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Zusammenfassung von What the Eyes Don't See

Name: What the Eyes Don't See
Author: Mona Hanna-Attisha

Mona Hanna-Attisha

A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City

33 Min.

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What’s in it for me? Discover the inspirational story at the heart of a national tragedy.

If you followed US news at all in 2015 or 2016, you probably heard about the Flint water crisis. It was a disaster of epic proportions that made international headlines. But how did the public water system of a modern American city fail so spectacularly?

This is the story of Flint, Michigan, and how this historically significant industrial city became a site of governmental collapse. But it’s also the story of the woman who brought this crisis to the public’s attention, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha – or, as she likes to be called, Dr. Mona. She specializes in pediatrics, and became a public health crusader to make sure that her patients, the children of Flint, were taken out of harm’s way.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how one of America’s premier factory towns became a hotbed of racial tension;
how the dangers of lead have persisted in the US; and
how an anti-fascist Iraqi activist became an inspiration for a Michigan doctor.

Mona Hanna-Attisha’s family has a long tradition of activism and resilience.

This is a story about Flint, Michigan. But it's also a story about Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who was born in Sheffield, England in 1976. Her parents had moved there shortly before she was born, and throughout her childhood they always hoped that one day they’d be able to return to their home in Iraq.

Throughout history, Iraq had been a hub of enlightenment. Baghdad was a progressive capital city where world-changing advances were made in mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. Its scholarly community produced one of history’s foundational medical textbooks, The Canon of Medicine, completed in the eleventh century.

This was the Baghdad that Mona heard about in stories told to her by her parents. But unfortunately, by the late 1970s, Iraq was being taken over by the militant, fascist Ba’ath Party, led by Sadaam Hussein.

The key message here is: Mona Hanna-Attisha’s family has a long tradition of activism and resilience.

While her parents have always been outspoken, progressive-minded people who opposed the Ba’athist regime, it is perhaps Mona’s grandfather, Haji, and her grandfather’s cousin, Nuri, who best represent the family’s ongoing commitment to fighting injustice and never giving up.

Haji was one of those relatives family members love to tell stories about. He had a great love for all people, whether Muslim, Christian, or Jewish; it didn’t matter. Haji also had many business ventures over the years – including a perfume factory that tragically burned to the ground one day.

Haji was devastated. But one by one, people came from all over Baghdad to tell him that he had to rebuild. At first he thought it would be impossible. But then they started giving him money! They believed in Haji, and so he began to believe in himself.

One of Haji’s big inspirations was his cousin Nuri. In 1935, Nuri had been one of the founders of the Association Against Imperialism and Fascism, an organization that had got him in trouble with what was then the Iraqi monarchy, and caused him to flee to Paris in 1937. There, he became involved with the pre-war French Resistance movement before joining the International Brigades and fighting on behalf of the Spanish Republic in the Battle of Ebro, one of the first battles of World War II.

Though Spain would succumb to fascism under the rule of Francisco Franco, Nuri never stopped fighting. Sadly, by the time of his death in 1980, Nuri had spent half his life either hiding or in jail, but to his relatives he will forever remain a hero.

Flint, Michigan also has a legacy of activism and resilience.

Mona didn’t stay in the UK very long. When she was very young, her family moved to Michigan, where her father found a research position with the General Motors corporation. Her father was a loyal GM employee for many years, but he was one of the lucky ones. Many people ended up being fired as the company downsized in the 1980s and 90s.

Mona’s family lived relatively comfortably in the suburbs of Detroit, and Mona ended up doing four years of medical school at Michigan State University. She then did her final two years in clinical training in the town of Flint, Michigan – and promptly fell in love with the beleaguered city.

Flint has long suffered from racist policies that have continued to make life difficult for its residents.

Thanks to unionization, factory workers in the United States could now enter the middle class and become part of the consumer economy. It also meant that northern cities like Flint became destinations for African Americans looking to escape the Jim Crow south and find decent employment.

In fact, from 1915 to 1960, over six million African Americans moved north in what is known as the Great Migration. But while many were able to start new lives, it wasn’t easy. Those who moved to Flint had an especially difficult road ahead.

Problems began in 2014, when Flint changed its water source to cut costs.

There’s one more factor that puts Flint, Michigan in a unique position. When US cities are in financial trouble, there’s a provision that allows the state governor to install an emergency manager (EM). And this is exactly what happened in Flint in 2011.

When an EM is installed, the elected mayor is essentially stripped of his power. So while the EM is tasked with finding ways to cut costs, there’s little concern about whether these cuts will harm people. After all, since EMs aren’t elected officials, they don’t have to answer to the people, only to the governor. By 2013, EMs had been installed in Detroit and Pontiac as well as Flint. This meant that 50 percent of all African American residents in Michigan lived in cities controlled by an EM. The same applied to only two percent of Michigan’s white residents.

No amount of lead is considered safe for human consumption.

Every public health official should know about the dangers of lead. Simply put, it’s incredibly toxic to our minds and bodies. It poses a dangerous threat that human beings have known about for a long time.

What makes lead especially dangerous is that the symptoms of lead poisoning are not readily apparent. Plus, the effects that it can have on children, especially infants who drink baby formula mixed with lead-tainted water, are incredibly harmful and can last a lifetime.

Protecting children means uncovering problems that the eyes don’t see.

When Mona Hanna-Attisha chose to do her clinical training in Flint, it was the first time she’d been back since visiting AutoWorld as an eight-year-old. Despite the poor reputation Flint had garnered over the years, Mona fell in love with the city, and in 2011 she became the director of the pediatric residency program at Hurley Medical Center, one of the few public hospitals left in the country.

Why did she fall in love with Flint? When she returned to the city and talked to the people, what she found was resilience. She couldn’t help but admire the people of Flint and want to help them – especially the children.

After Mona heard about the water problem in Flint, blood tests confirmed the worst.

Mona first became aware of Flint’s water problem on August 26, 2015, during a barbeque with family and friends. One of the guests was Elin, a childhood friend who now works for a think tank based in D.C.

During the barbeque, Elin pulled Mona aside and asked if she’d heard about Flint’s water issue. There had been some items here and there in the news, but the state had been consistent in issuing statements that said they’d been testing the water and everything was fine.

After Mona made contact with Marc Edwards, research into the crisis became more definitive.

When Mona found out about the water problem, it was all she could think about. She tried to be present in her personal life as a wife and mother of two daughters, but she couldn’t rest while the problem was getting worse every minute of every day. The more people continued to drink and bathe in the water, the worse off everyone was.

But it is hard for poor families to avoid tap water. Not everyone has the budget for bottled water, especially when it comes to bathing kids. While these thoughts were keeping her up most nights, Mona made the difficult decision to reach out to the controversial environmental engineer Marc Edwards.

After Mona’s press conference, an initial backlash took its toll.

Mona presented her findings at a tense press conference on September 24, 2015. Sure enough, one of the first responses, from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), was that the report was simply showing seasonal changes in the water’s lead levels. They claimed that this was completely normal. Mona couldn’t believe it. Had they even bothered to read her report?

But it hadn’t fallen exclusively on deaf ears. Mona received some much-needed support from Michigan senator Jim Ananich. In particular, he liked how she had ended the press conference – by holding up a baby bottle and reminding people who the most at-risk people were in this crisis.

Thanks to a botched response and a voice of reason within the state office, progress was finally made.

The ridicule did stop. When Mona awoke the morning after the press conference, her sense of doom and gloom had been replaced by a steely resolve. She knew she was right. She knew the science was solid and could stand up to any honest scrutiny.

Ultimately, this fight had never been about her. It was about Flint, the community, and keeping her patients safe. She was doing her job, and there was no one who could make her feel bad about that.

Once the state admitted there was a problem, positive change followed.

On October 1, 2015, Michigan state officials finally admitted to a problem. Sort of. They held their own press conference at which the head of MDEQ, Dan Wyant, made an unconvincing announcement. He claimed that the state now had a ten-point plan for winning back people’s confidence in their drinking water. However, he fell short of explaining how the state would accomplish this, aside from testing school drinking water.

Wyant continued to mislead the public by telling the press that Flint was using corrosion control when it wasn’t. But the Genesee County Health Department did declare a public health emergency. And on October 3, 2015, water filters were distributed to Flint residents.

While changes have been made, ongoing problems require continued activism.

What was really happening behind the scenes? Where did it all go wrong?

Thanks to persistent FOIA requests by Marc Edwards, many emails and memos from state and federal officials have become public. They suggest that environmental injustice is still a problem in the United States. Clearly, the kind of racist attitudes and policies that forced African Americans to live in the most polluted areas of Flint haven’t vanished.

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Worum geht es in What the Eyes Don't See?

What the Eyes Don’t See (2018) is a gripping and revealing look at how the public drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan captured the nation’s attention in late 2015. It also tells the story of how Mona Hanna-Attisha’s family came from Iraq to America and how their history of activism has been carried on in their new home.

Bestes Zitat aus What the Eyes Don't See

We knew how lucky we were. And we knew how bad things could be. Challenging injustice means standing up for the weak. . . .

—Mona Hanna-Attisha

Wer What the Eyes Don't See lesen sollte

Activists and people committed to public service
People who like stories of perseverance and overcoming the odds
Anyone who likes a good fight-the-system story

Über den Autor

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a scientist and physician who heads the pediatric residency program at the Hurley Medical Center. She is also a public health advocate who founded Flint, Michigan’s Pediatric Public Health Initiative. She has been listed in the Time 100, and honored with the PEN America Freedom of Expression Courage Award.

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