Not So Simple Explanations

Agency, as defined by Farmer on p. 43, is stated as the, “capabilities of each person.” I thought that this definition was kind of vague because it seems to be very general. Many factors influence what someone is capable of doing, and I think that these factors play a very vital role to these capabilities. Growing up, I always had the idea of higher education drilled into my brain. My parents were from the Philippines, which makes my younger brother and I first-generation kids, and also, first-generation college kids (or well, I count, my brother’s still in high school, ha). My parents always made sure I was on top of my A game, especially because I was balancing AP classes, sports, and student government roles. Not going to college wasn’t necessarily an option, and it isn’t really an option today. They view education as a stepping stone to better jobs, and I don’t blame them because the qualifications for jobs are a lot harder to achieve than they were years ago. My parents also didn’t finish college, and so they often see it as a struggle, that things might have been a little better for us had they been successful in college. I, on the other hand, view my parents’ hardships in a different light, and I see it as them being determined and strong-willed. Either way, I understand that they don’t want us to struggle when we get older. I also want to continue on with higher education because I want to be able to be self-supportive in the future, and I’m going to need some way to pay off my boatload of student debt, right? Haha, oh the irony…

Anyways, on page 44, Farmer brings up an important point in dealing with race and inequality. He says, “Racial classifications have been used to deprive many groups of basic rights and therefore have an important place in considerations of human inequality and suffering.” He uses examples of South African “blacks” to demonstrate this idea. He says that a lack of resources attributes to poverty, and because of this reason many South Africans are presented with issues such as HIV and widespread hunger. He also continues by saying that Vicente Navarro, a public health expert, pointed out that race has become a “substitute for class,” on page 45. Understanding all these other factors shows how there are multiple things influencing inequality.

On page 49, Farmer writes, “ ‘Culture’ does not explain suffering; it may at worst furnish an alibi.” Continuing on with the given quote prompt on page 48, grouping the act of torture into culture diminishes the word completely, almost making it seem acceptable and appropriate. It allows for the issue to be justifiable and normal when it isn’t. It is insidious to lessen the situation at hand by attributing it to “culture” because you begin to paint a picture of a group of individuals as a whole, which generalizes them completely (Critique of Ethnography, ha!).

I think that one of the social structures that perpetuate systems of inequality and impact people at my site is the socioeconomic system. The constant issue I’ve heard is the fact that things can’t always be afforded, or that the school can’t provide certain things. It ultimately goes back to the idea of lack of resources available. Especially in Marin, there is a large gap between “the rich and the poor.” As Chilean theologian Pablo Richard references the Berlin Wall, he states on page 50, “We are aware that another gigantic wall is being constructed in the Third World, to hide the reality of the poor majorities. A wall between the rich and poor is being built, so that the poverty does not annoy the powerful and the poor are obliged to die in the silence of history.”