Last night I finished an eleven day conference. As I was pushing my scooter from its parking spot, a car turning the corner ran into me, knocked me down, and ran over my foot. In contrast to my last accident, which happened days before my brother's wedding, this has been a relatively easy experience. The Swiss health care system was incredibly efficient.
My coworkers have been lovely. One escorted me to the hospital and then to my house, where he took Desmond out and even gave me a lesson in how to use crutches. Another took care of bringing my scooter to the office, and yet another took the computers I was carrying. The Danish Red Cross team witnessed the accident, and they gave police statements and cared for me while I was waiting for the ambulance.
Last weekend at TEDxRC2, I saw a presentation by a doctor from Afghanistan who ran a prosthetic clinic. He told us about an afternoon when the streets of Kabul cleared suddenly, leaving only a man, Mahmoud, in the middle of the road. The man had no legs and only one arm. Although the doctor's clinic had been closed by the government as "non-essential," Dr. Cairo asked Mahmoud to meet him there the following morning. The leg-less man, with a line of others, were queued before the doctor arrived.
After Mahmoud received prostheses and learned to use them, he returned to the clinic, asking for a job. He said that he was tired of begging and wanted to do something that would make his family proud. He didn't want a hand-out; he wanted work. The doctor was skeptical, but gave Mahmoud a week's trial. Mahmoud became the most productive worker in the artificial leg factory. This instigated a policy of "positive discrimination," wherein the clinic proactively tries to hire people with disabilities to create opportunity and hope for others. (P.S. Keep an eye on www.tedxrc2.com for the touching video of Alberto's story.)
