Counting Down...

Wow, the time sure has flown by. There are now less than two weeks until I am on a flight to New Zealand, ready to disembark and begin my summer adventure. I am super excited, but also a little nervous. Who knows what's out there in the world, especially when snooping around a potentially controversial topic such as healthcare. I can't wait!

To keep everyone updated, I have been really busy this week making contacts, and I think I am pretty well done with New Zealand. I am just waiting on hearing back from some more people, but I have already secured meetings with the Assoc. Minister of Health, and two distinguished scholars in the field of Maori Healthcare Access Disparities, as well as contacted several parliamentarians and healthcare facilities.

Today I met with University of Miami President (and former US Secretary of Health and Human Security) Donna Shalala. We spoke about a finding data for my research and finding contacts for my work about the US system. She was very helpful, and I am more confident than ever. I will soon be contacting former US Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, who runs an institute which focuses on healthcare disparities in the US, thanks to President Shalala.

Tonight, I will be diligently working on making Australia the next country to have its contacts sorted out for the most part before I leave. Hope to post again soon, as the time is ticking away.

Planning Updates

So, I've been a busy little bee the past few days. Just to update everyone, I booked a flight from Wellington, NZ to Gisborne, NZ (should have cost $150, but I got it for $14, and no that isn't a typo). I also booked my flights from Lima to Cuzco, Cuzco to Lima, and Lima to Orlando. Right now I am working on getting meetings with contacts in the countries from my previous post, so if anyone can help with that, then I would be very appreciative.

More coming soon!

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to my blog. It is here that I will be posting accounts of my travels and experiences this summer while I circumnavigate the globe. I am going to try to update this blog daily once I start my travels, but please understand that there will be days when I will not be able to get to a secure source of internet access, so you might have to wait a few days in between posts.

Let me start this by thanking the Circumnavigators' Club, and their Foundation, for everything they have done. I particularly want to thank the leaders of the Florida chapters (Miami, Palm Beach, and Naples), all their members, Nicholas Moss (who was a Foundation scholar in 2004 and has been my liaison between myself and the Club), Mr. Greg Rider (president of the Club), and Ms. Helen Jost (who I have been working with at Club HQ diligently to try and get my trip details approved).

The award that the Foundation gives is not only exceedingly generous, but it is a striking example of how best to go about world scholarship. It is through exploring and researching, simultaneously, that we can best understand and learn from our neighbors on this planet. I haven't left yet, and already I know what a great thing this Grant is. Once again, to all the members of the Club, past and present, thank you for seeing what virtue learning in a global setting can have. I will not disappoint you with my research.

Speaking of which, the topic I have chosen is one of great import currently. I have seen, throughout my life, the importance of healthcare and medicine, and it had been my impression for a while during my youth that these wonderful advances in technology and general knowledge were available to all. Upon further study, I found my old view to be woefully naive. I began instead to try to understand why some people had proper access to healthcare, and why others did not. I came across no easy solution, and this has perturbed me for some time. I have rededicated myself, with a somewhat more focused area of interest.

It is true that in this country, the United States of America, there are those who do not have proper access, and this is for a variety of reasons. There are many solutions which have been suggested, but no one knows for certain which ones would work best, and which ones would be foolish enterprises. For this, I propose to turn to the greater world, and attempt to study the healthcare systems of other countries. I will look at the access afforded to underserved populations, and will then look back upon the situation in the US facing Latinos, Native Americans, African-Americans, etc in order to try to provide answers and suggestions for how best to ensure that lack of access will never be the reason for tragedy and inequality in the future of this country.

I have chosen a selection of countries scattered around the globe in order to do. I will begin my trip on May 13, heading to New Zealand, then to Australia, India, South Africa, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Peru. The groups of people I will be studying with are the Maori, Aborigine, lower castes, black South African, North African immigrants, and Incan descendants respectively. I will be visiting the headquarters of the European Union in Brussels and the World Health Organization in Geneva.

I hope that serves as a good introduction to the trip, and I'll keep you posted. Adios for now.