Motley Moose – Archive

It is a dream. I recognize that right away. I’ve never been in the room before, nor do I recognize the doctor at my side or the gaunt, sickly child who lies in the hospital bed before us.

I ask, “Is there anything…?”

The doctor shakes his head.

“She’s going to die?”

He looks into my eyes and says simply, “Yes.”

Then he turns and points at another bed and says, “So will he.” The hand points to another bed and I hear him say, “and that one, and that one, and those two boys over there.”

“Why?”

His arm drops and he turns to look at me before answering. “Not enough medicine, not enough doctors, not enough food…”

His voice trails off, “Not enough…”

I watch as his emotions wash over him – deep sadness, frustration, then anger, followed by weariness, and finally, determination.

The doctor says, “I must go.”

I realize this is where the dream was leading. Like Robert Frost before me, I have come to a fork in the path.

All I need to do to start down one path is to utter some sympathetic words and watch him walk away. From there, the dream can go anywhere, preferably somewhere involving a beach and a bikini.

Or, I can say four simple words that lead down the other path.

“How can I help?”

That’s when I wake up.

Some have said life is a dream. I disagree. In real life, unlike the dream world, you don’t get to dodge those moments of choice by waking up.

.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971.

Today, MSF provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. MSF reserves the right to speak out to bring attention to neglected crises, to challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.

In 1999, MSF received the Nobel Peace Prize.

MSF’s work is based on the humanitarian principles of medical ethics and impartiality. The organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people caught in crisis regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation.

MSF operates independently of any political, military, or religious agendas. Medical teams conduct evaluations on the ground to determine a population’s medical needs before opening programs. The key to MSF’s ability to act independently in response to a crisis is its independent funding. Eighty-nine percent of MSF’s overall funding (and 100 percent of MSF-USA’s funding) comes from private sources, not governments. In 2006, MSF had more than three million individual donors and private funders worldwide.

MSF is neutral. The organization does not take sides in armed conflicts, provides care on the basis of need alone, and pushes for increased independent access to victims of conflict as required under international humanitarian law.

MSF’s principles of action are described in the organization’s 1971 founding charter, which established a framework for its activities.

[UPDATE]

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost