In front of barred doors in Seattle
Pascal Strupler is Director of Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health
What I expect from Geneva 2010 is primarily an active exchange of experience and ideas between participants. Great numbers of people from different countries, representing a wide range of professions and cultures will come together, so we will all be able to benefit from each other. As Director of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) I would like to thank all participants at the IUHPE World Conference for embracing the opportunity to take on this crucial subject matter.
I also want to encourage you to establish contact with as many people as possible and, if possible, beyond your own profession in order to enrich your own work and add new perspectives to your cooperation. Health promotion and prevention rate high on our office’s priority list. The fact that the conference this year deals with the triad „Health Promotion – Equity – Sustainable Development” is further motivation for us to support this conference. It has been shown that a development that is not sustainable harms the health of people and that improving equity contributes to better health. Although I have participated in a host of conferences during my career, I have never tired of them.
The participation at conferences, whether out of personal choice or job-related, was never a chore, but a source of inspiration to me, in defiance of the torrent of words I had to digest. I really have been lucky so far. I had one remarkable experience I will never forget. At the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in December 1999, demonstrators prevented the Swiss delegation – and delegations of some 134 states – from entering the conference centre. As a result, some of the discussions about the liberalization of world trade took place in a quasi-direct democratic fashion in the streets of Seattle.
Pascal Strupler is Director of Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health
What I expect from Geneva 2010 is primarily an active exchange of experience and ideas between participants. Great numbers of people from different countries, representing a wide range of professions and cultures will come together, so we will all be able to benefit from each other. As Director of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) I would like to thank all participants at the IUHPE World Conference for embracing the opportunity to take on this crucial subject matter.
I also want to encourage you to establish contact with as many people as possible and, if possible, beyond your own profession in order to enrich your own work and add new perspectives to your cooperation. Health promotion and prevention rate high on our office’s priority list. The fact that the conference this year deals with the triad „Health Promotion – Equity – Sustainable Development” is further motivation for us to support this conference. It has been shown that a development that is not sustainable harms the health of people and that improving equity contributes to better health. Although I have participated in a host of conferences during my career, I have never tired of them.
The participation at conferences, whether out of personal choice or job-related, was never a chore, but a source of inspiration to me, in defiance of the torrent of words I had to digest. I really have been lucky so far. I had one remarkable experience I will never forget. At the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in December 1999, demonstrators prevented the Swiss delegation – and delegations of some 134 states – from entering the conference centre. As a result, some of the discussions about the liberalization of world trade took place in a quasi-direct democratic fashion in the streets of Seattle.
