Listen: Thoughts from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

2014-07-29 · documentary visit · John, Mulualem Gessesse · 3:21 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development · mode: Personal essay · tags: recurring series, on location, guest or collab, heavy topic

Visiting neonatologist Dr. Mulualem Gessesse's NICU in Addis Ababa, John argues that Ethiopia's falling child mortality comes from supporting Ethiopia's own health strategy, that aid must listen, and that the world's poorest children are our kids too.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Arrival in Addis Ababa after a 30-hour journey: coffee, a soccer jersey for Henry, on to Yekatit 12 Hospital

• ★★ John landed in Addis Ababa after a thirty-hour journey, met a Gates Foundation staffer, had Ethiopian coffee, bought Henry an Ethiopia soccer jersey and went to Yekatit 12 Hospital. — 00:00:01 · Henry Green

00:00:14 — Ethiopia's poverty and its seven neonatologists for 90 million people

• ★★ John says Ethiopia is one of the world's poorest countries: most people lack electricity or running water and most fields are tilled by animal-drawn wooden plows. — 00:00:14 · extreme poverty
• ★★★ John says the smallest hospital in his hometown of Indianapolis has eight neonatologists, while Ethiopia, a nation of ninety million, has seven. — 00:00:24 · Indianapolis
• ★★ John says Dr. Mulualem Gessesse was one of Ethiopia's first neonatologists. — 00:00:32

00:00:32 — Dr. Gessesse's NICU: plywood over sewage water, improvised CPAP, a ward grown to 2,000 babies a year, why she does it

• ★★ John describes reaching the Yekatit 12 neonatal intensive care unit by walking on plywood over standing water that smells of sewage. — 00:00:34
• ★★★ John says Dr. Gessesse's team improvises a kind of CPAP from oxygen tanks, tubing and water to keep premature babies' lungs inflated; lacking respirators and real CPAPs is among her critical needs. — 00:00:43
• ★★★ John says that in the past few years Dr. Gessesse's ward has grown from treating a couple hundred babies a year to more than two thousand. — 00:01:00
• ★★ Mulualem Gessesse: Asked by John several times why she chose her specialty, Dr. Gessesse eventually answers that her concern is for Ethiopian newborns. — 00:01:20

00:01:22 — Child mortality halved: Ethiopia's own strategy, kangaroo mother care, the useless adult CPAPs; we have to listen

• ★★★ John says twenty years ago more than fifteen percent of children born in Ethiopia died before age five; today it is less than seven percent. — 00:01:22 · child mortality
• ★★ John says child mortality is falling faster in Ethiopia than in the world overall and is much lower than in far richer countries. — 00:01:30 · child mortality
• ★★★ Saying he is no expert, John credits Ethiopia's seriousness about health and groups like the Gates Foundation and Save the Children helping execute an Ethiopian strategy rather than imposing one. (hedged) — 00:01:37 · Save the Children, aid effectiveness
• ★★★ John explains kangaroo mother care: preterm babies stay in hospital with their mothers in constant skin-to-skin contact, which studies link to better brain development, fewer infections and better weight gain. — 00:01:50
• ★★ John says kangaroo care is cheap and works, and a small investment in these babies now gives them a far better chance of healthy, productive adulthoods. — 00:02:05
• ★★★ Dr. Gessesse told John of failed outreach: a dozen CPAPs arrived from a charity, all adult-sized and none of use to her. — 00:02:12 · aid effectiveness
• ★★★ John draws the lesson: we have to listen to each other. — 00:02:20 · aid effectiveness

00:02:22 — The voiceless poor and our social networks: these are our kids

• ★★★ John says humans are generous within their social networks, but lack of access to Tumblr and YouTube leaves people in absolute poverty voiceless online, so we imagine their problems as other. — 00:02:22 · Tumblr, YouTube, extreme poverty, othering
• ★★★ John says if our kids were dying of malaria and diarrhea we wouldn't stand for it, but these are our kids: our world is very literally their world. — 00:02:41 · malaria, othering

00:02:57 — Bill Gates and the helicopter (to come); gratitude to Dr. Gessesse; sign-off

• ★★ John says he hung out with Bill Gates, whom he calls brilliant, overcame his fear of heights to fly in a helicopter with him, and will talk about it in the coming weeks. — 00:02:57
• ★★ John asks viewers to pause in gratitude to Dr. Gessesse, who has quietly saved thousands of babies; she told him she has many children, only two biological. — 00:03:05

Threads in this video

• update · John's visit to rural health care in Ethiopia with the Gates Foundation (2014) — John reports landing in Addis Ababa after a 30-hour journey, meeting a Gates Foundation staffer and visiting Yekatit 12 Hospital. (00:00:01)
• told · John visits Dr. Mulualem Gessesse's neonatal intensive care unit at Yekatit 12 Hospital, Addis Ababa (2014) — John tells of visiting Dr. Mulualem Gessesse's NICU at Yekatit 12 Hospital: plywood over sewage water, improvised CPAPs, a ward grown to over 2,000 babies a year. (00:00:34)
• restate · Is human life getting better; is now the best time to be alive? — John says Ethiopian under-five mortality fell from more than 15% to less than 7% in twenty years, faster than in the world overall. (00:01:22)
• restate · What makes charity or aid work well? — John says aid works in Ethiopia when organisations help execute Ethiopia's own health strategy rather than impose one, and that donors must listen. (00:01:37)
• restate · Is there really an 'us' and a 'them', or are distant and different people just facets of us? — John says the poor become 'others' to us online, but the dying children of the poorest countries are our kids and our world is their world. (00:02:41)
• progress update · John: make a bunch of videos from his East Africa trip with Bill Gates (2014) — In this video from his Ethiopia trip, John says he will talk about hanging out with Bill Gates and the helicopter ride in the coming weeks. (00:02:57)
• promised · John: tell Hank about his helicopter ride with Bill Gates (2014) — John says he will talk in the coming weeks about hanging out with Bill Gates and flying in a helicopter with him. (00:02:57)
• told · John's helicopter trip with Bill Gates to World Food Programme maize farmers in Ethiopia (2014) — John mentions overcoming his tremendous fear of heights to fly in a helicopter with Bill Gates. (00:02:57)

Where the stories that moved here went next

• John: make a bunch of videos from his East Africa trip with Bill Gates (2014) — kept
• John: tell Hank about his helicopter ride with Bill Gates (2014) — kept
• John's visit to rural health care in Ethiopia with the Gates Foundation (2014) — told 4×, last update 2014; last: retold, 2014-09-30
• John's helicopter trip with Bill Gates to World Food Programme maize farmers in Ethiopia (2014) — told 2×, last update 2014

Mentioned

Central: Addis Ababa · aid effectiveness · child mortality · Ethiopia · Mulualem Gessesse · othering · Yekatit 12 Hospital

Also: People: Bill Gates · Henry Green

Organizations: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation · Save the Children · Tumblr · YouTube

Concepts: Continuous positive airway pressure · diarrhea · extreme poverty · kangaroo care · malaria · Neonatology · Preterm birth

Places: Indianapolis

Only in the description or credits: Thoughts from Places

Also centred on Ethiopia: Baby Names: Thoughts from Rural Ethiopia · Food Is Weird: Understanding Agriculture in the Developing World · Bill Gates and John Green Discuss Global Health · Going to College (in Ethiopia) · Looking Away · Bill Gates and John Green Discuss Progress

← Previous: Towering Mountains of Ignorance · Next → PUNISHMENT OF PAIN AND SCIENCE!