Neutrality, particularly in politics, is something we prize in journalism. But when it comes to the nation's health and our own, it is time to take sides. To be advocates without the lecturing and nannyism. One of the things that we at the Guardian intend to be unashamedly, unabashedly in favour of is a better Trinidad and Tobago, a theme – a campaign if you will – that you'll be hearing us sounding off on in the coming weeks and months. That includes a healthier Trinidad and Tobago. And what we've been hearing from the various medical associations in Trinidad and Tobago is encouraging.
The Commonwealth Medical Association, its T&T counterpart the T&TMA, Arthur Lok Jak Graduate School of Business, the Pan American Health Organisation, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the University of the West Indies held a medical conference on "the social determinants of health" at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre last weekend.
The keynote was by Briton Sir Michael Marmot, the President of the World Medical Association. It's not for me to big up Sir Michael, but the philosophy he and others advocate, as explained by the Trinidadian head of the Commonwealth Medical Association Dr Solaiman Juman, is this. Would you prefer world class medical facilities to treat your diabetes, or would you rather have a set of policies and programmes that prevented you from getting it in the first place? Preventive medicine. Plus a look at the things and factors that contribute to or good health or state of unhealthiness.
Was the conference just another a talk shop � a symposium of eloquent presenters? We should try hard to ensure that it isn't, because what the medical professionals appear to be extending to us is a unique opportunity to apply medical consideration and solutions to our unique challenges in T&T. Like our prime ministers, we Caribbean professionals are tremendously gifted talkers, and we don't often do trickle-down simplicity, or apply it to people's lives. It's time we did.
Dr Juman and one of the principals at the conference have been telling the T&T Guardian that they are determined to stop talking about health in abstract terms � to apply it to people's lives. In training sessions with reporters I have often invoked the mythical Savitri � the mother of modest means whose life is affected by the decisions that policy-makers make, but whose views and stories are rarely reflected. It's time for medical professionals and the media to tell Savitri exactly how and whether the things we are doing (doctors) and reporting are having an effect on her life.
T&T, and other parts of the Caribbean and the developing world, show signs of a disease I'd call "bigmanism." The symptoms are a too-strong attachment by reporters to the statements and utterances of ministers of government and heads of organisations. The big people. If the head of big international body visits, the symptoms get worse.
Let me share an everyday example that Dr Juman gave. Many people spend 4, 5, even 6 hours a day in cars in punishing commutes. What are the long-term physical and mental health effects? What are the effects on productivity once people get to work? And this from me – should businesses and other entities partner with the medical establishment to find out definitively how all this affects us, employer and employee?
There's much else we can talk about. Our diet, for a start. Our food is delicious, but it's killing us softly. Even when we try to be healthy, the salad sometimes arrives with a thick, cheesy ranch dressing. We order the chicken grilled. Great. It arrives slathered in barbeque sauce. Not so great. It's often washed down with a sweetened, carbonated soft drink. Some try to pass off as "juice", a beverage with sugar added. Sometimes the act is acknowledged by calling a "juice drink." Often it is not.
Obesity is a growing problem in T&T, at all ages. We are, according to World Health Organisation, the second fattest country in the Caribbean after the Bahamas, and the 19th most obese worldwide. A third of the people here are regarded as being too fat. The rate of childhood obesity has doubled in the past decade, according to Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh. Obesity has a spillover effect on maternal health, with many expectant women close to term showing up at health clinics with diabetes and heart disease.
T&T has a diabetes problem. One of the more fascinating conversations I had in the sidelines of the conference was whether we should have high taxes on sugar and sugared products, in the same way that we do on tobacco. Remember when we had to fight our way through a smoke fog in the back seats to get to the toilets on planes? No one even talks about the fact that smoking is banned not just on planes, but indoors in many places. Time was when you went to a bar end emerged with your clothes stinking of cigarette smoke. We don't even think about it now. Sugar and tobacco are very different, but can we get to a place where there's no sugar in what we drink and we don't even miss it?
It is time to engage in a real way. And we at the Guardian are ready to lead the conversation.