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Library Kick-Off Raffle Winners!

Four freshmen who visited every service desk during the Library Kick-Off have won $50 StagBucks each. These lucky four are: Kristen Van Vleck, Katherine Greiner, Jayson Cowley, and Franc Garcia-Inclan. Congratulations and thank you for participating in the Library Kick-Off!

Thanks for a Great Library Kick-Off!

Thank you, members of the class of 2010 who attended the Library Kick-Off! Because of you, the Library is opening its coffers and donating $1,000.00 to Partners in Health (PIH), Dr. Paul Farmer's charity.

StagBucks raffle winners have yet to be announced, but will be notified shortly.

We had a great time at the Kick-Off, introducing students to various library services, eating doughnuts and cookies, listening to the fabulous Haitian band Feeling Mizik, drawing graffiti, viewing the film Aristide and the Endless Revolution featuring Dr. Farmer, and recording podcasts (see "Pics & Podcasts," at right) about Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Here's what some students who attended the Kick-Off had to say about it:

• Loved it. A great help!
• The library definitely seems to be well-equipped, and has all the necessary resources or ways to get them.
• Sweet!
• I really enjoyed it. It couldn't have been better!

Posting by Jennifer Miller, '07

I found the most compelling dilemma in the book when Dr. Paul Farmer had to decide whether or not to spend $20,000 to airlift a dying child from Haiti to Mass General in attempts to save his life.  Facing critics who argue that providing clean water is “gold-plated heath care,” Dr. Farmer chose to airlift the child from Haiti.  This is characteristic of his general philosophy: “the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world” (294).

My name is Jen Miller and after reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, I was inspired to run a Face AIDS campaign at Fairfield.

Face AIDS is a nationwide student organized campaign to mobilize and inspire individuals to fight AIDS in Africa.  The Fairfield community can join this effort by purchasing a pin made by Zambians affected by HIV/AIDS.  All proceeds from this campaign will fund Dr. Paul Farmer’s work in Rwanda.  Our goal is to sell 500 pins within the first month of school.  Sterling Stamos, an investment firm in New York, as well as a foundation called Until Theres’ A Cure, will match the funds we raise, which will be donated to Partners in Health. 

We, the community of Fairfield, have the capability and power to make a difference.  We have been instilled with the Jesuit ideals of educating the whole person, a tradition based on integrating mind with spirit through doing community service.  Every individual wearing a pin is part of a movement dedicated to fighting this generation defining pandemic.  I encourage all of you to get involved!

Library Kick-Off -- Tuesday, Sept. 5, from 9:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Count yourself in at the Library Kick-Off!

   

• Groove to Feeling Mizik, a Haitian fusion band, cranking out tunes like this one (click to play).
• Scrawl graffiti as pictured here, and speak out about Mountains Beyond Mountains at the Free Speech Café.
• Enter yourself in a drawing to win StagBucks by visiting every Library department.
  Bonus: when you step in, the Library will step up with a donation to Paul Farmer's charity (you swipe, we give).
• Enjoy all this, plus free food and drink!

Bring your StagCard.

Photos courtesy of G. Aiello in conjunction with I. Gendelmen & C.R.O.W., Seattle Central Library.

Posting by Dr. Lisa Newton, Professor of Applied Ethics

I  have the unique privilege of teaching and writing both in the field of medical ethics (or, the ethics of health care) and of the implications of economic globalization, the field that Jeffrey Sachs discusses so eloquently in THE END OF POVERTY.  Paul Farmer and Jeffrey Sachs pose for us the same question:  Why, in a nation that has so much wealth and such enormous human resources, do so few of our professionals--graduates of places like Fairfield University!--break through the walls of professional success to serve the poor?  What can we do to help--and join--these dedicated few?

Lisa Newton,  Director of Applied Ethics Department

What's your opinion? Join the conversation by clicking on the Comments link.

Posting by Debnam Chappell, Dean of Freshmen

Click here to read the complete posting from Debnam Chappell, Dean of Freshmen

In about 2 weeks, you, the members of the Class of 2010 will arrive on campus to begin a new stage of your lives – the undergraduate college years. I am reminded of the fact that we in the United States are a privileged people – we are privileged simply because we live in the U.S., because our parents have jobs - students often have summer jobs – because we have access to health care in all of its many forms, because we have been given a high school education, and because, if we choose, we can continue our education in college.

Did reading this book change your perspective of your own life in the United States?  Have you had  experiences which changed your view of yourself in relation to the world? We would love to hear from you.

Debnam Chappell, Dean of Freshmen

What's your opinion? Join the conversation by clicking on the Comments link.

Absolute vs. Relative Poverty

Mountains Beyond Mountains is a book that won't let us look away from poverty. The poverty it describes in Haiti might be described as "absolute poverty," but we have poverty in the United States, as well.

Take a look at the lively discussion about absolute vs. relative poverty by visiting John Scalzi's website, Being Poor, and another blogger's response to it. Do you think it is necessary to make distinctions between absolute and relative poverty? How is it helpful? How is it counterproductive?

Join the conversation by clicking on the Comments link.

Posting by Renee White, Sociology & Anthropology Professor, Co-director of Black Studies

I have been a fan of Dr. Paul Farmer for many years. While in graduate school I bought a book he co-authored on poverty and health; this book changed me. I was left wondering who this man was, why he was so passionate about health and development, and how he managed to combine academic pursuits with a focus on social transformation. Thankfully, in Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder provides us an intimate account of the man behind Partners in Health. There is so much to learn from Dr. Farmer’s untiring efforts:

1) The challenge to eradicate poverty is a moral imperative.

2) Living in a nation of privilege, it is easy to forget the daily obstacles faced by those who live in developing nations. Furthermore, when we travel to a developing country whose primary commodity is tourism, we may never see the reality of the lives of its citizens because we don’t want to be “burdened” by reality while on vacation. Despite this tendency, when we travel we also are functioning as global citizens. We owe it to ourselves to acknowledge the conditions in which the vast majority of humans exist and to try to behave in ways indicative of our shared responsibility for the eradication of global poverty.

3) All of us have skills and talents that can be harnessed to improve the quality of life in our own communities.

4) Poverty is a global phenomenon that affects us at the most local level. We live in a state with three very poor cities. While the poverty in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven is tangibly different from Haiti, it does exist and requires our commitment to its eradication.

5) Philanthropy and social justice activism should never be based on a “let’s help the poor people” model. Those who are in need have knowledge, skills, and resources you don’t have. Remember that such work is collaborative because it requires the trust, respect and commitment of those receiving your assistance. In the end, it will transform you and your world view when you least expect it.

6) Do not become mired by guilt over privilege because this does little to equip you with the tools needed to effect change. Figure out how to funnel your sense of discomfort, confusion, and guilt into action.

Renee White, Professor, Sociology & Anthropology and Co-director of Black Studies

What's your opinion? Join the conversation by clicking on the Comments link.

Haitian Proverb

Haitian proverb: "Beyond mountains there are mountains. " As you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.

Do you have any ideas about how to motivate yourself and others to strive to achieve big goals, knowing that your successes will lead to ongoing challenges?

Can you share any examples from your own life where you broke a task down into manageable chunks, and succeeded—yet still needed to accomplish more? Did you pass the baton? How did you recharge your batteries?

Posting By Winston Tellis, Information Systems & Operations Management Professor

For the past 12 years, I have made several trips to Haiti each year. What Kidder describes about the country is accurate. However it is hard for anyone to bring out in print, the dignity with which Haitians conduct themselves. Despite their poverty, they are mostly clean, presentable, and unfailingly courteous - all this, in spite of eating at most one meal a day, and coping with indescribable hardship.

I know Dr. Farmer, and Kidder’s portrayal of him is also accurate. His dedication to poor people of Haiti and the world is legendary. He makes little time for himself, but offers us all a chance to review our own values. How many of us are called to serve to the extent he feels called? In fact there are impoverished communities just a few minutes from Fairfield’s idyllic campus; will we go out of our way to lessen their burden? Dr. Farmer would probably be unimpressed with our various achievements unless they were accompanied by consistent action on behalf of the poor. If we lessened a little of our comforts (perhaps some of our excesses) could we possibly help alleviate the suffering of a few of our less fortunate sisters and brothers?

Dr. Farmer uses his fame and status to draw attention to the plight of the poorest of the poor, who often die from illnesses that are eminently treatable. He considers it a moral imperative for him to work tirelessly to redress some of that suffering. His life is clearly a call to all of us. No position is too lofty to engage in comforting the poor, whether senior executive or simple worker. Dr. Farmer shows us that our gifts must be shared - used for the purpose for which God gave us those gifts!

It takes just 3 hours from New York or a little over an hour from Miami to get to Haiti, but you travel back a century. Most of the country does not have electricity, potable water, a sanitation system or a school system. There are few roads and fewer in good condition. Regardless of the political upheaval that seems ever present, we are called to action. Dr. Farmer and his dedicated staff do not count the cost. Rather, they tell us that there is no alternative; we must all serve alongside those who are suffering. Watching idly, and reading about the plight of the poor and feeling empathy but doing nothing is something we should find unacceptable after reading Kidder’s book, or any of Dr. Farmer’s books.

Winston Tellis, Professor, Dolan School Of Business

What's your opinion? Join the conversation by clicking on the Comments link.

Posting by Dennis Keenan, Philosophy Professor

The work of Dr. Paul Farmer calls us to move beyond a fundamentally individualistic concern for ourselves (and our close circle of family and friends) that only reaches out to the other in the form of charity.

Dr. Farmer’s work:

(1) calls us to recognize the essential dignity of all persons (and of all things),

(2) calls us to recognize the complex ecological, economic, political, and cultural interconnectedness of all things, and

(3) calls us (on the basis of the two previous calls) to change ourselves and our world (which inevitably involves, among other things, making concrete economic sacrifices to live in solidarity with our world-wide community).

It is a staggering challenge, so simple to articulate yet so hard to live.

What does this have to do with the mission of Fairfield University?  In my opinion, the distinctive mission of a Catholic university involves three basic concepts: (1) sacramentality (recognizing the extraordinary in the ordinary), (2) solidarity (recognizing our communal interdependence), and (3) transformation (being called by sacramentality and solidarity to effect change in ourselves and in our world-wide community).

Dennis Keenan, Professor, Philosophy Department

What's your opinion? Join the conversation by clicking on the Comments link.

Money and Medicine

The author Tracy Kidder points out that Dr. Farmer is dissatisfied with the current distribution of money and medicine in the world.

What is your opinion of the distribution of these forms of wealth?

Would you change this distribution, if you could?  If so, how might you begin?

Share your thoughts or read other students' comments by clicking on the Comments link below.

Image is Everything?

In Mountains Beyond Mountains, author Tracy Kidder states, “It is so easy, at least for me, to mistake a person’s material resources for his interior ones.”

Have you had an experience like this? Did it change you in any way? 

Click on the red Comments link directly below to read other's comments or to let us know what you think.

Speak Out and Blog!

Fairfield Freshmen - Your Voice Counts!

We invite you to speak out about the book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer by Tracy Kidder on this blog. 

Never blogged before?  Click on the Comments link to see what your fellow students are saying about a posting. You can comment yourself on any posting by clicking on the Comments link. We encourage  wide-open discussion. Comments are reviewed before appearing on the blog.   

Would you like to create a posting for other students to comment on?  Email librarian Ramona Islam at rislam@mail.fairfield.edu with your request.

Check back frequently to join the conversation!