What GPP 105 Meant to a South Korean Girl

Since my GPP 105 course is coming to an end, I find it is necessary to conclude some thoughts on my experiences with this course. I was born in Incheon, South Korea, but began attending a boarding school alone since 10 in the states. And, I have been working with Women's Economic Agenda Project  (WEAP) in Oakland, California. WEAP is a non-profit organization that works with females from low-income background. 

Taking Prof. Robert Reich's Wealth and Poverty class during my first year at Cal had introduced me to the severity of inequality throughout the globe. Every time I set in his lecture, my mind was busy working with the concepts he introduced. However, working with social and economic justice advocates, and males in the feminist realm of urban development had taught me physically of how gender is imbedded into the structure of urban poverty. I began my practice with an initial understanding of the relation between gender and urban poverty, but the insights I gained from working with WEAP had taught me something new, and different from the countless scholarly readings I had done in my Feminist Theory class or in GPP 105. 

I couldn't understand what had been the difference between physically observing or listening to the cases involving gender, and scholarly reading about them, until I heard the news. The one about South Korean ship sinking. Yes, the one that still remains in the sea with corpses of innocent teenagers. 

It was my gender, race, educational background, and ethnicity that had made the difference. When I was at WEAP's meetings or trainings, I experienced how my appearance as an Asian girl from a renown university affected my work in this field. I was the only Asian present in trainings and meetings, and I felt as the minority within a crowd of colored and white advocates. And, it was not the first time. I had experienced something similar when I worked weekly as a economic advisor in homeless shelters including the one that only had females. To make things worse, I lived alone for the most of my life in cities with high crime rates. With all these experiences and courses I have taken on gender issues, I could not help but to become conscious of the remarks or comments I get from the individuals based on my gender or race. And, what the literature could not provide me was this communication. 

The South Korean ship tragedy demonstrated the epic fail of communication. It was actually a nightmare to watch the news. I often slept with my South Korean news channel played live 24/7 with a hope to hear something better than what I had heard in the previous days. And, I realized I was a South Korean working with issues that seemed to be mainly focused in foreign countries. I could not figure out what I had gained that reflected by nationality. And, I, as a South Korean student completed elementary, middle, and high school curriculums in the U.S., was not happy and confident about my progress in the foreign field. 

I was wrong. Taking GPP 105, interning at WEAP, and exploring my interests in a foreign country was a great way to navigate where I seem to standing in different societal structures. Without this course, I would not have accomplished certain types of self-evaluations within different society. And, GPP 105 was an opportune for me to not only gather qualitative or quantitative data of global poverty and inequality, but also to interact with these issues. I was constantly opening up dialogues about the issues within myself. And, it was GPP 105 that allowed me to do so.

Solution to Global Poverty = Improved Global Health?

Did you know that “Between 2000 and 2011, about 24 percent of the growth in full income in low-income and middle-income countries resulted from [Value of Life Years] gained" (Global Health 2035)? This means that nearly a quarter of the growth these countries experienced over a decade came from better health of their people!

I've been asked several times if whether my interest in public health work counts as poverty alleviation. Sure, I'll be improving access to much-needed health services that impoverished communities may simply be unable to afford, but does that really count as improving their overall state of poverty?

I know that the answer is yes, but expressing it in an intellectual manner has been somewhat of a challenge. I was never quite able to place my finger on the necessary arguments to support my case.

But this Humanosphere article has provided me with some important resources to not only educate me on the ways that health is directly involved in poverty alleviation, but also allow me to explore important aspects that I had never really considered!

While the author argues that improving global health is the best solution by miles when compared with other aid and development programs, I believe that the latter are equally crucial supplements for bettering a developing country's conditions. Being constantly concerned by a child's chronic diarrhea or one's own tuberculosis can no doubt take away from a person's focus on earning a living or contributing to the country's economy. But even if health concerns are removed as a factor, the conditions for other socioeconomic inequalities would still exist, which would continue to render the healthy individual's opportunities limited. But he still has the right idea, in that global health has been severely neglected and its progress could have been much higher in the last few decades had more attention been paid to related endeavors. Thankfully, it is a rapidly growing field and I'm excited to see what opportunities await me!