The Problem with Hoodia

Frank Damian

LIT 3671

Professor Dan Bentley Baker

Article Data

Title: The Problem with Hoodia

Florida International University, 2009

Office of Global Learning Initiatives

Synopsis

The Problem with Hoodia is an interesting case study mean to be used to examine the amount of global awareness that an individual possesses. The article itself is written as a short story. While it appears to be a recollection of past events, since both the company and the protagonist appear to be real entities, it might not be based on actual facts, since the company that first licensed it was Phytopharm. The narrative starts with the tale of a pharmaceutical executive who has been tasked an enormous task. Her name is Angela Bingham and she is traveling to Africa on an airplane, where he strikes a conversation with her seatmate, an artist named Roger that is bringing a commissioned piece of art to Cape Town. She tells Roger that she is going to Africa to work on a project related to the Hoodia Gordonii plant. As the conversation moves along, she falls asleep and a dream flashback scene ensues. During this flashback, we discover the main reason why Angela is going to Africa. Her company “Pharmamedics” is trying to patent the extract from the Hoodia Gordonii plant called p57, so the can sell it to the big pharmaceutical companies. But they can’t accomplish this until they solve a newly arisen conflict with the San people, a nomadic indigenous African tribe that first discovered the medicinal properties of the plant. They are having problems, because they don’t understand what the San want and they are also

several different groups they are dealing with and because of this they are having problems communicating and reaching an understanding with everyone involved in the matter. As she wakes up from her dream, she asks Roger how does he put sculptures together and one of his responses is that “you pick the process to match the parts”. Angela likes this response and replies that “she should think of my job in South Africa more as a sculpture than as a puzzle.”

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This article points out the different challenges that our modern society poses for all entities whether they are multinational companies or private individuals. Fifty years ago a case study such as this one would not have been explored, since a corporation or a country would have just taken the resources without worrying about any criticisms that followed. The fact that we are examining the rights of an indigenous tribe that has no clear nationalities, shows us how far our understanding of multiculturalism has come in the last fifty years. Part of this is due in to technological advances in telecommunication, especially the internet. Also the acceptance of global citizenship by a certain aspect of the world’s population would help to achieve such a state of enlightenment. After reading this I was reminded of the Tuaregs,  the saharan nomads that encompass four different countries in northern africa.  

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     To best way to analyse this case study, is by asking two vital questions. The first one is what issues influence the problem that Angela has? and the second question is what perspective needs to be taken into account in order to find a solution to the conflict?

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There are several issues that influenced the problem that Pharmamedics was having. The most obvious issue is the medicinal properties of the plant itself, which was used by the San to suppress appetite and help with ease thirst. Such claims would have put big dollar signs in any pharmaceutical executives eyes, because to date no fool proof diet pill has been created by any company, yet billions of dollars each year are spent on diet products. This kind of potential revenue would have made several companies fight for the right to license the plant’s extract. So eventually obviously someone was going to get the extract and it would have been better is the San would have benefitted from this. Which takes us to the next problem, which is the complete lack of knowledge that Pharmamedics had about the San. This is partly because of poor communication and also because they were dealing with a group that had no clear head of state and no direct representation. The final problem seemed to be the fact that they were too many groups that had a stake in the Hoodia question. There were 3 governments, the CSIR, BioWatch, human rights groups, news organizations and the San. Obviously the most important on this list are the San, but the other groups also matter.