The Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Margaret Chan's speech on Monday to the World Health Assembly covers climate change, corporate greed, social inequalities, obesity and starvation, (re) emerging infectious disease catastrophes and trade agreements and more :
"Wealth does not trickle down"
"In my view, something is fundamentally wrong in this world when a corporation can challenge government policies introduced to protect the public from a product that kills."
"Countries must have well-functioning regulatory authorities to protect their populations, whether from tainted food, unsafe medical products, tobacco, drink-driving, air pollution, notifiable infectious diseases, or the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children."
Archie Kerr has been a General Paediatrician at Hutt Hospital for over 30 years. Confronted regularly with the social factors that are important in the health and well-being of children, he has increasingly become aware that only major changes in the economic climate can improve their situation.