Most of the illness youc na see in the Third World can be solved completely with good water, good sanitation, good parenting help and good food. These are the things that really change the outcome of life... donot believe the hype of Big Pharma about how life-saving their products are...actually, taking into account the big picture, they are quite irrelevant (although in some particular cases it cna make the difference for a particular person).

So thecompany can indeed focus in the five (roughly) badly and desperately needed reasearch lines like Malaria or better solutions for Yellow Fever (just the two that most often come to my mind together with black fever mentioned).

I wish her a lot of luck. Although I also would like the states to research on these issues (as they already do in some cases)

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

I have thought in the past of a similar concept, and she seems to have basically taken that concept for at least a portion of her vision.  The concept was that realizing that profit seeking businesses in general will not develop new drugs if they know they can not be profitable,,,,how about combining a business with charity?  There are a number of people that would listen to ideas for drugs like these, and support them with charitable contributions.  One of her potential drugs is areal life example of this:

Armed with a fresh $43 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, OWH has enlisted biochemist Jay Keasling of the University of California at Berkeley to retool common bacteria as artemisinin factories. It is a process called pathway engineering, and the result could be a virtually unlimited, extremely cheap supply of the life-saving drug.

But I think the concept of getting money from charities such as the Gates Foundation will be an important one, because i think we'll find that it still may cost a lot of money to get these drugs to the market.  For example, most drugs in the advanced world today require very significant clinical testing to discover if they have side effects, what those side effects are and how to manage them,,,,and also even more fundamentally, do the drugs really work?  It's easy to get fooled by placebo effects, and just wanting something to work,,,if you don't do double blinded clinical trials.  And I think they will be required for some of these efforts.  So I say, take the money where you can get it, and do something good for the world.  As they say, Go Girl!!

On a related tangent, I think one of the charities has started putting money into upgrading sanitation around the world,,,,or maybe it's one of the governments.  Do this ring any bells for anyone?

First, we need a compassionate vision...
Second, we need endurance and will-power...

Indeed.  This is a question I have been wondering about a lot.  There is much, much work that needs to be done, but I am pessimistic that incentives that are not ego-oriented (such as money, power, fame, awards, honors, etc.) will be able to motivate in large enough numbers to get done.  How can we create systems and organizations that are not based on personal gain (again, such as money, honors, power, etc.) but that are driven by, as you write, compassion, and that are sustainable over a long enough period to solve or at least reduce as much as possible the problems that are out there?

This past New Year's Eve, I was fortunate enough to go to an old friend's wedding where I was reunited with many of our closest friends from high school.  We are all 35-36 years old, and so most of us are married and having children (me being one of the few exceptions).

The morning after the wedding/New Year's party, I stumbled into the hotel dining for brunch, my head pounding from a toxic mixture of champagne, wine, port, vodka, and beer, and as I entered the dining room, I was greeted by the overwhelming sound and sight of about 30 little babies and kids eating and playing and crying and running.  My hangover shifted up into fourth gear.

But through the euphocacophony of children's voices and old friends greeting each other and sharing stories and sharing tips on how to get over hangovers and making plans to catch up soon, etc., I observed with growing fascination how all the young mothers were so engrossed and involved in not just taking care of their own babies -- many of whom actually were at home with grandparents or babysitters -- but with each other's children, and even with those of total strangers.

What was so striking to me was this: The complete and spontaneous attention, affection and -- how can I put it? -- competence or diligence with which they applied themselves to those kids.  What is more, how they did so cooperatively and with added pleasure in that cooperation.  And furthermore, with absolutely no sense of competition or possessiveness or jealousy or insecurity amongst one another (e.g. "I don't want her holding my baby for so long," or "My baby was cuter/smarter/more advanced/etc. than her baby is at this age," etc.)  At least, no such negative feelings that my hung-over still half-drunken senses stupid, childless male brain could detect.  In short, at the risk of idealizing/simplifying/obfuscating a more complex, less pleasant reality, I found this cooperative, spontaneous teamwork of child-oriented love and affection to be the complete opposite of the ego-oriented, competitive, guileful, often manipulative and deceptive world of business in the stereotypical predominant male mode.

Could, I wondered, this incredible mindset that "drove", so to speak, these young women to take care of theirs and each other's babies -- and each other, in fact! (e.g. by giving each other advice, sharing information, etc.) -- be a mindset at the foundation of organizations that are built and run to solve problems that conventional, traditionally business-like incentives (the money, the power, the fame, etc.) that may not be suitable for the problems aimed at by Victoria Hale and other NGOs/NPOs/charities/etc.?  If so, how can we nurture and harness that?  How would it work?  How would it hold its own in a world that is so deeply based on the individualistic, materialistic, competitive, aggressive, ego-driven mindset?

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.