Saturday, July 12, 2008

Bernard Kouchner


Kouchner is the current French minister of Foreign and European Affairs. But I really do not give a rat's ass about that. The reason I am writing about him as the Person of the Week is that in 1971 Kouchner co-founded Médecins Sans Frontières (known in English as Doctors Without Borders)and in 1980 co-founded Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World).

The creation of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was in response to Kouchner's work in Nigeria during the Nigerian Civil War (Biafra secession). During this war, Nigeria blockaded the Biafra region which resulted in widespread starvation and famine as evidenced by this picture. The organization eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

Kouchner created Médecins du Monde (MDM) when he felt that MSF was not sticking to its ideal of émoignage ("witnessing"). Witnessing is when aid workers make their observations on atrocities known to the public. MDM also participates in long ranging projects up to three years and not just emergency medical aid and support (MSF just does emergency).

While Kouchner is now focused on politics, which I already said I do not care much about, his formation of two international and respected humanitarian medical corps allows him to still be one of my favorite people in life, no matter what he does as a politician.

No comments: