Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Monday, October 21, 2019

Alanna Berger
Zack Blumberg
Emily Considine
Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz

Emily Huhman
Krystal Hur
Ethan Kessler
Magdalena Mihaylova
Timothy Spurlin

Miles Stephenson
Finn Storer
Nicholas Tomaino
Joel Weiner
Erin White 

FINNTAN STORER
Managing Editor

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building
420 Maynard St. 
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

MAYA GOLDMAN
Editor in Chief
MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA 
AND JOEL DANILEWITZ
Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. 
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

ALLISON PUJOL | COLUMN
What we can learn from the recent Ecuadorian protests
W

hile 
the 
Amazon’s 
fires blazed on, despite 
worldwide outcry and 
aid efforts, hundreds of protesters in 
Quito, Ecuador were setting fires of 
their own. 
On Oct. 3, Ecuador’s President 
Lenín Moreno declared a nationwide 
state of emergency after protests 
erupted over the end of the country’s 
40-year-long subsidy for gasoline. 
Along with the decision to terminate 
the 
gasoline 
subsidy, 
Ecuador’s 
government decided to depart from 
the 
Organization 
of 
Petroleum 
Exporting Countries (OPEC) to avoid 
committing to their guidelines on 
reducing output. For a country that 
is fairly reliant on oil (petroleum 
constituted a third of Ecuador’s export 
earnings in the year 2017), it is not 
surprising that Moreno’s recent policy 
has been met with a heated response. 
The end of the gas subsidy also comes 
on the heels of Moreno’s economic 
agenda, which encompasses broader 
structural reform including changes 
to the country’s central bank and the 
code of budget and planning. 
Domestic prices of most consumer 
goods have been highly responsive to 
the end of the subsidy. For example, 
the Ecuadorian price of diesel rose 
from $1.03 to $2.30 per gallon on 
Thursday, while gasoline climbed 
from $1.85 to $2.39, according to NPR. 
Ecuador is no stranger to drastic 
economic reforms. A financial crisis 
in 1999 led to systematic changes 
including the shift to dollarization. 
But Moreno’s latest change, some 
say, is a political ploy. The decision to 
end the fuel subsidy hurts Ecuador’s 
marginalized 
populations 
much 
more than the country’s economic 
elites, who will still be able to afford 
the spikes in prices. While Moreno 
claimed the decision was intended to 
help Ecuador’s economy grow and 
decrease the debt, the decision to end 
fuel subsidies also came with a hefty 
loan from the International Monetary 
Fund.
Protests have escalated well beyond 
demonstrations. As of last week, an 
estimated 50 police officers have 
been taken hostage by demonstrators. 
Carlos Pérez, the country’s minister of 
energy and natural resources, noted 
“oil industry installations are being 

guarded against attempts to occupy 
them.” Quito’s surrounding cities have 
faced violence as well. Pharmacies 
and supermarkets are being looted 
by enraged citizens, and there are 
videos of police officers beating down 
protesters in the streets and using tear 
gas. Outside of Ecuador’s domestic 
panic, we can already see some of 
the early international effects of the 
protests. Several major flights have 
been forced to reschedule or re-route 
as the road blockades have prevented 
traffic from entering or exiting the 
Quito airport. The result of these 
protests has been an odd private 
conversation between two persons: 
Moreno has accused the protesters of 
attempting to destabilize Ecuador’s 
government, while the protesters 
allege that the president has turned 
a blind eye to the effects of the policy 
on the lower and middle classes in the 
country.
Moreno ought to consider that 
some of the residual anger many 
Ecuadorians feel is a result of the 
lack of returns on other economic 
promises. For example, the president’s 
proposed expansion of funding for 
social programs in the country has not 
seen follow-through yet.
Because these protests center 
around the massive spike in prices for 
a variety of consumer goods in the 
country, and because the decision to 
end the subsidies has received support 
from the country’s elites, moving 
forward with an aggressive reform of 
the country’s social safety nets could 
alleviate some of the most vulnerable 
protesters’ 
economic 
concerns. 
This is especially the case given that 
Moreno’s loan from the IMF was, 
among other things, intended to 
expand government provision of aid to 
Ecuador’s poorest populations. While 
the loan has been cancelled due to 
the protests, the IMF has stated that 
they are open to renegotiating. The 
world will be watching Ecuador now 
and, more importantly, watching the 
renegotiation — to see if Ecuador uses 
this opportunity to do its citizens right 
in a time of increased social upheaval. 
Much of the news frenzy around 
Ecuador’s civil unrest lies in the 
equally enormous levels of passion 
and strategy behind the protests. 
Ecuador’s central government was 

forced to flee as a series of riots 
descended upon the capital. This, 
some policy analysts have suggested, 
is in line with the way that recent 
Latin American protesters have 
shifted their tactics to attempt to 
combat corruption. Guatemala, Peru 
and Colombia have experienced 
similar unrest after citizens took to 
the streets to protest corrupt officials. 
While thousands of Colombians 
blocked the Pan-American Highway 
to highlight the systemic violence 
indigenous people continue to 
endure at the hands of officials who 
have turned a blind eye, protesters 
in Peru targeted bribed attorneys 
general as well as federal judge Pedro 
Chávarry, who sought to unlawfully 
remove prosecutors from upcoming 
controversial cases. Just this month, 
Peruvian citizens took to the streets 
again to protest President Martín 
Vizcarra’s decision to dissolve the 
country’s current congress and hold 
new elections — a move that many 
have labeled as a blatant attempt to 
break Peru’s constitutional order 
for personal political gain. In Latin 
America these days, protesters’ 
attention 
is 
hyper-focused 
on 
the 
lawmakers 
responsible 
for 
socioeconomic problems. 
In the age of Donald Trump, the 
United States has seen a variety of 
movements develop around the need 
to address widespread socioeconomic 
disparities. Those who want to see 
change in the United States ought 
to align with those protesting 
government corruption in Ecuador. 
This is especially true for the many 
organizations and movements that 
have roots in Ann Arbor, including the 
fight for lecturer working standards 
and the recent climate strike. Many 
of the people in Ecuador who are 
currently protesting are facing a crisis 
that shares common ground with 
many of the United States’s political 
woes: economic policy that benefits 
elites, corrupt politicians and lack of 
reform. The world will be watching 
to see whether Moreno will decide 
to meet protesters’ demands, and 
the United States should certainly be 
paying close attention.

Allison Pujol can be reached at 

ampmich@umich.edu.

CHERYN HONG | COLUMN

Primary care should be a grassroots movement
Z

ip code, postal code, area 
code 
— 
whatever 
you 
want to call it, this five-
digit, benign figure identifies your 
general location on the U.S map. In 
2017, the National Center for Health 
Statistics released life expectancy 
across American neighborhoods 
that actually proved your zip code 
is a map in and of itself. Similar to 
how your DNA can map out your 
susceptibility to disease or death, so 
can your zip code. So much so that 
even the Director of the National 
Institute of Health Francis Collins 
is referring to zip codes as “our 
ZNA.” How can a five digit number 
be so powerful? In short, years of 
inequality have left their mark on 
American society. Where one lives 
largely correlates to what has been 
coined one’s social determinants of 
health. These determinants refer to 
factors like “access to healthy food, 
good schools, affordable housing” 
and income, all of which empower 
individuals 
to 
prevent 
illness, 
protect against stress or access 
health care. 
The Detroit News found that 
Michigan’s life expectancy had 
a 29-year range across different 
neighborhoods. It maxed out at 
around 91 years in an East Grand 
Rapids neighborhood, and fell to as 
low as 62 in one Detroit area. Clearly, 
we need to be treating disease as 
not just a breakdown of the body, 
but a symptom of a breakdown in 
American society.
Right 
now, 
primary 
health 
care providers, local non-profits, 
local health departments and 
community members are working 
independently 
to 
promote 
community 
health. 
Combating 
years of inequality will require 
these 
stakeholders 
to 
work 
together in order to identify and 
target a community’s social and 
medical needs. In essence, we need 
to revolutionize America’s reactive 
health system and transform it 
into a proactive one. A grassroots 
movement approach to community 
health can catalyze this revolution 
by enhancing communication and 
collaboration between those four 
key stakeholders.
As powerful as the federal 
government sounds, it’s the local 
government that has the most 
profound impact on day-to-day 
well-being. All over the country, 

there 
are 
2,800 
local 
health 
departments, each one entrusted 
with protecting community health. 
These 
departments 
run 
free 
health clinics, launch heart disease 
awareness campaigns and respond 
to public health threats like the 
Hepatitis A outbreak currently 
ravaging 
Washtenaw 
County. 
While this work is vital, it is still far 
too reactive. Health departments 
should be anticipating the social 
and medical needs of a community 
before those needs turn into the 
next infectious outbreak or chronic 
disease epidemic.
The best way to do this is by 
communicating with the front 
lines of health care: primary 
care professionals. Primary care 
providers include nurses, doctors, 
physician assistants and allied 
health professionals. Whether they 
work in emergency departments or 
out-patient clinics, these providers 
witness the results of our different 
“ZNA” firsthand. The clinical trends 
observed by primary care workers 
on the frontlines are powerful. If 
primary health care professionals 
have the ability to communicate 
clinical trends to health department 
officials, they can tailor public 
health programs to fit the needs of 
community members.
Consequently, informing health 
departments of new data about 
high blood pressure diagnoses in a 
particular neighborhood can prevent 
a decrease in life expectancy in 
this area years later. A grassroots 
movement 
approaches 
demand 
meetings between all stakeholders. 
Organizing consistent meetings to 
discuss these trends will empower 
health departments to customize 
public health initiatives in order to 
tackle these concerns. Furthermore, 
such communication could enhance 
shared infrastructure between the 
two stakeholders, yet another key 
component of a healthy grassroots 
effort. Working together, local health 
professionals and health departments 
could design software that could 
de-identify patient data and map out 
unmet social and medical needs in 
different neighborhoods.
Beyond building bridges between 
health 
departments 
and 
health 
providers, a grassroots approach 
would 
also 
foster 
collaboration 
between health providers and local 
non-profits. 

When 
creating 
treatment 
plans, health providers are well 
qualified 
to 
combat 
chronic 
disease threats like heart disease 
with 
prescriptions 
and 
diet 
recommendations. However, this 
type of treatment is worthless if 
a patient lives in a food desert or 
does not have the proper housing 
to refrigerate their medication. 
The 
reality 
is 
that 
many 
communities have local non-
profits who can satisfy the social 
needs of patients. Consequently, 
these non-profits deserve to be a 
part of the treatment plan.
For instance, Fresh Express 
is a non-profit mobile produce 
market 
that 
purchases 
produce 
“at 
wholesale 
and 
sells it without a markup” in 
food desert neighborhoods in 
Arizona, or areas where it is 
difficult to access affordable 
produce. 
Imagine 
if 
health 
care 
professionals 
had 
the 
capability to make non-profits 
such as Fresh Express a part of 
their patients’ treatment plans, 
rather than only prescribing a 
diet recommendation. Health 
providers could also connect 
patients with local nonprofits 
that can provide access to the 
fresh produce needed to live up 
to this diet recommendation. 
Patients would no longer be alone 
in the struggle to adhere to a 
treatment plan and improve one’s 
health. Through a grassroots 
approach, non-profits serving 
the community would have an 
established 
relationship 
with 
health practitioners. In turn, 
this relationship would enable 
non-profits like Fresh Express 
to communicate when patients 
reach out to them for support and 
see if their resources are enough 
to help the patient.
Perhaps you are convinced 
this is the responsibility of social 
workers; however, not all primary 
care clinics are equipped to hire 
a full-time social worker. There 
is no reason that social needs 
and medical concerns cannot 
be integrated into the same 
treatment plan. 

Soneida Rodriguez can be reached 

at soneida@umich.edu.

SONEIDA RODRIGUEZ | COLUMN

We need to fortify our sexual assault education
I 

am 
no 
stranger 
to 
sexual 
harassment. 
My 
developing 
years 
were 
littered with various types of 
these experiences. 
The first kiss I had 
was with a drunk 
actor my family 
had adored, I was 
a victim of a game 
that involved the 
groping of middle 
school girls and 
I 
had 
playdates 
where boys would 
tie me down and 
touch me. As a 
result, 
from 
a 
young age, I came to understand 
how detrimental the lack of 
education about sexual assault 
could be.
As a survivor, I’ve noticed 
in the past several weeks how 
cautious and aware students 
are of specific acts of sexual 
harassment or assault. There 
is an elemental idea of what 
sexual assault is and how to 
prevent it on campus, such as 
making sure to travel in groups 
and to not take drinks that you 
have not poured yourself.
However, the biggest issue 
plaguing the freshmen class 
is the overall atmosphere of 
indifference. After a night out, 
I have heard several female 
students talk about how they 
were groped or forced to dance 
in a sexualized manner at a 
party and didn’t think twice 
about it. It made me realize that 
we associate college with sexual 
harassment by default. Our 
new experience of secondary 
education comes hand-in-hand 
with adverse risks. 
In 
our 
current 
political 
atmosphere, 
the 
prevalence 
of conversations about sexual 
assault, harassment and rape 
has 
desensitized 
students 
toward the issue. While I 
am not stating that ongoing 
conversations have a negative 
effect on how we deal with 
sexual assault, the persistent 
use of it in media has made it 
seem hackneyed. It is no longer 
shocking 
to 
many 
students 
in terms of cases of college 
assaults, which is probably 
what is most disheartening. 
Consequently, 
this 
creates 
apathy 
towards 
victims 
of 
sexual 
assault, 
which 
can 
translate to a lack of urgency 
in the effort to rectify society’s 
perception of sexual assault as a 
“norm.”
It is crucial to clarify the 
term sexual assault before 
discussing 
the 
underlying 
issues behind it. The nonprofit 
organization 
Rape, 
Abuse 
& Incest National Network 
defines it as “sexual contact 
or 
behavior 
that 
occurs 
without explicit consent of 
the 
victim.” 
Consequently, 
anything from an unwanted 
touch 
to 
penetration 
falls 
under the umbrella of sexual 
assault. However, it seems as 
if in college, when we think of 
sexual assault we automatically 
think of rape. Sexual assault 
takes numerous forms and no 

one should feel the need to 
dismiss their story, regardless 
of where it is on the spectrum. 
There is also a stigma around 
who predators can be. 
When 
conversations 
of 
rapists 
and 
attackers arise, people 
automatically turn to 
extreme 
instances. 
Rapists 
such 
as 
Brock 
Turner 
and 
Ted Bundy are the 
archetypes 
people 
believe to be predators, 
which 
creates 
a 
one-dimensional 
perception. It creates 
the idea that a predator is an 
abstract 
monster, 
because 
no 
one 
they 
know 
could 
potentially 
harm 
someone 
else. It makes rapists and 
assaulters 
a 
borderline 
intangible characters, when, 
in reality, anyone who violates 
the rules of consent by failing 
to 
receive 
an 
enthusiastic 
“yes” or “no” from a person in 
a sober mindset can become 

a 
predator. 
According 
to 
Planned Parenthood, consent 
is composed of the factors that 
it is freely given, informed, 
enthusiastic, 
specific 
and 
reversible. It is integral to note 
that someone can give consent 
but then change their mind, 
and the other party needs 
to respect that. The more 
we 
remove 
ourselves 
from 
the idea that we could hurt 
someone else, regardless of our 
intention, the more we create a 
bigger risk for ambiguity and 
harmful relationships. 
While I acknowledge that 
there is no simple solution 
to the shallow mindset of 
the forms of sexual assault, 
and how it occurs, there are 
still steps the University and 
students can take to promote 
healthy relationships. I must 
note that the University does 
take actions to address this 
concept through Relationship 
Remix, a two-hour discussion 
all freshmen are required to 
take a month into their first 
semester. The session consists 
of discussion over personal 
values, identity, how to identify 
consent and proper use of 
contraception. And while it 
is a very comprehensive and 
thoughtful session, there needs 
to be further incentive for 
students to take the course to 
heart rather than with a grain 
of salt. Such as approaching 
these 
programs 
seriously, 
rather than advertising it like 
a bullet point to check off the 

school year checklist. 
This is a pressing issue that 
needs to be addressed in the 
community because, while 
many 
misconceptions 
may 
exist about sexual assault, 
many students have personal 
experience, either of their 
own or someone close to 
them, which can make it a 
difficult topic to tackle. In 
fact, Making Caring Common, 
a report lead by the Harvard 
Graduate School of Education, 
revealed in a national survey 
that 87 percent of 18 to 25 year 
old women reported they had 
been a victim of at least one 
form of sexual harassment. 
While it may seem futile 
to discuss basic ideas such 
as consent and definitions of 
assault, these changes could 
be incredibly useful to a wide 
variety of students. Due to 
the large student population 
at the University, there is 
a plethora of diversity in 
regard 
to 
socio-economic 
backgrounds, ethnicity, race, 
nationality and sexuality. It 
is dangerous to assume that 
every student holds the same 
definition of sexual assault 
and understanding of consent. 
Unifying the student body 
on a baseline of the same 
definitions of assault, safe 
relationships 
and 
consent 
during their first year of 
college will create student 
accountability. 
Preventative actions would 
rectify a blurry understanding 
of the various forms of sexual 
assault and, while it may not 
solve the issue of sexual assault 
altogether, it is a giant step 
toward a safer community. The 
Washington Post published 
an article stating the major 
cause of sexual assault is 
not alcohol abuse, but rather 
the aggressors. They argue 
that a major combatant to 
sexual assault is to implement 
education 
programs 
that 
teach bystander intervention, 
healthy masculinity, how to 
set boundaries and how to 
protect oneself from attacks. 
Education 
of 
bystander 
intervention and definition of 
consent was also mentioned 
in the Huffington Post as 
mediums 
to 
combat 
the 
numerous mishandled college 
sexual assault cases. 
The education we receive 
now is the most recent lesson 
we will be taught as we go 
on with our lives. We are in a 
special position where this is 
likely the last time we will be 
sat down and prepared to build 
healthy relationships in order 
to avoid sexual assault, rape 
and harassment. 
Lastly, if you know anyone 
that is struggling with sexual 
violence in any form, please 
call 800-656-HOPE (4673) to 
be connected with a trained 
staff member from a sexual 
assault service provider in your 
area. 

Cheryn Hong can be reached at 

cherynh@umich.edu.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

There are still steps 
the University and 
students can take 
to promote healthy 
relationships.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION

Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. 
Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 
to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to 
tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

CHERYN
HONG

