C.erte lives, like that of Gino Strada, you wish you had seen them up close. Discover where thoughts are born, where the visionary projects of a man who has dedicated his life to the least are rooted, firmly, stubbornly convinced that war is an unclean beast and that its victims should be treated even in places forgotten by God.
Emergency, the mission of Gino Strada
Twenty-eight years ago Gino StradaMilanese heart surgeon with eyes on the world, founds the non-profit organization Emergency that, to date, he treated 12 million people for freeprovided emergency surgery in war theaters, built hospitals where excellence is joined by beauty, “because a beautiful thing is also good”.
A man loved and hated, a lay saint for some, stinging for those who, accustomed to declarations, clashed with the concreteness of his unsparing action. To shed light on Gino Strada in these times of war, a life for peace, is his wife Simonetta Gola.
Simonetta has been working for Emergency for twenty years where he is responsible for communication, he shared projects and the last years of his life with Gino, he knows a lot about work and man.
“I’m not a pacifist, I’m against war”
With her we talk about One person at a time (Feltrinelli), the posthumous book by Gino Strada. Where, in the first pages, he echoes one of his prophetic words in the terrible topicality: “I am not a pacifist, I am against war”.
Simonetta, what did Gino Strada mean?
«It was 2001. He was irritated because although many declared themselves pacifists, then the Italian Parliament voted unanimously for the war in Afghanistan. He said that the concept of pacifism includes too many distinctions: the war for democracy, the just one, even humanitarian. So let’s be clearer if we say that we are against war, it clears up the misunderstanding that some wars are good and others are not. Now the situation is similar: Italy, together with Europe, has decided to send military aid to Ukraine ».
Arms and diplomacy in Ukraine
How can you not react to an aggression like that of Russia?
“The point is that we come to ask ourselves what to do when the choices are already limited. The question of Ukraine has been explosive for years, but nothing has stopped us from continuing to do business with Russia. Working on the 2014 Minsk agreements could be one way, insisting on diplomacy and sanctions. When you get to the brink of tragedy it is then difficult to find a peaceful solution. It is a course to do first. Now we have chosen the path of arms ».
The cover of the posthumous book by Gino Strada (press office)
No more wars: a utopia?
Isn’t it utopian to think that humanity can get rid of armed conflicts?
“There are currently about 40 open conflicts in the world. Certainly the goal is huge, but it is a matter of choices. When in 2020 Iranian general Soleimani was killed by American drones we looked like we were on the verge of World War III. Then there was no, evidently someone found another solution. Gino gave the example of racial discrimination in America. In the 1950s there were separate seats on buses, in 2008 the first black president was elected. The steps you take in the direction of rights change someone’s life, you may not see the final result immediately, but you are incrementally changing a way of seeing things “.
The courage to always challenge each other
Gino Strada took the evil of the world on his shoulders. How did such a great vision grow in a man?
«He said that Sesto (San Giovanni, where he was born, ed) is a good place to grow up. The sense of community, the solidarity of his family. A simple family, he was the first to graduate “dutur”, a mission, not a job, according to his mother. It was already a success that he went to college. But at the most difficult exam, Anatomy, she bought the books in English: “Anatomy is a rock, while I’m studying, I might as well do it in English, I might need it,” she said. He had the ability to challenge himself but also to see the possibilities that could be given in the future. He has always raised, from a young age ».
It is in the family that he discovers the war …
«Yes, from the stories of the bombing of the Gorla neighborhood: the American fighters wanted to hit the Breda, there was an error in the transcription of the trajectories, the bombs were dropped on the neighborhood, also hitting the elementary school. 184 children, teachers and janitors died at school alone. Civilians, the collateral victims … There are hundreds of them in these difficult days.
When you choose war, you also choose to hit civilians. It may be by mistake or due to a precise strategy, between Russians and Ukrainians we are accused of hitting civilians or using them as shields. Gino was very clear about the fact that when a war is decided, one decides to accept that there are expendable people. Out of racism, out of cultural distance, out of indifference ».
A distance that we do not feel with Ukraine.
«We know the Ukrainian lady who babysits us or takes care of our grandmother, we have established relationships, you know they live like you, they are like you. Perhaps for the first time in recent years we Westerners have opened our eyes to who the civilian victims are ”.
A funny name for something terrible
Represented for Gino Strada by the “cauliflower lesion”: an almost jaunty name for something terrible. What it was?
“It was his first impact with the victims of landmines: in Pakistan a seven-year-old boy had to operate with an exploded hand, reduced to a blackish ball of bone, skin and clothing. The little boys, unaware, played with the deadly mines similar to a green parrot, specially made to intrigue the children. It was one of his won battles. At the time, in 1994, there was an international campaign to ban anti-personnel mines.
He was invited by Maurizio Costanzo, there was also the Minister of Defense Cesare Previti who made the commitment to adopt the moratorium. Then in ’97 the law 374 was approved which prohibited the production, marketing and use by Italy. We produced in large quantities, with enormous economic interests, and yet the result was there. The great powers have not yet banned them, but Italy is out of it. Gino used this example to say that things that seem impossible thanks to public opinion and popular mobilization can succeed ».
Gino Strada receives the More Love award at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler on the occasion of the Mix Festival, 2020 (Photo by Marco Piraccini / Archivio Marco Piraccini / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
Everyone must be treated equally
The other theme is that of the right to health: it is not a privilege and one cannot die of social class. This is why Gino Strada undermines the concept that for Africa “anything is better than nothing” and fights to bring excellent medicine there too.
“Said the best way to practicing equality is showing those we help that we consider them equal to us, with facts. When he decided to open a center for cardiac surgery in Khartoum, Sudan, he was massacred with criticism, people are still dying of measles there, they said. But sub-Saharan Africa, due to the spread of rheumatic fevers, has a high prevalence of heart diseases that require surgery, from an early age. And why should a child from Barcelona be more likely to be operated on than a Sudanese? How do you live next to a man who has seen the war from the bodies that this tortures? Was it suffering from it?
The difference between a whole body and a wounded one was tangible evidence of the world’s injustices and injustice was its torment. But he knew he had given his all so when he took time for himself he was at peace with himself, whether it was the music of Pink Floyd, meeting friends, preparing miles of noodles. He lost his balance when he saw problems underestimated, when they spoke to him with condescension of civilian victims. They said he was rude, angry, partisan. But he had looked, and he had been able to see, evil ».
The homage of the people to Gino Strada
In a weekend in August, in Milan, 11 thousand people paid tribute to Gino in the funeral home set up in the Emergency headquarters: did you know you had a lot of following?
When Raffaella Carrà died, whom he liked, there was a memory everywhere. Then he said to me: “But if I die, will I go to the newspapers?”. And I: “Of course, because you have an excellent communications office.” He makes me smile, but she hit me why it was as if he didn’t know how important his example was to people. He knew he had a public role but not that he had the ability to bring out the best in people ».
The posthumous book
How did you collaborate on the writing of the book?
«Carlo Feltrinelli had asked him for an anti-war book, Gino didn’t feel up to it: after Einstein’s speech, he said, who am I to do it, I’m ridiculous. Even the ideas and stories, he said, I said them a thousand times … Yes, but never all together, in an organic way, I answered. We talked for hours to focus on the themes, the episodes, the comments, I looked for the data, I helped him in the drafting of the texts ».
Of him there remains the image of a doctor at the operating table while the missiles fall. It takes courage. And mental keeping.
“He said he didn’t want to see the families of those who operated. If you “open” a person the approach is different from that of the doctor who takes the anamnesis. Knowing that out there there is a mother, a father, waiting and trembling, emotionally unbalances you ».
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