Riceviamo da Massimo Toschi, nostro amico e Socio nonché funzionario a New York al Palazzo di Vetro, la bella piccola ma grande notizia: il suo videopoema “From whom the sirens toll” (”Per chi suona la sirena”) - tratto dall’omonima favola già premiata alla prima edizione del concorso letterario di Lugo - ha ricevuto il secondo premio nella sezione “Documentary (non professional)” al Thunderbird International Film Festival nello Utah.
Da tutti noi un messaggio di congratulazioni e di particolare apprezzamento per la sua creazione; e una certezza, nel pensiero che sensibilità e competenza, seminate nel profondo dell’umano, possono portare ancora, a loro tempo, buoni frutti, nella terra martoriata del nostro piccolo pianeta.

Nota: Il sito web di Massimo Toschi che contiene il videopoema fruibile online:
http://www.massimotoschi.com

E’ il titolo di una bella e triste “favola” - imperniata nella realtà - premiata nella passata edizione de “Una favola per la pace”, e adesso è anche un nuovo sito web, creato da Massimo Toschi, nostro collaboratore alle Nazioni Unite.
Segnalo con piacere la nascita di queste pagine ricche di immagini; trovate il sito all’indirizzo http://www.massimotoschi.com ed è “sdoppiato” in inglese e in italiano.
Oltre alla favola raccontata l’anno scorso, troverete il video che ha preso il nome della favola, visibile dal web con tutti i browser dotati del plugin “Flash Player”.

Buona lettura!

E’ presentato il sommario del rapporto dell’International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War sulla situazione sanitaria in Iraq. E’ stato presentato oggi a Londra dal dott. Michele Di Paolantonio, Presidente della Sezione Italiana dell’IPPNW.

The original document (227 Kbyte PDF)

IPPNW - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

Executive Summary

This evidence-based report analyzes, from a public health perspective, the impact of the 2003 war in Iraq on health, the health system, and relief and reconstruction. Health is harmed by conflict-related damage to health-sustaining infrastructure and to the health system, as well as the corrosive effects of conflict-related factors such as poverty, unemployment, disrupted education and low morale. The effects of the war must be measured not only by death and injuries due to weaponry, but by the longer-term, enduring suffering.

The report builds on Medact’s two previous reports on health in Iraq (2002 and 2003), which attracted worldwide media attention, and again aims to stimulate debate on the impact of conflict on health, with special reference to Iraq. It describes the deaths and injuries attributable to conflict and violence, and the current pattern of mental and physical illness. It gives an overview of the Iraqi health care system and barriers to good health care, including problems with the health-sustaining infrastructure. It analyzes the challenges of building a new health system freely available to all and based on primary health care principles.

Health impact

A recent scientific study has suggested that upwards of 100,000 Iraqis may have died since the 2003 coalition invasion, mostly from violence, mainly air strikes by coalition forces. Most of those reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children. Many thousands of conflict-related injuries were also sustained. Infant mortality has risen because of lack of access to skilled help in childbirth, as well as because of violence.

Iraq already had high child and adult mortality and there is an alarming recurrence of previously well-controlled communicable diseases including diarrhoeal diseases, acute respiratory infections and typhoid, particularly among children. There is also a greater burden of noncommunicable disease, but a lack of resources, facilities and expertise to reverse the trends. The likely consequence will be an additional burden of preventable death and disability.

Behavioural problems such as family violence, child and spouse abuse and acts of public violence greatly increase in conflict and post-conflict situations. The aggregated effects of the psychosocial trauma suffered by Iraqi people create preconditions for further violence.

The health-sustaining infrastructure

The Iraqi infrastructure has been severely and repeatedly damaged by over 20 years of war, neglect and mismanagement, economic collapse and sanctions. This has a direct and indirect impact on health as water and sanitation, power supply, food security, housing, transport and many other factors are important health determinants. One in four people still depend on food aid and there are more children underweight (17%) or chronically malnourished (32%) than in 2000, though acute malnutrition has fallen slightly.

The health system - all activities whose primary purpose is to promote, restore or maintain health - is in disrepair. The quality of state services is poor owing to chronic underfunding, poor physical infrastructure, shortage and mismanagement of supplies, staff shortages and lack of modern skills and knowledge. The 2004 budget allocation to the Iraq Ministry of Health is only US$38 per citizen. People increasingly rely on self-diagnosis and traditional healing, and buy prescription medicines in the marketplace. Under-the-table payments are required to secure many services, and there is widespread suspicion of criminal involvement in the distribution of pharmaceutical supplies. Health workers are trying to provide services in extremely difficult circumstances.

The UN, traditionally responsible for coordinating humanitarian crisis responses, has been marginalised while US assistance has been characterized by damaging political in-fighting. Although project funding has been agreed, little money has been disbursed and many projects have not been implemented. Aid and development workers, both Iraqi and foreign, run great risks and most humanitarian agencies have left central and southern Iraq, which remains largely a war zone. The pursuit of a relief and development agenda may be little more than nominal.

Key recommendations (full recommendations available on p. 12 of the report)

Independent inquiry
An independent commission should make a thorough investigation of casualties and the state of health in Iraq.

Protecting health in conflict
Require occupying forces to monitor casualties and civilian protection, re-evaluate the impact of weaponry in populated areas, comply with the Geneva Conventions, and ensure health services are accessible to civilians in conflict areas.

Long-term interventions to improve health and peace
Strengthen stewardship roles, capacity and funding to rebuild an Iraqi health system that is free at the point of delivery and based on primary health care principles.

Conclusion

The 2003 war exacerbated the threats to health already created by previous wars, tyranny and sanctions. Its direct and indirect impacts have probably damaged the material and mental ability of Iraqi society to reverse health decline. Conflict, criminality, social inequality, lack of democratic processes, political instability, presence of foreign military forces and decrepit essential infrastructure combine to damage health and arrest the development of a decentralised, primary care-based health system. There is a grave and immediate threat to the health of the Iraqi people, on top of their current sufferings. The need to find alternatives to violence and to resolve political differences peacefully could not be more urgent.

Nota: Vedi anche:

http://www.geocities.com/ippnwitalia
http://www.ippnw.org

COMUNICATO STAMPA

Al Summit Mondiale dei Premi Nobel per la Pace che si terrà al Campidoglio dal 10 al 13 novembre p.v. parteciperà anche il medico italiano Michele Di Paolantonio nella delegazione dell’Internazionale Medici per la Prevenzione della Guerra Nucleare (IPPNW), organizzazione Premio Nobel per la Pace 1985.

Iscritto all’Ordine dei Medici della Provincia di Teramo, fece parte il 10 dicembre 1985 della delegazione medica mondiale presente in Aula, ad Oslo, per la consegna del Premio Nobel per la Pace 1985 a tale organizzazione. Curatore delle edizioni italiane del Rapporto dell’Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità:”Effetti della Guerra Nucleare sulla Salute e sui Servizi Sanitari” e del Rapporto delle Nazioni Unite: “Armi Nucleari: studio onnicomprensivo”, durante il Summit 2003 presentò il rapporto inedito dell’Internazionale Medici “Danno Collaterale Continuo: gli effetti della guerra in Iraq sulla salute e sull’ambiente”, che fissava in 50.000 morti i costi in vite umane in Iraq dal marzo all’ottobre 2003. Il dott. Di Paolantonio, Presidente della Sezione Italiana dell’IPPNW, è membro del focus group dell’International Peace Bureau (IPB), la più antica organizzazione Premio Nobel per la Pace, che ha tenuto recentemente a Firenze il Seminario Mondiale su “Pace e Sicurezza Umana nella Riforma delle Nazioni Unite” le cui conclusioni note alle Nazioni Unite come “Florence Appeal” sono state consegnate al Presidente dell’Alta Commissione per la Riforma delle Nazioni Unite che sta concludendo a New York i suoi lavori. Il dott. Di Paolantonio è stato nel marzo 2003 tra i fondatori di IPB-Italia, presieduta dalla dott.ssa Fulgida Barattoni.

Ricevo da Michele Dipaolantonio di IPPNW il testo ufficiale della “Dichiarazione di Pechino”, documento finale del Congresso Mondiale di Pechino, appena concluso, dell’Internazionale Medici contro la guerra nucleare.
La proposta centrale è la “Medical Road Map for Peace in Middle East”, concepita l’anno scorso, in maggio, a Roseto degli Abruzzi, nel corso di quello che ora è conosciuto nel mondo come il “Teramo Meeting” della Commissione Mediterranea dell’IPPNW.

Adopted by the 16th World Congress
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)

We, physicians and students from more than 40 countries, have met in China, a country rich in history and culture, to address pressing global threats to human security. They include the continued existence of nuclear weapons, terrorism and an increasing reliance on military force.

In an age of unjust globalization, nuclear war remains a real possibility. This risk is increased by the development of new generations of nuclear weapons, policies which explicitly allow the use of such weapons in a wider set of circumstances, the renewed development of missile defences and the likely weaponisation of outer space, the continued retention of thousands of nuclear weapons on high alert status and by the degradation of command and control systems. These factors render the risk of nuclear war greater than at the end of the Cold War.

At the Congress, we were honoured by the presence of Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima and President of the Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons. IPPNW strongly and actively endorses the campaign.

From our vantage point here in Beijing, we are particularly concerned about the growing proliferation threat on the Korean peninsula. The role of the Chinese government in advocating the resumption of six-party talks to resolve the crisis is a very positive development, and provides a constructive example. Similar political and diplomatic efforts - not pre-emptive military interventions - should also be applied to the conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere.

Deaths and injuries from small arms and light weapons, land mines, and cluster munitions - numbering in the hundreds of thousands each year - represent a public health crisis in many countries and regions throughout the world.

In addition, the dark cloud of terrorism, in all its forms, looms over humanity, providing impetus to policies based on fear, repression and further violence. The prospect of nuclear terrorism remains real for as long as nuclear weapons exist and fissile materials remain outside of international control. It is imperative to ensure that the nuclear weapon states finally honor their commitments to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.

Undermining the rule of law undermines the security of all people. In particular, the notion of pre-emptive war must be rejected. We share the grave concerns of most of the international community, including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, that the war against Iraq was illegal. We further believe that the continued occupation of Iraq and the daily violence and bloodshed resulting from this war must be resolved by the establishment of real sovereignty for the Iraqi people.

The decades-long, tragic conflict in the Middle East must be brought to a just and non-violent resolution. We call for an immediate renewal of peace negotiations between the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority and we stand ready to support this process through the development of IPPNW’s own “Medical Road Map to Peace.” IPPNW condemns the acts of violence on both sides of the conflict, and demands the cessation of all activities that incite violence.

While global military expenditures are once again increasing, the ancient enemies of humankind - hunger, disease and poverty - claim millions of lives unnecessarily each year, including a disproportionately large number of children. Moreover, economic policies made in the developed world increase rather than reduce the growing gap between rich and poor nations. We call for substantial reductions in military expenditures and a transfer of these squandered funds toward investments in health and human welfare, consonant with the goal of the World Health Organization, “Health For All”.

We affirm our commitment to the abolition of all nuclear weapons, to the prevention of war, to the reduction of small arms violence, and to justice and equity for all people. We reject not only terrorism, but also war as a response to terrorism. We call on all physicians, medical students, and other health workers to join IPPNW in our medical mission to prevent nuclear holocaust and to pursue peaceful, non-violent resolutions to conflict. The need to do so is as urgent as ever before.

–
John Loretz
Program Director
International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
727 Massachusetts Ave., 2nd floor
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 868-5050, ext. 280
(617) 868-2560 (fax)

http://www.ippnw.org