IF BARACK Obama's election heralds a new dawn in politics, one of the things he might well do is strengthen the United Nations and the case for generic sales of pharmaceutical drugs in the world's poorest countries, especially where war prevails.
Generic drugs are cheaper than their patented original forms and are available off patent after certain periods, but pharmaceutical companies lobby hard to keep them, often from where they're most needed.
- An Imperfect Offering, by James Orbinski. Text Publishing, rrp $34.95
The former president of Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders), Canadian James Orbinski, certainly makes the case for them in this gruelling account of his formative days as a volunteer MSF doctor in Peru, Rwanda, Somalia and Afghanistan.
Orbinski witnessed the aftermath of events too shocking to recall here, including rape, mutilation and torture. He leaves little to the imagination and gives an insider's account of the dirty politics played on and off the battle field.
