Gino Bartali, Italian Cycling Legend, Saved Jews During WWII

Bartali’s decision to act was heroic not because he felt no fear but rather because he did not let his fear prevent him from doing what he felt was ethically right. 

Gino Bartli is best known as a cycling legend who holds the record for the longest time span between victories at the Tour de France –ten years– a feat made all the more impressive by the Tour’s status as one of most grueling endurance competitions in the world and the fact that Bartali was an old man (by cycling standards) when he made his comeback in 1948. Looking beyond the marvel of his athletic stamina, Bartali’s life provides a powerful lesson in how moral endurance can empower from within.

Born in a poor town near Florence in 1914, Bartali grew up in a world of grinding poverty. Day laborers like his father earned the modern equivalent of about a dollar an hour, and the average male life expectancy was forty years old, due to diseases like malaria and pneumonia. With few career options, Bartali dedicated himself to cycling: from sunrise to sunset, he rode around the Tuscan hills and built up his physical endurance –his capacity to confront painful fatigue and pedal through it. Bartali’s relentless training paid off, and he made a meteoric rise in the cycling world, turning professional only a few years after his first race.

Then cycling took the one person dearest to him.

To the Crazy Ones...

New Report Shows How the Crisis in Europe and Rising Xenophobia Limit Healthcare of Vulnerable Groups

PICUM Report

11 April 2013

The organisation Doctors of the World held a conference on “Access to health care in Europe in times of crisis and rising xenophobia” in Brussels on 9 April 2013. The aim of the conference was to present a report summarising the outcomes of a study carried out in 14 cities in seven European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Spain and the UK) in 2012 which shows the impact of the EU crisis and rising xenophobia  on access to healthcare for people facing multiple vulnerability factors. The report also provides background information particularly on the situation of access to healthcare for undocumented migrants in each of the seven countries.

The results were presented by four of the organisation’s national members.  Thierry Brigaud (France) and Michel Degueldre (Belgium) presented the results of the European survey, addressing the social determinants of health, the barriers to health care and the health status of the population in the 14 cities studied. In this frame, they also invalidated myths such as the perception that migrants are “health tourists” or the idea that migrants do not contribute to financing the public health system. 

Álvaro González, president of Doctors of the World Spain, addressed the situation in his country in relation to imposed austerity measures and how this is destroying the public health system. The Royal Decree Ley 16/2012 established the copayment of medication and the exclusion of adult irregular migrants from access to health care. According to González, the health system model is changing from universal healthcare to an insurance system where healthcare is limited to the participation in the labour market.  He noted that the Millennium Development Goals have established universal health care as a political objective. Instead, Spain limits the number of groups receiving treatment, the number of health services and overall spending.  This development directly affects migrants in an irregular situation and is untenable from different points of view: it violates human rights treaties, it is more expensive since the costs of emergency treatment are higher than the costs of preventive care, it is unethical and it leads to public health problems. He stressed the important role of civil society mobilizations to fight these tendencies.

Every Child is a Unique Human Being

This video reminds us that each child is a unique human being.  It is inspired by the poem “Animal School”, originally written by George Reavis in 1939. 

It is so easy to get caught up in a curriculum-driven agenda, particularly in the current climate of educational “accountability” and drive for standardized testing. Standardized (but often overstuffed) programs are designed around what society at large, and particular interest groups argue, that all people need to know. 

“Many people have a hard time understanding the concepts of independence vs. interdependence, inclusion, multiple intelligences and cooperative learning. I thought a revision of The Animal School by George Reavis might explain it all.” Mary E. Ulrich