into what goes on and what we are not able to understand the web of public health politics. Here again, I would like re iterate that I am not able to say certainly what goes in the mind of decision makers at the international headquarters, but at least i can say - we understand the pulse of "what goes on" and "how it goes" in our local community !! Sometime, however - we are cognizance of the fact that we may subjectively feel that whatever we said and did should be right but we may not be up to the mark and fail to realize this fact !! It is therefore necessary that we need to analyse retrospectively what we do and how we think so we do not make the same mistake again and again. Time and then to keep us sane in times of confusion timely reading stories on infectious diseases gurus like Brad and David Sack encourages us to move forward in what we aspire to do. We also get encouraged to work hard and perspective in what we envision doing in countries like Nepal.
Yesterday, I had to go through a psychological test (not in a psychiatrist or psychologist' chamber) at a personnel level. So you may ask what is this test and what does it have to do with public health politics. Well - it is about your ability to express your ideas (both at academic, programmatic or even anger or frustration) in coherent manner. Sometime I have begun to question - does your language of expression to express your thought or ideas have any relation with public health politics or it is more than the language of expression - calculating the equation or even deciphering the intricacies in the relation that sometime exist beyond our knowledge? I know I am asking a very personal or even complex question. When in a national or even international forum - i had to face frequently the linguistic gap many of times. For example - my mother tongue is Thakali and all my childhood - i had to work hard to excel Nepali language and to be competent enough to understand science we had to learn English as one of the main foreign language. I do not want to each and every detail however I would be vocal and straight that we have to face challenges while writing and expressing our thoughts in the language other than our mother tongue !! Do you believe what I am saying? May be you may say - Oh this guy is being too emotional and ranting blah blah..... but this is one of my experience at deeper level after years year of trying to understand why we could not excel in some of the subjects that we had to learn in either Nepali or English !! I found the answer and this is definitely language related competencies !! Along with it are its trailing competencies such as communication skills and also emotional or even social skills. And sometime - we get cornered just because we are not able to express what we think clearly in the language other than our own language. Do you agree with me?? Well, you do not have to agree with me but those who have to go through this subtle difficulties faced in their daily affairs may agree with me completely or partially. Again, you may ask, what does this language competencies or even communication skills have to do with public health politics? Well, this has a big role - and as I said I felt it acutely when approaching in such forum where you have to express your thoughts.
Expressing all these thoughts at random - I would definitely say "Public Health Politics" has many dimensions and its equation has many variables. Among those variables - i would say language competency is the most important one. In some of the conference - we see those who can express their thoughts coherently, loud and vocal are able to bring their agenda in the forum and bring about impact in the conversation. This will, in turn, help them shape their idea through policy / decision bodies. That is why we have a Nepali proverb, " Those who speak loud and clear can sell even an item of no value, however those who do not speak can't even sell "rice" !!" With this proverb - let us start being vocal but also understand the landscape of public health politics, which is always fluid and changing within time and space - uncertain !!
27th June 2015
Kathmandu
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