Speaking of Haiti...

Just as the quake struck Port-au-Prince last week I was finishing Tracy Kidder's book Mountains Beyond Mountains about Dr. Paul Farmer's work in Haiti and around the world.

Part biography, part scientific travelogue, part social journalism, Mountains Beyond Mountains describes Paul Farmer's attempt to bring a portion of Haiti out of abject misery and into simple poverty. A Harvard-trained infectious disease physician and medical anthropologist, Farmer has dedicated his life to the health and well-being of an entire rural area in the central plateau region of the country-a village known as Cange. His comprehensive public health philosophy includes free medical care, food, water, education and research.

Meanwhile, Farmer has become an internationally-recognized expert in the treatment of both HIV and tuberculosis, particulary drug-resistant TB. Along the way he's pioneered the treatment of near-epidemic TB in such far-flung places as Peru and Siberia. With the help of a few friends and a few millionaires the non-profit organization Partners-in-Health (PIH), located in Boston, administers Farmer's plans far and wide.

The book is a pretty fascinating read, from Farmer's unorthodox American upbringing (eccentric father nicknamed The Warden and near-homelessness), to his genius-level and workaholic-inspired personal sacrifices. The middle of the book lags a bit, describing multi-drug resistant TB in detail. But the book also contains a good introduction to Haiti's particular political history and social challenges. (Why doesn't Haiti have tourism-like nearby Jamaica? Why doesn't Haiti have sustainable agriculture-like nearby Cuba?) Finally, it offers an outstanding example of Margaret Mead's famous quote: "Never the understimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world." To which Paul Farmer adds "Indeed, they are the only ones who ever have."

A particularly timely read as Americans should now, more than ever, familiarize themselves with this near-neighbor, the poorest nation in our western hemisphere.