Jeffrey Sachs at Notre Dame Forum 2006

Thursday I attended the Notre Dame Forum at the Joyce Center at the University of Notre Dame, near where I live. The theme was The Global Health Crisis: Forging Solutions, Effecting Change. An interesting title, I thought, noting the use of the word "Effecting" vs. "Affecting."

Among the speakers was a hero of mine, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard. Sachs is the most famous economist around, and is known for working with the likes of Bono (most famously), Angelina Jolie, and Madonna -- who, after reading his book The End of Poverty, called him up to ask what she could do, and just announced her plans to travel to Malawi to raise $3-million for orphans there. (Mail & Guardian Africa 2006-09-07)

Other speakers were Dr. Paul Farmer, a medical anthropologist whose work is centered in Haiti, and Dr. Miriam Opwonya, an AIDS researcher from Kampala, Uganda.

Sachs gives his talk entitled "Practical Approaches to Extreme Poverty in Africa"

I have always admired Dr. Sachs for his vision, his strong foundation in the numbers, and holistic approach to economic repair -- "clinical economics," he calls it in his groundbreaking book, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. What I saw at the forum on Thursday was all of this and then some: A passionate, eloquent speaker, with a great sense of humor but also a distinct underlying air of anger, which Bono highlights in his introduction to the book:

He's not just animated; he's angry. Because he knows that a lot of the crisis in the developing world can be avoided. Staring at people queuing up to die three to a bed, two on top and one underneath, in a hospital just outside of Lilongwe, Malawi, and knowing this doesn't have to be is too much for most of us. I am crushed. He is creative. He's an economist who can bring to life statistics that were, after all, lives in the first places. He can look up from the numbers and see faces through the spreadsheets, families like his own that stick together on treks to the far ends of the world. He helps us make sense of what senseless reallly means: fifteen thousand Africans dying each aned every day of preventable, treatable diseeases -- Aids, malaria, TB -- for lack of drugs that we take for granted.

This statistic alone makes a fool of the idea that many of us hold on to very tightly: the idea of equality. What is happening in Africa mocks our pieties, doubts our concern, and questions our commitment to that whole concept. Because if we're honest, there's no way we could conclude that such mass death day after day would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else. Certainly not in North America, or Europe, or Japan. An entire continent bursting into flames? Deep down, if we really accept that their lives -- African lives -- Are equal to ours, we would all be doing more to put the fire out. It's an uncomfortable truth.

In her forum introduction, moderator Gwen Ifill quoted the latter paragraph. The other panelists, particularly Dr. Farmer, continued to sing his praises throughout the discussions.

Professor Sachs began his talk by addressing the students in a manner one might imagine he addresses his own students at Harvard. He had good news and bad news for them. The good news was that these problems to be discussed today had practical solutions. The bad news, he said, "is that it's your homework." This he said with a sense of urgency, as if this would be the most important assignment these students would ever undertake.

He then showed us a photo of two children lying next to each other in malaria coma in Zambia. He called this an "unforgivable, unforgettable" scene, because malaria costs $2.86 to treat -- even less for a pediatric dose. He multiplied that by the amount of children who were contracting the disease, and then taking into account the massive amounts the U.S. is spending on the Military right now, and figured that it would cost just one day's worth of U.S. military expenses to get malaria under control. "Don't let anybody ever tell you we can't afford this," he said to thunderous applause.

He talked about his work with Millenium Villages, and laid out all of the practical steps to the economic transformation of a village in one year:

1. Grow more food
2. Control malaria
3. Ensure access to clean drinking water
4. Make sure all of the children get to go to school. A surefire technique, he said, was to "promise lunch, and they'll come." This solution harkens back to step #1

The panelists answer questions asked by recent Notre Dame grads and a few current students.

He ended his talk by stating what an inspiration it was to be here at this "great university," and that Fr. Hessburg had been a lifetime hero of his. He then said, "The world today is very dangerous. The only way out is peace, and development is peace."

Throughout the Q&A session, Sachs would throw out various numbers and calculations to illustrate his points. "Math is my only specialty," he'd joke. But this is where his credibility lies. Numbers don't lie, my friends. That's why mathmaticians are the most honest people you'll ever meet. His book is jam-packed with graphs (most of which I just scratch my head at), and some are even in color. At one point the moderator asked the panelists about what they'd like to see the world be like in 2025. "They're not my wildest dreams," he replied. "they're my most practical calculations."

"Corruption," he said when asked of its challenges. "Is often the face of extreme poverty." The other two panelists agreed, with Dr. Farmer highlighting success with his program in Haiti "despite corruption and support for bad foreign policy." He pointed to Rotary's efforts to eradicate Polio, which has been reduced a thousand fold. "If Africa is so corrupted," he asked. "How did smallpox get eradicated when it required government functions to do it?"

Jeffrey Sachs and some drooling fan.

After the forum had ended, Dr. Sach's rockstar status became apparent as a crowd of students descended upon him for autographs and photos. "These guys are the real rock stars," a student commented to me. And if you had been there and seen me you'd think I didn't know the difference. I started out good, playin' it cool. I barely got past introducing myself and shaking his hand before I blurted "WILLYOULIKESIGNMY LIKEBOOKFORMEPLEASE??" And it was pretty much all downhill from there. In the photo I got with him I basically look drunk.

My companion Jarett, however, is tres cooler than I, and also smarter. He went right up to Sachs and started asking him a well-formed question to which he got an interesting answer. I am going to ask him to make a guest entry here, detailing the exchange.

So stay tuned. In the meantime, you can view my photos of the event on flickr.