Fools without Borders!

MSF: This is the story of those fools who rush in to places where angels fear to tread. They have been everywhere -- from Rwanda to Kosovo -- helping and treating people, providing people with medical care and attention. It was their guy, who identified the outbreak of SARS (and died from it). And even after the devastating Tsunami of Asia, it were them who reached Indonesia first. This is the story of Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders.

Now why do they do so instead of sitting at home and drinking wine? (Are they all jobless losers with nothing else to do? Believe me, I would have loved to think so. Sadly though, I must confess that this is not the case, unless, of course, they are bluffing all along!). Because it is, in their words, "an ethic of refusal." And all they do is to relieve siffering: "For MSF, this is the humanitarian act: to seek to relieve suffering, to seek to restore autonomy, to witness to the truth of injustice, and to insist on political responsibility."

One must agree with their standpoint that euphemisms like Complex Humanitarian Emergency, or Internal Security Crisis does not help much to mask the real nature of man-made disasters such as that in Bosnia-Herzegovina or Rwanda. Such language, however, frames the problem, determinates the responsibilites, and defines whether a political, medical or humanitarian response is adequate. It also offers excuses to the guilty many a time. "No one calls a rape a complex gynecologic emergency. A rape is a rape, just as a genocide is a genocide. And both are a crime."

Does it mean that they're naive enough to think that they're capable of stopping all these? No. They're not. They know very well that humanitarian efforts can never stop a genocide or a war. "There are limits to humanitarianism. No doctor can stop a genocide. No humanitarian can stop ethnic cleansing, just as no humanitarian can make war. And no humanitarian can make peace. These are political responsibilities, not humanitarian imperatives. "

And though they try to act without any border, they realize that humanitarian action is not without limitations. In Rwanda, for example, demands made by organizations such as MSF and Red Corss to stop the genocide by the use of force, were met with institutional paralysis, self-interest, and a denial of political responsibility. Thus, "It cannot be a substitute for political action."

They object to the principle of military intervention without clear frameworks of responsibility and transparency, on valid grounds. They feel that "Armies should be at the service of governments and policies which seek to protect the rights of victims."

Coming back to SARS: The guy who identified SARS was an Italian physician working with the WHO. He was the president of the Italian chapter of Medecins Sans Frontieres and was one of the individuals who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of MSF in 1999.

While being based in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he mainly worked on combatting parasitic diseases for WHO, he identified an outbreak of the previously unknown SARS. In late February 2003, he became infected with SARS, and died on March 11, 2003 in Bangkok, where he went to attend a medical conferences. His name was Carlo Urbani, and he was 46 years old.

Acknowledgements: www.nobel.se, www.wikipedia.org