Master of Public Health & Tropical Medicine. Long standing experience with infectious disease surveillance (including influenza-like-illness monitoring), outbreak control, case management, vaccination program management. There is no health without liberty and justice. Ask anyone existing in poverty.
Yesterday I received this message from Sokum’s husband. It’s not a good medical description of her condition but it’s an excellent description of what she and her family are experiencing right now and of why I’m hoping along with them that the money for her surgery can somehow be raised in time. Anyone touched by … More Update on Being Twenty
“It’s essential that in life, you see yourself reflected in other peoples’ stories….” (Oprah Winfrey) Oprah is talking about her need, as a little black girl in America, to find people who “kinda looked like me”, at a time when there were no black people in high profile public roles to model for her, who … More Mirroring Me
Study after study by psychologists has shown that there is no correlation between wealth and happiness. The only exception is in cases of real poverty, when extra income does relieve suffering and brings security. But once our basic material needs are satisfied, our level of income makes little difference to our level of happiness. Research … More This Thing We Could Do
It’s okay to be imperfect. On the other hand, we should not allow perceived success or praise for perceived success affect our ego. Someone cycling Road X is no better or worse than someone walking Road Z. In the field of humanitarian work it’s easy to find people willing to shower you with praise. This … More People From The Sky
At some point in school I learned about the Mekong Delta, where waters from the river rise and seep out onto low lying flood plains, transforming dry land into shallow marshland for months every year. Receding waters dump alluvial deposits, rich in nutrients to form a perfect fertiliser for growing rice and vegetables. It was … More Delta Deliveries
My heart sinks in Australia whenever I get a cold call at home, or accosted in the streets by charities looking for donations. Ditto when friends write saying they have a cause and would I donate? It is not possible to help everyone and the phenomenon of donor fatigue is something I experience on a … More The Excruciating Fundraiser
Only in the past few years have I come to appreciate that I was born on the lucky side of life. Not only do I have enough food, love and shelter but I have the ability of having experienced going on an aeroplane, visiting towns and countries beyond my home, obtaining a first class education … More Battle of the Balance
Many hours of many days during my first 2 years in Cambodia were spent adventuring with my good friend, a tuk tuk driver who I blog-named Chom. He is currently living in Japan to earn $60 per day as a farm worker (10 hours per day, 7 days per week). This is big money to … More Pimp My Tuk Tuk
There are so many cultural quirks in Cambodia that you could write a book on them, if you were confident enough in your knowledge. One of my favourites, perhaps because of the similarity with Central Australian indigenous custom, is the practice of referring to people according to an assumed kinship status. Here I am often … More Bongs and Tycoons
Just over two years ago, during a boat cruise on Lake Windermere in north-west England, a small island in the lake captured my imagination when the guide described it as the place which had inspired Arthur Ransome’s children’s adventure series, Swallows and Amazons. Tonight at a hotel in Siem Reap I turned on the television … More Miracles, Swallows and Amazons
