A Useful Distraction. An Hour With Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Posted on | November 5, 2020 | Comments Off on A Useful Distraction. An Hour With Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Mike Magee

As each of us, in our own way, waits for the final results of the 2020 US Presidential contest, patience is demanded, and a useful distraction may be helpful. Let me recommend this 1 hour interview by UC Berkeley’s Harry Kreisler of one of my Public Health heroes, Gro Harlem Brundtland.

I have been following the former Prime Minister of Norway since 2000, when, as Director General of the World Health Organization (1998-2003), she defined health as “twofold – goodness and fairness; goodness being the best attainable average level; and fairness, the smallest feasible differences among individuals and groups.”

In this interview, she touches on social justice, income equality, maternal fetal health, the public duty to serve if called, the increasing leadership role of women in society, her 1st political role as Minister of the Environment (not Minister of Health), cross-disciplinary cooperation, consensus building, when to hold your ground, climate change, the European Union, the destructive health impact of advertising, and pandemic management.

Get to know Gro! She will reassure you, whatever your point of view, that humans are capable of self-governance, even in a country so painfully divided as our own.