 |
Thursday, February 12, 2004, 7 pm
Auditorium
Admission free
In French |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Since the fall of the Berlin wall, humanitarian action has gone from being a completely disinterested undertaking by doctors and nurses to a political, strategic, and military appropriation.
Once a spur for politicians ion the past to bear witness and to get involved in the East-West confrontation, it must now come to terms. It must come to terms with the scattering of conflicts, their once again tribal complexity, and even the interposition of other supposedly humanitarian international forces.
To act and to bear witness, to remain free in action and in conscience, to always go where others will not and thus preserve the philosophy of the early years are the great questions for our non-governmental organizations at the dawn of the 21st century.
Born in Tunisia, the son of a “bush” surgeon, Alain Dubos had just begun his own pediatric practice when Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) invited him on a 1978 mission to Thailand to treat Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees.
He went on to work in several international humanitarian crises, including Lebanon, Cambodia, Iran, Afghanistan, Guinea, and Honduras, and was the Vice President of the organization’s French office from 1980-1987.
Along with medicine, Dubos also has a passion for literature and has written a number of intriguing novels and testimonies, including “La Rizière des Barbares” (1980); “Tu Franchiras La Frontiere” (1986); “Sans Frontieres” (1987); four novels about France (“Landes”); and two novels about Acadia.
In the 1990’s, he ventured into broadcast media, founding and hosting the thematic television station, Canal Santé.
|
|
|
Forward to a friend