Dr. Gino Strada and historian Howard Zinn speak about their latest books at an event sponsored by Emergency (www.emergencyusa.org), a humanitarian group that provides free medical care for civilian victims in war zones around the world.
Dr. Strada, co-founder of Emergency, is the author of Green Parrots, a diary of his experiences working in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Somolia, and Sudan. During the event he talks about the civilian war victims he has encountered and argues for the need to abolish war as a means for settling disputes.
Following that, Professor Zinn discusses the Bush administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq, the possibility of an attack on Iran, and the American public's appetite for war today. His latest book is titled Just War. Both participants answer questions from audience members following their remarks. This event was held at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.
Bio
Gino Strada
Gino Strada, aged 56, graduated in Milan and specialized in surgery. During the 80s he was mainly involved with surgery for heart and heart-lung transplants, spending long periods in the United States, at Stanford and Pittsburgh Universities, and working at Harefield Hospital (UK) and Groote Schuur Hospital in Capetown, South Africa.
In 1988 he decided to apply his surgical experience to helping and treating war victims. From 1989 to 1994 he worked with the Geneva-based International Red Cross in war zones: 1989 Quetta, Pakistan; 1990 Dese, Ethiopia and Khao-IDang, Thailand; 1991 Kabul, Afghanistan and Ayacucho, Peru; 1992 Kabul, Afghanistan; 1993 Balbala, Djibouti and Berbera, Somalia; 1994 Bosnia.
The experience accumulated from years of war surgery convinced Gino Strada of the need for a small, agile, highly specialized organization capable of intervening on behalf of civilian war victims and not hampered by the bureaucratic sluggishness of large organizations.
With very scanty resources, Gino Strada and a group of friends and colleagues founded Emergency in 1994.
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn is a historian, playwright, and social activist. He was a shipyard worker and Air Force bombardier before he went to college under the GI Bill and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has taught at Spelman College and Boston University, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna. He has received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award. He lives in Auburndale, Massachusetts.
a post NON-MILITARY world was never mentioned--though men with guns (and small dicks) are I am sure mortified by the thought of peace and equality. This was one of the most inspiring and profound talks I have ever heard.
It is time the straw dog of war against; let's see it was communism, then the war on drugs and now the war on terror and drugs--be replaced with a prohibition on instruments of war--the favorite distraction from taking real steps to eliminate poverty, tyranny and ignorance...spending money on human rights will not cause the end of the world--just the end of war.
Appropriate this is in a church, as Zinn's "discussion" seems like more of a sermon than anything else. I used to be a huge admirer of Zinn's -- and still am, in a way -- but his ultimate visions of a sort of post-government utopic anarchy seem so ridiculous to me now that I have to wonder how many of his followers really buy into that.
Dr. Strada really impressed me. I wish this event would been a little more about him and his Emergency organization than it was about Howard Zinn Superstar. Eh.