So I've been trying to put this term paper together for my Global Journalism class, exploring aspects of globalization and their effects on healthcare in developing nations.

It's been slow going.

But yesterday I scored a major coup, talking for about an hour with this friendly relief aid doctor who just got back from 6-week-stint in the Maldives, treating victims of the tsunami. In addition to our talk, she sent me entries from her journal. Apparently, some of these transcripts are going to be published in TIME in the upcoming weeks, so keep an eye out. Taking pity on a lowly grad student, she sent me the entries to help me not fail out of school. 'Nice lady.

I know, I know - I say this every damn time. But I swear, I mean it: "Mindblowing."

I hate to rip the lid off it!, but the news is not good. TIME would be really dumb not to use these, especially given all the media attention Clinton and Bush Sr. have received in their recent mission to Southeast Asia.

Apparently, all that money we're sending over there is not reaching the sick and disenfranchised who need it most. Money is not the issue. Take the non-existent logistics, infrastructure and facilities and throw in a scourge of local gov't corruption, no accountability, bureaucratic runarounds, shake, stir, and you wind up with ongoing outbreaks of disease...and in some cases death.

One of her entries, for example, documents the runaround she got when investigating the shutdown of a water desalination system set up by a foreign aid organization. The organization trained several locals and left after only a few weeks.

Then, by coincidence, cases of diarrhea started emerging at her clinic. She learned patients were drinking from the rainwater supply, as much as she tried to get them to stop. She then felt bad when she learned the desalination setup had been disconnected - they didn't have a choice, yet they were scared to just come out and spell it out for her. She then goes on at great length to describe the futility of trying to resolve this situation with the local Maldivean officials.

At the end of the entry, she writes:

"The United Nations and the WHO visited today. I felt sadly vindicated when they described the situation as being the worst they had seen. They identified many reasons for this, including the lack of a concerted relief effort. The WHO promised to contact the Red Cross. The UN promised to better supervise aid. An official promised to send me the drugs. Another promised to help educate the staff. In front of them, the grinning senior officer promised to be 'here for you whenever you need me.' Promises blew in the air like confetti.

"For the little girl with diarrhea who waited patiently with her mother, we must all have looked the same. Promises, promises, that is all we ever make."

Yikes.