Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder

This is a very thought-provoking book about Paul Farmer and his vision of health for the poor of Haiti and the world. Farmer, who I can't help both admiring and disliking, is a leftist who refuses to accept a different standard for care of the poor. Working in perhaps the most fatalistic settings on earth he refuses to give in to such forces. Stirring up a cloud of guilt wherever he goes, he scolds, goads, charms, even steals to promote his vision for his patients. And who are his patients? Like the question "who is my neighbor," everyone who presents to him is his patient. The world has much to learn from Farmer (not that his ideas are new). I have much to learn or at least think about because of him. I would say that he is selective in his objects of scorn. Surely he is blind to the evils of Aristide; in fact, he is willing to dance with the devil for the sake of his patients. Like Haitian voodoo, he borrows just enough of religion to serve as a veneer.