The 58th IFMSA General Assembly was held in Tunisia
The International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFMSA) is one of the largest international student organizations. Established after the Second World War by a group of European medical students based on their passion and ideals, currently the IFMSA has about 100 member states located in five continents, including Taiwan. The 58th General Assembly is held in Tunisia, Africa, from March 3rd to 8th, 2009. I was extremely lucky to have the opportunity to participate in this significant event.
This was an exceptional and meaningful activity, and the assembly is themed on Conflict and Health, with matching subjects in each division. I took part in the Vice President for External Affairs Forum.
Medical Students Understand More than the Medical Science
The subject of the pre-General Assembly is Media and Conflict. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time for the IFMSA to select a subject not directly relating to the medical science, because the consensus that medical students should have a broad horizon to engage in various affairs has been formed gradually and resulted in a breakthrough in mentality.
The author (right) took a picture with a Slovenian delegate. The poster behind them is about a project of the Teddy Bear Hospital.
The author (standing) made a presentation in a session.
In media related issues, ethical issues are highlighted, and we concluded the following main areas of dilemmas:
(1)publicity v.s. sustainability: should the media focus on the latest, the most popular news, or should they concern important and far-reaching issues? Some do not
think a dilemma ever exists in these two dimensions; however, when resources and time are limited, a priority must be set between the two dimensions.
(2)visibility v.s. respect: how much and to what degree can the media investigate and explore facts? How can a balance be achieved between news appeal and
respect for the persons involved?
(3)fact inflation and honesty: in order to showcase certain standpoint or uniqueness, news reports sometimes selectively present facts, but does this violate the code of honesty?
(4)appeal to pity v.s. human dignity: do the media report out of compassion or the thrill of peeping?
Though it is not possible to reach a concrete conclusion from the above discussions, the overarching principle is humane perspective and compassion. The end note of this forum is "Honger is nieuws" (Famine is news): we need to ponder and examine deeply when people consider famine is but only another news image!
