Building poverty-free spaces
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CHILD POVERTY (X. Allué)
Poverty is a curse. Child poverty is a major social and medical problem. It is at the top of the list of health problems worldwide. It should be at the top of the list of health problems in the First World and, therefore, also in Europe.
Some time ago anthropologists adopted the term “Anthropology at Home” as a guide for research, moving away from a long tradition of dedicating efforts to the study of cultures and communities of exotic or distant societies. Societies considered “primitive” had been examined for answers to explain reality or their evolutionary progress. Looking back at our closest proximity, we saw the immense richness of the existence of facts, situations, interpretations and developments. Its study not only improved knowledge, but also provided clues and solutions to many current problems in our closest society. This made applicability possible to what could simply be theoretical or philosophical approaches to knowledge.
You have to know what surrounds you well to understand the world in a big way. However, it may not be necessary at all to know that “big world”, the big world, to carry out useful projects for the community in which one lives. The world has complexities that must simply be accepted as part of reality without the need to understand the dynamics that condition its complexity. Great questions and great answers can easily be found in close environments because the most transcendental phenomena of existence manifest well in the close environment. Life, death, reproduction, respect for the rights of others, the freedoms of all and the phenomena that surround them, are observable in smaller social structures. And it is possible to critically observe them.
The man of knowledge, not necessarily the anthropologist but the observer who also has to make decisions in relation to what is observed, must keep all his senses open. And, in addition to collecting information, he must organize and store it for later analysis and use. Often the new analysis, the critical analysis, is sufficient in itself and does not require further use. Mere observation already modifies what is observed, as Hesselbach’s uncertainty principle teaches. The observation of static phenomena really affects them little. On the other hand, the more dynamic and changing a phenomenon is, a reality subject to observation, the greater its possibilities of change and modification.
Some realities were, and are, still under the radar. Medical institutions, academia, and health authorities generally avoid including poverty in the etiology and/or the consequence of biomedical health problems. The considerable advances made in social security and health service provision in Europe over the last half-century were intended to cover all citizens. However, this could have missed large population segments simply because they are poor. Poor by our own current standards.
A good part of the children’s health problems in our environment continue to be related to poverty. The challenge of eradicating poverty begins with its detection and identification. And incorporate that reality into the health-providing system.
Child poverty can be understood according to the commonly used paragraphs on common diseases as arranged in classic textbooks:
Definition, Etiology, Pathogenesis, Clinical picture, Pathology and complementary exams, Diagnosis, Differential diagnosis, Complications, Treatment and Prevention. Plus ICD–MC 10 coding.
Well, poverty is coded in the ICD-MC. Under item 24, Factors influencing health status or contact with health services:
poverty (QD50),
low income (QD51) and
problems associated with finances, specified (QD5Y) or not (QD5Z).
Poverty as a diagnostic entity should be identified and included in the medical records. Otherwise may be missed and thus escape attention and, eventually, proper care.
Poverty means bad teeth, dirty nails, and messy hair. Crumpled quarters, inefficient facilities, lack of privacy. Poor diet, high carbohydrates and low protein, no exercise and therefore obesity as a result. Poverty may lead to truancy, and early dropping out of school, petty crime, shoplifting. Poverty means ignorance, disinformation, confusion, low self-esteem, depression…
At times, the poor may be criticized as guilty of their situation. Those living on the dole for not making an effort to find a decent job. Or just for leaving unwanted jobs for new immigrants.
Chesterton mocked the idea that poverty was a result of bad breeding: «[it is a] strange new disposition to regard the poor as a race; as if they were a colony of Japs or Chinese coolies …” They are what Dickens describes as a dustbin of individual accidents, of damaged dignity, and often of damaged gentility.
Our worry are the poor, the dispossessed, the meek,the destitute
But is well known that a vicious circle exists creating a trans-generations cycle of poverty or poverty trap. Families trapped in the cycle of poverty have few to no resources. This occurs when people considered poor lack the resources necessary to escape poverty. Education, connections, and access to information, may be elusive or nonexistent. This could mean that the poor may be borne poor, remain poor throughout their lives and die poor.
Of course, poverty may be relative. Someone’s rags are somebody else’s riches. Poor in developed countries have access to free medical care, subsidized medicines, or even free public transportation, something the population of developing countries cannot even dream of.
But we are seeing now-a-days another category of poor: the working por: they have a job but earn an insufficient salary. This will limit having access to extracurricular activities sich as sports and others there are not conbsiderad part of the school curriculum. The same may happen with school launches. In Spain they cover only partially what could be considered a proper nutrition. Teachers report the need for school breakfasts, as many children may attend school without a meal in the morning.
The proposals in the title of this workshop include a clear reference to space and time. Spaces to free from poverty and time for the possibility of ending poverty in a period embracing what is left of the current century. Anthropologists love to extend their discussions within a space-time frame. It offers an ambit with limits, making it easier to construct arguments about a closed reality.
I really do not know how to build spaces. I may envision areas of various magnitude where to act upon, trying to make a difference. Poverty is such a pervasive misfortune difficult to contain in a given space. It could be home, institutions, communities, cities, countries or the whole world. As a citizen of the world, I would consider the planet as the space to free from poverty.
Of the three dimensions of time: past, present, and future, the past can only be remembered and the future is, by definition, unpredictable. Only the present, though elusive, may let us act.
To reduce poverty may be a goal. To eradicate poverty will be a relative matter. The actual goal should be to reduce inequality. That has not been achieved yet in modern Western societies, not even by expanding middle classes. The gap between the very rich and the poor has, if anything widened.
One must distinguish between economic poverty and resource poverty. The financial aspects are just a mirage. You may not need money if your basic needs are covered. At the same time, once basic needs are covered, you need money to acquire goods and services that may not be basic or essential, but the money gives you the freedom to choose how to obtain them. That is purchasing liberty.
Addressing, as I am now, to pediatricians in clinical practice, I believe that It is the diagnosis and its registry your main responsibility.You people have the responsibility to identify the traits of poverty and bring it to the attention of the health system. In the first contact and, being a recurrent problem, reevaluate it in follow-up contacts. The clinician identification of financial difficulties that may not be presented by patients’ families up front. In the absence of clear signs it may be missed unless an specific inquire is included in the anamnesis.
Of course, this is not exempt from difficulties. Some may be related to labeling. Nobody likes to be tagged as anything considered undesirable such as poverty. Particularly when there is no clear way to get rid of such a label. Patients may consider such an enquire is offensive as their financial status may be considered private and by no means the doctor’s business. That demand careful wording, fairness and understanding in the part of the professional.
But without the diagnosis, there will be no consideration of the condition. Therefore making difficult to work on a solution, albeit partial and limited. The diagnosis will open the way to measures to palliate and overcome whatever difficulties poverty causes.
To confront the reality of poverty requires an individual diagnosis. Nothing can be assumed, either way. Only knowing the situation will help to find how much and how it affects o may affect a child’s health. Indirect information through whatever may be provided by social workers or other allied personel, although important, should not excuse the clinician for knowing and consider poverty as a factor in child health care.
Again, the space free of poverty under your control is your office, your surgery. Your “consulta”. Not to solve poverty, not even for one particular patient, but to create an all-enveloping environment that will push the machine of health care moving in one direction: the protection of children in need.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chesterton, G. K. (1922). Eugenics and Other Evils. London, UK: Cassell and Company.
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD)ICD – 11ed. https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/classification-of-diseases (consulted nov. 2023)
“Codificación de los diagnósticos psicosociales” X. Allué, An Pediatr (Barc) 2004; 61(5): 428-32
Geertz, C. ”Local knowledge”, Fontana Press, London , 1993.
Heisenberg, W. …«Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik».Zeitschrift für Physik. (1927) 43(3): 172–198
Recent history of Catalonia – April 2018
Evolution (not yet re-volution) of the recent events in Catalonia
This will be only a brief summary, not necessarily objective, as part of my ”selective perception” of what’s going on in Catalonia.
To follow the political situation is becoming more and more a difficult task, as so many inputs and from so many angles muddle the scene.
Facts (and some factoids) as of September 2017:
The approval of the laws for the Referendum of Independence Llei 19/2017, del 6 de setembre, del referèndum d’autodeterminació) and foundation of the Catalan republic (Llei 20/2017, de 8 de setembre, de transitorietat jurídica i fundacional de la república catalanaled to the celebration of the Referendum on October 1st. In the meantime the central government and its police forces were unable to locate and seize the physical elements for the polls in spite of several attempts, conducting house searches of private firms, printing houses and private homes.
More than 20.000 ballot boxes, millions of ballot slips and dozens of computers to register the votes, were distributed to the more than 6.000 electoral centers located mainly in local schools or town halls. Many ballot centers were occupied from the night before the 1st of October by volunteers, organised through cell phone social networks, to protect the celebration of the referendum.
Police and para-military forces, more than 10.000 strong, of the “Policia Nacional” and “Guardia civil” from different parts of Spain had been deployed in Catalonia, coordinated by a Guardia civil colonel (soon to be promoted to brigadier-one star-general), initiated actions to interfere with the celebration of the referendum, directly attacking the electoral sites and the volunteers defending them. Thousands of pictures and video films showing the viciousness of the attacks, broadcasted all over the world (https://spanishpolice.github.io
Peculiarly enough, the repression stopped sometime around noon GMT, as images of the attacks started to fill the news broadcasts of BBC and CNN television channels. Although some 500 ballot centers saw their voting slips and equipment seized, the voting continued thereafter in all the centers. The police actions were an utter failure, achieving nothing but hurting people’s bodies and feelings. That will not be forgiven; not forgotten.
Of a total de 2.286.217 voters, some 45% of the census, 90% voted in favor of the independence of Catalonia.
Some weeks later, the Catalan Parliament approved and, in a not quite understandable political maneuver, immediately postponed a Declaration of independence, in the hope this would move the Spanish Central government to some process of negotiations. The response was the immediate dismissal of the Catalan government and dissolution of the parliament by implementing an obscure article of the Spanish Constitution, the 155, that allows the central government to intervene the political organisations of the regional (autonomic) governments in circumstances of constitutional conflict. This meant the suppression of the autonomic regime for Catalonia.
Just as immediately, the Central government called for a general election in Catalonia to take place as soon as the law permitted, in some 50 days.The election took place on the 21st of December and the results did not change much the composition of the parliament forces, giving again a scant majority to the independentists parties, while reducing the representation of the Partido Popular governing in Spain to an insignificant number of three members in a chamber of 135 (later raised to four, when the votes of Catalans residing abroad were recounted, a fact considered for many as proof of ballot rigging, as most of the 250.000 Catalans living abroad were not really allowed to vote).
With the application of the article 155 the Central government proceeded to imprison several members of the Catalan government as well as the leaders of two very influential civil organisations, Omnium Cultural and Assemblea Nacional Catalana on trumped charges of “rebellion”. Some other members of the dismissed Catalan government, including the president Carles Puigdemont, went into exile to Belgium and Switzerland.
The judicial part
The Spanish central government and the Popular Party in power have refused any possible negotiation or talks about the situation in Catalonia. They have decided to give the whole problem a judicial treatment by injunctions, indictments and other legal proceedings to what is, obviously, a political problem.
To carry this on, they have enlisted some judges well known for their political leanings, close to ultra-conservatism, and with clear or semi-occult relations with the Popular Party. This in total and complete contempt of the separation of powers of any modern democracy.
The so-called “ministerio fiscal, equivalent to District or State Attorneys in Spain, reports to the Justice Department and depends organically of the seating government. All their actions are ordered by the executive. Besides this, the corps of “Abogados del Estado”, State lawyers, is chartered to bring to court whatever the government deems worth to fight for.
The Central government has used the “Audiencia Nacional”, a judicial body instituted some years ago to combat national and international terrorism and drug traffic, to indict politicians, a move of very dubious legal grounds. For more local matters, police take injunctions to one specific court, Barcelona 13th, manipulating schedules. This court has been known for issuing sentences biased against Catalan plaintiffs in many occasions.
All the judicial matters concerning political representatives, who have a special immunity charter, raised in Catalonia should be taken to the Supreme Court of Catalonia. However, in use of the above-mentioned Article 155, this has been overpassed and all the proceedings have been taken to the Spanish Supreme Court and to a specific instructor judge, Pablo Llarena, well known for his ultra-right leanings, who was appointed by the Popular Party. (Judge Llarena’s wife, also a judge and director of the Judicial School, a training institution for aspiring judges, is a very close friend and classmate of the current vice-president of the Spanish government Mrs. Sàenz de Santamaria).
Judge Llarena has imprisoned without bail, under “provisional” predicament, something meant for high crimes or plaintiffs with a high risk of evasion, nine politicians and civil leaders with accusations of “rebellion”, “sedition” and misappropriation of public money that may carry up to 30 years of jail term. To most Catalans, they are political prisoners, something unacceptable in the European Community. Also issued what is called “euro-orders”, search and detention orders within the European Union, against the president of the Generalitat and other members of the Catalan government currently in exile in Belgium, Scotland, Switzerland and lately, Germany. This has proved to be a very wrong move, as those countries and their judiciary have refused to extradite them to Spain, mostly on grounds of not accepting the “rebellion” charges, as no violence has been involved in any moment, other than the provoked by the police forces themselves.
This is commonly viewed as a big mess. The Spanish government has forfeited the old Gypsy curse: “Pleitos tengas. Y los ganes.;»>May you have lawsuits in your life. And win them.”
The political part
The political management of this whole affair by the independentist parties has not been free of difficulties and great errors. On top of the ones posed by the Spanish Central government, the legal constraints of the Constitutional framework, the lack of consistency of the position of the different options of the Catalan politicians, disagreements have plagued the evolution of what is being called “The Procés”.
Some decisions have been taken in the Catalan Parliament with scant majorities, legally sufficient but “politically” short for the importance of the issues at hand. Some others have been decided and immediately retired, misleading the public opinion, unable to understand the shortcomings of political wheeling and dealings.
With a good part of the political leaders in jail or exile, to decide who is going to opt to the job of President of the Generalitat after the elections of December 21st has rendered the nomination of the new government to a limbo of indecisions.
Not that the impossibility to form governments in the European states is something unusual. Some countries have fared months without one, the record Belgium that took 541 days to nominate a government of consensus back in 2011. But the Parliament regulations, after one candidate has not been able to obtain the election as president, a clock is set on, giving a limited period of three months to try again. Otherwise the Parliament will be dissolved and new elections will be called.
While the Spanish Central government wants a candidate to be someone with no legal issues that may interfere with the nomination, the independentists wanted to offer the position to one of the political leaders, legally elected but in jail. This will prove very difficult unless the Supreme Court allowed the candidate to be freed and to take the office. Mind you that being in jail “preventively” and not yet sentenced, the imprisoned politicians retain all their rights to elect and be elected for public office. However not being able to be present at the nomination interferes with the possibility of taking office.
The presence in various European countries, in exile, of former members of the Catalan Generalitat is giving an international resonance to the whole situation. Whether this would entice the European powers: states, international bodies, parties, media, and opinion leaders to lean onto the Spanish central government and force some form of negotiations with the Catalans, is yet to be seen.
Some new actors have come to the political scene. For most of the Spanish public opinion as well as many Spanish politicians, the whole independence process in Catalonia is promoted, managed, sustained and put forward by a group of independentist zealots ingrained in the Generalitat government with the support of two main civil organisations: Omnium Cultural and ANC. Most of the government members and the leaders of the civil organisations are currently in jail. This would mean the independentist movement has been beheaded. This fails to understand the Catalan reality.
Who really leads the movement is the people. This is not just “big words”. Those great rallies that put more than two million people in Barcelona streets were protagoniced by people from all walks of life. The whole execution of the 1-O referendum, hiding the ballot boxes, occupying the voting centers, resisting the police onslaught and completing the voting was carried out by plain people, volunteers.
There was a subtle grassroots organisation with no leaders nor records that came to be named “<Comités por la Defensa del Referendum Committees for the Defense of the Referendum or CDR. More recently it has changed the name to Comités de Defensa de la República, retaining the same acronym. The CDR’s are now putting civil and peaceful pressure both on the Catalan political parties and the Spanish government: marches, meetings, decorations of public spaces with symbols (mostly yellow ribbons, claiming the freedom of the political prisoners), conferences, interrupting traffic in main thoroughfares, “liberating” tolls in highways, circling official buildings and some other imaginative ways of expressing their will to upkeep a republic independent from Spain. They are organised by towns and city (“barrios”) quarters and they are here to stay.
How I see it, this date.Of course, my view is still partisan and, Alás! optimistic. I am in this for the long run. I see the only way out is the outright independence of Catalonia. No matter what and how long it takes.
I tend to see the Catalan bid for independence as a part, even a solution, to the major crisis of the Spanish state as it is. The Spanish “system” is rotten, corrupted and crumbling, just as the “estaca” (the stake) of the popular Lluis LLach song.The Partido Popular is mired in multiple corruption charges, with some 600 members indicted on charges of embezzlement, misappropriation, graft and general corruption. Corruption means the involvement of corrupted and corrupters, as so many firms and business have been prying public officials for favors. The judiciary has proven not to be independent of the other powers, losing any credibility it may retain. The royal family is involved in scandals that question its very existence. The Catholic church is still meddling shamelessly in public affairs from ultra-conservative positions. The social welfare state is a shambles having consumed all the reserves of the pensions fund, unemployment in double-digit figures and up to 40% of the young. The big problem is not Catalonia and the Catalans. The BIG problem is the Spanish state.
The economy leans heavily on the Catalan exactions. If the fiscal balance between Spain and Catalonia was even, that may solve many of the Catalan needs. But may ruin Spain.
Thus the resistance to any independence movements.
But this will come, sooner or later, to an end. And I see no other than a negotiated separation. Or just a severance, come what it may.
Addendum (to be expanded):
The terror attacks of 17A (of which I have no doubt that it had a very specific origin), the deployment of the piolins (the nickname given to the Spanish Policia Nacional and Guardia civil), the 1rst of October, and the taking of hostages are events that, over the years, should be recognized as «warfare» . Read Sun-Tzu.
Catalonia is not Spain, as already stated by Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, better known as count-duke Olivares, factotum and favorite of Philip the IV, 400 hundred years ago…
Los restos del Imperio
A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children has been found in Canada at a former residential school set up to assimilate indigenous people. The children were students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia that closed in 1978. The discovery was announced on Thursday by the chief of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was a «painful reminder» of a «shameful chapter of our country’s history».
The First Nation is working with museum specialists and the coroner’s office to establish the causes and timings of the deaths, which are not currently known. Rosanne Casimir, the chief of the community in British Columbia’s city of Kamloops, said the preliminary finding represented an unthinkable loss that was never documented by the school’s administrators.
Canada’s residential schools were compulsory boarding schools run by the government and religious authorities during the 19th and 20th Centuries with the aim of forcibly assimilating indigenous youth.
Text from BBC News.
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Seguiremos viendo aparecer los restos de las imposiciones genocidas de los imperios, con niños como víctimas…
Experimentando el racismo
Este es el discurso que pronunció mi nieta Anna al final del año escolar 2021. Anna tiene dieciséis años, es de origen africano (etíope), creció y vive en Zurich, Suiza.
Experimentar el racismo
¡Hola! Mi nombre es Anna Triebold y voy a hablar sobre la experiencia del racismo. Estoy segura de que cada uno de vosotros ha experimentado el racismo de alguna manera. Solemos hablar mucho de eso porque es una discusión muy común, pero ¿qué significa ser racista? ¿Cuál debería ser tu respuesta cuando alguien te dice que estás siendo racista?
El racismo se ha generalizado en nuestra sociedad. La gente usa mucho la palabra racista. Pero, ¿a qué nos referimos cuando llamamos racista a alguien? El racismo es prejuicio. Es la injusticia y la discriminación contra una persona o personas basadas en su pertenencia a un grupo racial o étnico particular. Esto es lo que te dirá Google. Todo esto es cierto, pero lo que interpreto como racismo es mirarme de forma extraña por el color de mi piel, sentarse al otro lado del tren cuando me siento a tu lado, asumir que no hablo el mismo idioma, asumir que no tengo dinero, ser demasiado amable para mostrar lo «no racista» que eres, decirme que tienes «amigos negros», decir que soy muy guapa para alguien con este color de piel y preguntarme de dónde soy hasta que escuchas la respuesta que en realidad querías escuchar. Todas estas cosas me han pasado.
Podrías pensar que esto no es tan malo porque hay personas que son tratadas mucho peor y tienes razón, hay personas con problemas más importantes. Pero eso no hace que sea correcto que yo acepte todas estas cosas. Sé a ciencia cierta que tendré que vivir con esto por el resto de mi vida. Voy a tener que aceptarlo porque eso es lo que me enseñaron a hacer.
Me gustaría darles un ejemplo de algo que sé con certeza que es un problema muy común que la mayoría de las personas negras han experimentado en su vida. La pregunta que les hacen es «¿Puedo tocar tu cabello?» Ahora te preguntarás qué tiene de malo preguntarle a alguien si puedes tocar su cabello. O «Nunca he tocado a un afro y quería ver cómo es la textura». Pedir que alguien te deje tocar el cabello es un comportamiento invasivo y microagresivo. Lo único peor que eso es asumir que está bien tocar el cabello de alguien sin permiso. Si no eres una persona negra, solo quiero que te preguntes esto: ¿cuántas personas te han pedido que les dejes tocar el pelo? Es probable que el número para una persona no negra sea bajo. Al pedir tocar el cabello de una persona negra, estás diciendo que el cabello de los blancos es normal y cualquier cosa diferente es anormal. Otra razón es que deja a una persona negra en una posición incómoda. Solía sentirme obligada a decir que sí, para que la gente no pensase que yo era difícil o mezquina. Si digo que sí, me siento como si estuviera en exhibición.
A veces, el racismo no es algo que se ve. La gente niega el racismo cuando no es visible. Esto significa que la sociedad nos enseñó a negar el racismo. Si alguien fuera acusado de racista lo negaría porque es un tabú social. Las personas a menudo simplemente eligen lo «fácil» o «conveniente» cuando se encuentran en una situación difícil. Pero su cobardía priva a otros de su libertad. Fingir no ver lo que todavía está sucediendo en el mundo solo te vuelve ingenuo e ignorante. Esto no nos hará olvidar los años de esclavitud, sufrimiento y supervivencia y ciertamente no traerá de vuelta los cientos de culturas que han sido eliminadas por la intolerancia. Como resultado, las personas de color comienzan por esforzarse mucho para que los blancos se sientan cómodos con ellos. Si es intencional o no, los blancos se sienten más “normales” cuando una persona de color actúa como blanco frente a ellos. Ahora bien, ¿qué quiero decir con «actuar blanco»? Es para que los blancos se sientan cómodos y estén familiarizados con la forma en que las personas de color se comportan frente a ellos. Entonces, el deseo de que alguien «actúe como blanco» es solo para su beneficio.
Sin embargo, estamos en el siglo XXI. Pensarías que las cosas han cambiado. Pero no es así. La gente todavía muere por su apariencia. La gente no consigue trabajo por el color de su piel. Los niños son abusados porque hablan un idioma diferente. Porque, ¿cómo se atreve alguien a hablar un idioma diferente? ¿Cómo se atreve alguien a caminar con la piel con la que nació? Las personas racistas pueden quitarte tu identidad.
No todas las personas negras se asocian con delitos y no todos los asiáticos son chinos. Dejadme dar un ejemplo: los asiáticos han estado recibiendo mucho odio desde Covid-19, todos lo sabemos. Ahora el racismo contra las personas de ascendencia asiática, que no es nada nuevo, ha aumentado enormemente. Ha habido un aumento en el miedo a abusos racistas debido a los insultos verbales y las agresiones físicas que los asiáticos han estado sufriendo cada vez más. Ahora bien, esto prueba mi punto de nuevo. La gente tiene miedo y en lugar de culparse a sí misma, culpa a la gente que no se parece a ella. Y la única persona a la que se está ayudando al hacerlo es tí mismo. Lo peligroso del racismo es que la gente ya no te ve como una persona, te ven como una amenaza y como algo menos que ellos.
La gente no nace racista. Lo que desencadena el racismo es la sociedad. La sociedad nos enseña a ser racistas. A veces son cosas de las que no eres consciente. Por ejemplo, cuando era pequeña dibujábamos en la escuela. Solían enseñarnos todos los colores. Había este color blanco/rosa y nos enseñaron a llamarlo color carne. Como era pequeña realmente no pensaba en eso. Pero ahora me doy cuenta de que nos estaban mostrando que solo hay un tipo de color de piel. Sabía que no era de ese color, pero de alguna manera nunca pensé en empezar a dibujar la piel de personas con un color más oscuro. Aunque sabía que no tenía el mismo aspecto que mis compañeros de clase. Sabía que no era blanca.
Y ahora, ¿qué se supone que debes hacer cuando una persona de color se te acerca y te dice que eres racista? Lo peor que puedes hacer es NEGARLO. No expliques por qué lo que hiciste no es racista. Acéptalo. Piénsalo. Piensa en cómo lo que hiciste o dijiste podría afectar la salud mental de alguien. Ponte en esa posición. Intenta educarte a tí mismo.
Primavera de 2021
Los niños con riesgo social
Este texto figura como archivo en este blog (https://pedsocial.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/los-nic3b1os-con-riesgo-social-texto-completo.pdf)
Pensamos que reproducirlo como una entrada más puede simplificar el acceso. Escrito en 2012, mantiene su vigencia. Toma unos 10 minutos leerlo. Estudiarlo un poco más.
XA.
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Les enfants de la Creuse – Una historia vergonzante del estado francés
Les enfants de la Creuse figuran en la Wikipedia en inglés como una breve nota. En francés la referencia es más amplia y contempla el affaire en su extensión , desde la primera intervención hasta las más recientes referencias.
A pesar de la proximidad geográfica y mi ocupación en temas que afectan a los derechos de los niños hasta esta tarde no tenía ni noticia de los acontecimientos que determinaron el abuso y maltrato de dos millares de niños por parte del moderno estado francés. Pero no en el siglo XIX u otra época remota, sino ya avanzada la segunda mitad del siglo XX y con consecuencias que llegan hasta la actualidad.
Estaba disfrutando de una larga y aburrida tarde dominical delante de la televisión, cuando tras un desordenado «zapping» nos detuvimos en un telefilm francés «Una mentira olvidada» de formato policiaco, en el que una brava inspectora intenta desentrañar la muerte y sospechado asesinato de una joven de origen africano en una pequeña población de la región de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine, en el centro de Francia. Llama la atención que tanto la inspectora como la víctima resultan ser descendientes de un contingente de niños originarios de la isla de Reunión, en el sur del Océano Índico, traídos a Francia en los años 60 del siglo XX. Ignorante del hecho y estimulada mi curiosidad, os ofrezco el resultado de una breve excursión por la Internet.
En una insólita y desafortunada decisión, el gobierno francés preocupado por la despoblación de ciertas áreas rurales de Francia por el éxodo hacia las grandes ciudades, decidió que una solución podría ser llevar allí personas jóvenes, básicamente niños, que se enraizaran allí. La idea era que se tratase de niños huérfanos o abandonados y dejarlos en custodia de familias sin descendencia. A ello añadieron la perversidad de que fuesen niños sin lazos sociales que, al crecer no se marchasen de donde les habían llevado. Y como perversidad añadida, de características raciales que no les hiciesen fácil desplazarse. En resumen: niños negros. El promotor fue el por entonces diputado y representante en la Asamblea Nacional por la isla de Reunión, Michel Debré, hasta hacía poco, Primer Ministro de la V República.
De 1963 a 1982, 2.150 niños de la isla de Runión, «abandonados o no» y registrados por la fuerza por las autoridades francesas en la Dirección Departamental de Salud y Asuntos Sociales, fueron desplazados por las autoridades para repoblar a los departamentos metropolitanos víctimas del éxodo de las zonas rurales como la Creuse, Tarn, Gers, Lozère, y los Pirineos-Orientales. Los niños desplazados fueron declarados «custodiados estatales», es decir que sus padres ya no tenían ningún derecho sobre ellos. Una minoría de estos niños eran huérfanos. Cientos de padres analfabetos firmaron informes de abandono que no podían descifrar, y que nunca volvieron a ver a sus hijos.
El destino de los niños fue variado. Algunos fueron adoptados, otros se quedaron en las casas que les acogieron o sirvieron como mano de obra gratuita en las granjas, quienes los campesinos de todo el Creuse luego los usaron como «buenos para todo» o » trabajadores sin salarios «. El historiador Ivan Jablonka habla de casos de «esclavitud» o situaciones de maltrato en las familias adoptivas. La mayoría de estos niños «quedaron marcados de por vida».
Todo un desastre.
Mi particular ajuste de cuentas con el pasado me lleva a comentar la figura de Michel Debré o, mejor, en relación con su padre, Robert Debré. Robert Debré (1882-1978) ha sido considerado como el padre de la pediatría francesa moderna. Cuando me aproximé al mundo de la Pediatría académica, a mediados de los años sesenta del siglo XX, los pomposos jerifaltes de la Pediatría española, hablaban y no paraban del profesor Debré. Hay que recordar que el mundo académico español durante los negros años del franquismo era notablemente francófilo. A pesar del odio sarraceno contra Francia y los franceses, antiguo, enraizado en mil conflictos desde Roncesvalles hasta las guerras napoleónicas, el mundo ilustrado español mantenía un cierto papanatismo respetuoso hacia lo francés. La lengua francesa era la mayoritaria como lengua extranjera en institutos y universidades. La proximidad como lengua romance probablemente facilitaba la comprensión lectora, aunque luego fueran muy pocos los que»fablaran gabacho«.(Ver el post: Lenguas y lenguajes). Algunos de los eminentes pediatras españoles de la época estudiaron con el Profesor Debré, mientras otros se limitaron a citarlo como si fuera el oráculo de Delfos. Por muy respetable que fuera, y a la vista de los que se declaraban sus discípulos o seguidores, a mi la Pediatría de síndromes y sindromitos y la persistente manía de los empingorotados catedráticos de llenar las actas de los congresos con comunicacions sobre niños con malformaciones raras o monstruitos diversos, dejó de interesarme en seguida. Me parecía que el único propósito de los catedráticos de Pediatría españoles era descubrir un nuevo caso nunca antes descrito, al que poder asignar su nombre y con ello pasar a la historia de la Pediatría académica. Era como si la sabiduría pediátrica consistiese en recordar la onomástica nosológica, si era posible con tres o cuatro nombres (Marchand-Waterhouse-Frederiksen, Legg-Calvé-Perthes, etc.) en vez de llamar las cosas por su nomenclatura biológica (Sepsis meningocócica, displasia de cadera, p. ej.), manteniendo un arcano reservado a los doctos. Mamonadas de ignorantes.
Mi respeto por el profesor Debré, o mi distante respeto, si acaso, se ve ahora confirmado cuando no supo enseñarle a su hijo, tan listo, tan Primer Ministro y tan poderoso él, que hay cosas que no deben hacerse con los niños. Y una de ellas es separarlos de sus padres y deportarlos a nueve mil kilómetros de distancia por un delirio demográfico.
Michel Debré, meapilas irredento a pesar de descender de unos respetables rabinos judíos de la Alsacia, merece pasar a la historia de los execrables violadores de los derechos de los niños.
X. Allué (Editor)
Mil – 1000
El blog de Pediatría Social cumple con esta 1000 post o entradas. Más o menos once años ininterrumpidos de aportaciones al mundo de la asistencia y la protección de los derechos de los niños. Y de sus familias.
Los textos son todos originales y escritos prácticamente el día de su publicación, como un par de veces por semana. Con este número redondo del millar hemos creído oportuno dar fin a esta tarea.
La historia del blog arranca de una propuesta en el seno de la Junta Directiva de la Sociedad Española de Pediatría, que se aprobó más tarde en la Asamblea general en el 2006. La idea general era que el blog, justo cuando este formato de publicación comenzaba a hacerse popular, sirviese para que los socios de la SEPS tuviesen una plataforma donde publicar aportaciones u opiniones libremente. Hubieron de pasar unos meses antes de que la idea cuajase y por en medio ciertas discrepancias en la Junta Directiva y una reñidas elecciones que no dejaron a nadie contento. Cuando el blog se puso en marcha, en febrero de 2009, ya era evidente que los blogs colectivos no tenían futuro, dejando paso a otros formatos de las redes sociales, y que la mayoría acababan siendo unipersonales. Aceptado el reto, la publicación fue alcanzando un ritmo de crucero que la han llevado hasta hoy. La popularidad del blog ha tenido vaivenes diferentes. Aunque la difusión ha ido disminuyendo con el paso del tiempo, las estadísticas siempre nos han parecido suficientes como para continuar el esfuerzo.
La actitud desgraciada de la Junta Directiva de la SEPS en un momento concreto (otoño de 2017) nos llevó a desvincularnos de la sociedad. Al parecer el conflicto entre Catalunya y España justifica cualquier represión contra los que vivimos y trabajamos en Catalunya. Allá ellos. No les vamos a dedicar nada más que el desprecio.
WordPress, la plataforma en la que publicamos, nos asegura que el blog continuará presente en la red de forma indefinida. Mientras tanto estamos considerando hacer una publicación en papel de una parte del contenido porque aún consideramos que los libros continuarán formando parte del mundo de la comunicación académica.
Puedo asegurar que la edición de este blog ha sido una tarea altamente satisfactoria y que he disfrutado cada post. Si, además, ha podido ser útil para la salud de los niños, nada podría habernos causado más satisfacción.
X. Allué (Editor)
Felices fiestas, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Bones Festes…
Que las fiestas de invierno os sean propicias.
Pediatria social-Social Pediatrics 