Glossary of Key Terms
African Union (AU) | a multistate organization of 53 African nations that aims to secure Africa's democracy, human rights, and sustainable economy. Relevance: probable actor for neg counterplans |
AIDS | Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, which is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Relevance: Huge case area for aff impacts, likely focusing on treatment or prevention of HIV/AIDS |
Antibiotics | type of medication that stops the growth of microorganisms like fungi, bacteria, etc; useful in the treatment of various conditions. Relevance: potential treatment type/solvency mechanism for numerous affs |
ARVs | aka antiretrovirals aka HAART (highly active ARTs); medication regimen useful in the treatment of retroviruses. Relevance: potential treatment type/solvency mechanism for HIV/AIDS cases |
Biotechnology | technological application of biological organisms, usually concerning food production and agriculture. Relevance: potential solvency mechanism for famine, food shortages, etc |
Biopolitics | refers to the power a government has over its people in the way it attempts to regulate and control their lives. Relevance: public health obviously falls under the category of government-centered control and will thus be a big issue in this kritikal debate |
Bird Flu | aka Avian flu; a type of influenza virus that typically infects birds but can sometimes infect humans. Relevance: potential aff case area |
Blood Diamonds | aka Conflict Diamonds aka Dirty Diamonds; refers to diamonds that are mined and sold to fund insurgency and violence. Relevance: potential aff case area, also a potential advantage area for affirmatives |
Brain Drain | aka Human Capital Flight; describes the problem of educated professionals who emmigate to other, more developed countries, or can also refer to those who go abroad for education but never return to their home countries. Relevance: potential harms/advantage area. |
Child Soldiers | refers to the use of children as soldiers, usually by force, exploitation, etc. Relevance: potential harms/advantage area; affs will likely rehabilitative and provide services for former child soldiers |
Clean Water | Relevance: Africa is ravaged with diarrheal diseases, and one of the most frequent sources of dirreaheal disease is contaminated drinking water. Affirmatives will likely try various mechanisms for water purification or contamination prevention |
Colonialism | aka Postcolonialism; refers to the struggle that former colonies face with regard to political and cultural identity and behavior after independence. Relevance: numerous African nations are fomer colonies, and this is likely to be very popular kritik ground |
Corruption | Relevance: there is lots of corruption in the governments of many African nations, and such corruption leaves citizens uncared for and foreign aid undermined or diverted. This will be a big harms/advantage area. |
DDT | Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane, a pesticide that is banned in numerous places thoroughout the world (including the US). Relevance: Malaria and other insect-bourne diseases could be drastically reduced by the use of DDT spraying. Will likely be a solvency mechanism for Malaria cases |
Debt Relief | similar: debt forgiveness/cancellation; Relevance: since many African countries have insurmountable debt, many Affirmatives will likely advocate the relief, forgiveness, or cancellation of debt owed to the World Bank/IMF, or even other countries and agencies |
Democracy Promotion | the promotion of democracy, democratic governments, and democratic ideals; Relevance: likely advantage and impacts ground |
Disease Surveillance | the monitoring of the transmission of communicable diseases, viruses, etc. Relevance: disease monitoring is an important component of public health and affirmatives will likely increase support for or change disease survelliance systems |
Drug Resistance | refers to the problem of drugs losing their effectiveness because the target (virus, bacteria, etc) becomes resistant to the drug; this can occur for numerous reasons, but most frequently from mismanagment of medication. Relevance: could be a possible impacts/aff ground area, but more likely a neg solvency area against cases involving mass medication, especially for HIV/AIDS |
Ebola | a virus that has very high mortality rates and whose carrier is still unknown; causes Ebola hemorragic fever. Relevance: possible affirmative harm/impact area, possibly involving treatment or prevention (probably the latter) |
Famine | a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. Relevance: will likely be an impact/advantage area for affirmatives |
FGM | female genital mutilation, aka female genital cutting, female circumcision; a tradition that is practiced in some parts of Africa. Relevance: potential aff ground, especially for a kritikal aff, but has huge K impacts on both sides |
Food Aid | refers to food given by the US and other countries. Relevance: potential solvency mechanism or harms area for affirmatives |
Foreign Aid | refers to all aid (food, monetary, etc) given to other countries. Relevance: this will most likely turn into the general foreign aid good vs bad debate; it might also be a harms area for affs |
Foreign Direct Investment | the investment in the enterprises of an external economy (investing in components of an economy that are not your in your domestic economy). Relevance: FDI is a frequent source of growth in infrastructure of foreign nations, so it might be used as a funding or solvency mechanism for an array of affirmatives |
Gag Rule | aka Mexico City Policy or Global Gag rule; refers to the condition that the U.S. has placed on foreign aid to NGOs that dicates NGOs will not be funded with US dollars if such money is used to perform, counsel for, or legalize abortions (other than those for medical reasons or for cases of rape/incest). Relevance: big impact ground as well as inherency |
Gender Violence | rather general term that encompasses all violent acts committed on the basis of gender, usually violence against women. Relevance: many aspects of gender violence have huge public health impacts, so a number of affirmatives might emerge (rape, wife burnings, honor killings, etc.) |
Genocide | the deliberative and systematic extermination of a specific ethnic or national group. Relevance: impact ground |
Global Health Corps | a corps of doctors, nurses, and technicians acting to promote public health and reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS. Relevance: may be used as a solvency mechanism for HIV/AIDS cases or even general public health cases |
GMOs | genetically modified organism; GMOs can include various plants and crops genetically engineered to be better equiped to deal with the elements (climate, pests, herbicides, etc) as well as to provide better nutritional value or to make more nonperishable. Relevance: potential solvency mechanism for hunger, famine, but also sustainable agriculture, etc. |
HIV | Human Immunodeficiency Virus; the retrovirus that causes the development of AIDS. Relevance: huge impact area, with affirmative likely to prevent HIV transmission or slow the transformation of HIV into AIDS |
Human Trafficking | recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people for the purpose of exploitation. Relevance: impact ground |
IMF | International Monetary Fund; organization whose goal is to protect the international monetary system by promoting stability and preventing the outbreak of violence and crisis. One way they do this is through temporary financing for at-risk countries. Relevance: may be used as an advocate or source for finance statistics, or as a possible funding mechanism |
IPR / TRIPS | intellectual property rights, trade-related aspects of international property; intellectual property rights (like copyrights, patents, etc) protect the rights of creators and developers of virtually everything. Relevance: possible affirmatives include ignoring IP law with regard to medicines, vaccines, etc so as to quickly and cheaply solve various problems |
Landmines | landmines planted during years of fighting are left long after the war and kill or maim many each year. Relevance: some affirmatives may use demining as a tool to improve public health |
Malaria | an mosquito-bourne infectious disease that is found in tropical and subtropical region. Relevance: thousands die daily from the infection, so malaria affirmatives are sure to be popular |
Malnutrition | the medical condition caused by improper or insuffcient diet. Relevance: as many in SSA get by on dollars per day, malnutrition is an affirmative harms area that will surely attract attention |
Malthus | refers to the idea of population control. Basically, there will be more people than food available in the coming future, so we should "let people die" now to avoid worse problems later. Relevance: Kritik debate |
Measles | a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. Relevance: because it is highly contagious, measles is an important issue for public health. Measles could be a harm area, with possible solvency mechanisms including vaccinations. |
MEDFLAG | Military medical operations carried out by the Department of Defense. Relevance: possible solvency mechanism |
MDGs | Millennium Development Goals; a series of development-related goals instituted by the United Nations with a target date of 2015. Relevance: Affirmatives might further support some or all of the MDGs in SSA |
Medical Aid | foreign aid in the form of medicines, vaccines, disease treatments, etc. Relevance: possible solvency mechanism for a number of aff mpx |
Microfinance | provision of financial services to the poor and empoverish, usually in relatively small (dollar) amounts. Relevance: many Africans live on less than a dollar a day, so small (<$100) financial services could make a big impact as a possible solvency mechanism |
Monetary Aid | the monetary portion of foreign aid. Relevance: possible solvency mechanism for virtually all cases, might also be a harms scenario for some affirmatives |
OECD | Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; an organization of 30 countries 'commited to democracy and the free market economy.' Relevance: a good source for extensive data regarding the money aid efforts of its 30 member countries |
Patent | component of property rights; see IPR |
PEPFAR | the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Relevance: likely to be a harms/impact area |
Political Instability | the instability of political systems, especially at the state government level. Relevance: often cited as a primary reason for failure of public health, among other things; affirmatives may focus on corruption, state collapse, terrorism, etc. |
Poverty | a condition where an individual or community lacks the essentials for an acceptable quality of life standard. Relevance: impacts/harms area |
SAPs | conditionalities placed upon IMF/World Bank monies, aimed at reducing poverty and fiscal imbalances. |
STD | sexually transmitted disease. Relevance: possible Aff case of treating or preventing STDs/STIs for numerous reasons, most likely for prevention or minimization of HIV/AIDS |
STI | sexually transmitted infection: see STD |
Tuberculosis (TB) | common and deadly infectious disease caused by bacterial infection. Relevance: TB has huge impacts in SSA so its will definitely be a harms area for affirmatives to explore |
UNAID | Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. Relevance: possible Aff case of promoting, supporting, etc the works of UNAID. |
USAID | U.S. Agency for International Development; the government aid providing US economic and humanitarian aid to foreign countries. Relevance: may be used a solvency/funding mechanism or as an advocate. |
Vaccination | a disease-prevention mechanism that usually consists of giving a small dose of a toxin so that the body can develop a resistance to it. Relevance: possible Aff cases for the vaccination of all children, all people, for specific diseases, for general childhood diseases, etc. |
WHO | World Health Organization. Relevance: a definite authority on global public health issues; might be used as a solvency advocate for a wide range of affirmatives |
World Bank | international aid collaborative that aims to elimate global poverty by implementing the Millenial Development Goals. Relevance: a definite authority on global poverty; might be used as a solvency advocate, but more likely to be used for documentation/evidence/significance of harms areas |