P U B L I C A F F A I R S December 2001 Anthropology News

P O L I C Y M O N I T O R

Let us know about your public policy activities. Were you interviewed on NewsHour with /im Lehrer? Did you appear on a policy media program? Have you testified before Congress or an international body? Were you appointed to a feder- al or international advisory position? Are you now employed in a policymaking position? AN wants to know about these and other policy-related activities. Send a brief description and any media coverage of your public policy activity to Aaron Roueche, M A , 4350 N Fairfax Dr, Suite 640, Arlington, VA 22203-1 620; fax 703/528-3546; aroueche@aaanet.org.

Taking on AIDS Can medical anthropologists stem the spreading of HIV/AIDS by teaching village healers Westem medical knowledge? Matthew Steinglass ad- dressed this question in “A Village Healer: Tra- ditional Medicine Can Remedy Africa’s AIDS Crisis. Are they Q h t ? “ (LinguaFancu, Apr 2001). The article discussed the research of Edward C Green, which shows that traditional healers are more successful than Western doctors are in Africa. Green believes “at least part of the reason is that unlike doctors, healers tend to take a ‘holistic’ approach, treating the patient’s spiritual and physical well-being together.” Also, because traditional healers are trusted more than Western doctors are, those infected are more likely to go to a traditional healer when the infection is still treatable. Using this foundational research, Green’s HIV/AIDS prevention program teaches traditional healers Western prevention methods in the terminology of the healers, who then are required to train others.

”Homeland Security“ Unfamiliar In hopes of preventing further terrorist attacks through improved security, President Bush nom- inated former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge as the head of the new Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security. In “At Home, Uneasiness Over a Word” (Boston Globe, Sept 26), Mark Feeny presented different academics’ concerns about why the term “homeland” was chosen and what it connotes. Deborah Tannen (Georgetown U) expressed discomfort with the term “homeland” because “it’s not an expression we use regularly” and it “sounds foreign, as if it’s another country they’re talking about.” She recommended that the term for home should be more “warm and fuzzy and something everyone feels emotional about. ”

Cultural Education Helps US Navy In “Culture, Science Inform Recovery Effort” (Boston Globe, Aug 26), Gordon Y K Pang report- ed that the US Navy has been increasingly suc- cessful in pacifymg the HawaiiadJapanese com- munity after the accidental collision on Feb 9 of the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville with the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing boat. The acci- dent killed five men and four boys that were on the boat. W e Lebra (U of Hawaii) explained, “What infuriated [the Japanese] was they felt the American response was very inadequate. The non-response by [the captain] really infuriated them.” Lebra said she feels the Navy‘s efforts to teach the recovery team divers about Japanese culture and Buddhism have “gone a long way toward calrmng that anger.” She also said, “For

the Japanese, I think what counts most is the sin- cerity in your heart.”

Militants Pose Problems Although Philippine President Glorai Macapagal Arroyo has orchestrated a deal with two militant groups-the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MIL-the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) still is out- side the government’s control. In “Gunning for Glory” (Al-Ahrum Weekly On-line, Aug 23-29), Nyier Abdou explained that the ASG supports itself through stealing and kidnapping foreigners for ransom. So far, the Philippine government’s efforts to eliminate the ASG in their mountain hideouts and placate them through agreements have failed. Thomas McKenna (U of Alabama) believes that “popular support for both the MNLF and MILF has been demonstrated time and again in public demonstrations, elections and so forth. No comparable support has been evidenced for the ASG.” He suggested that the Philippine gov- ernment would do best by working to “quietly contain them on Basilian,” rather than announc- ing “unrealistic timetables for ‘crushing the ASG”’ because “the ASG has run out of steam and is on the decline.”

Dual Sides of Patriotism Anthropologists have commented on the mean- ing behind the unified upwelling of patriotism as a result of the Sept 11 tragedy. In “Raising Flags” (Sun Francisco Chronicle, Sept 25) Neva Chonin cited Alan Dundees (UC-Berkeley), who said that the waving of the American flag was a type of masculine symbol, and that “we have to get these flags up, as a symbol of life.” According to Karen Goldberg Goff’s article “Facing the Long Haul” (Washington Emes, Sept 30), Katharine Ewing (Duke U) believes “patriotism brings people to- gether, but it can also create a boundary-to cre- ate a world where we have allies and enemies.” Her greatest fear is that patriotism will be divisive, “creating the mentality of the Christian world versus the Muslim world.” However, Ewing con- cluded that this conflict is not as much rel@ous as it is “the West versus certain people who resist the power of the West.”

Scientists and Policymaking Are scientists needed in policymaking? This is the question that James Glanz asked in his article, “Sure, Its Rocket science, but Who Needs Scien- tists?” (New York ?Fmes, June 17). As many US sci- entists have concluded that the current adminis- tration is uninterested in their research, Hugh Gustemon (MW) said he believes that “there is a

particular problem with the Bush presidency, in that most major scientists today, whatever their politics, are unwilling to accept White House policies.” He pointed out that while Republicans historically have their scientists and Democrats theirs, at “this moment in time, on both missile defense and the greenhouse effect,” there is “sub stantial consensus against the White House poli- cy” among scientists. Glanz observed that scien- tists have begun to realize that once a scientific matter becomes a public issue, “How a position is presented and argued may well outweigh pure research. ”

Is Selling Your Kidney a Right? In “This Little Kidney Went to Market” (New York Times Magazine, May 27), Michael Finkel investi- gates the international organ-trafficking market. In the US, the National Organ Transplant Act, passed in 1984, calls for as much as a $SO,OOO fine and five years in prison if a person is convicted o f buying or selling human organs. However, the practice continues. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Lawrence Cohen (UC-Berkeley), co-founders of Organs Watch, which monitors the organ mar- ket, have identified many problems with the practice of selling one’s kidney. Scheper-Hughes is alarmed that nearly half the respondents to a survey by the National Kidney Foundation favored some form of compensation for organ donors. She and &hen fear that kidney sellers are treated not as humans, but commodities, and question if such sellers are making an autono- mous choice. In his work in India, &hen has observed that in none of the cases of kidney sell- ers he has tracked did selling an organ signifi- cantly improve the family’s fortunes in the long run, although such a motive was the main impe- tus for selling a kidney in the first place.

A Life in Public Policy E d Pain (Woodrow Wilson Center), referred to as “Russia’s foremost ethnographer” by Nora Boustany in “A Russian‘s Passion for Mending Ethnic Fractures” (Washington Post, May 18), was drawn into politics after the Soviet Union col- lapsed because of his expertise on Russia’s com- plex web of nationalities. Boustany traced Pain‘s role as Yeltsin’s aide and how he made his mark in the policy arena by “speaking out on, and lob- bying against, the use of military force against ethnic separatism in Chechnya.” Remembering his advising of Yeltsin, who did not always heed his advice, Pain said, “It was the best time in my life. I was happy, not only because I was in power, but I became a columnist and a television per- sonality. I was part of the in-crowd. More impor- tantly, I was doing something useful, meaningful and interesting. I was beiig helpful to all these national movements, not only in theory but in practice.” During his current nine-month stint at the Woodrow Wilson Center as a Galina Starovoitova Fellow on human rights and con- flict resolution, Pain is working on theories about how extreme nationalism can obstruct democra- tization. El!

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