Seminar Health is not a Commerce in Pszczyna/Polen

The Hendrik Kraemer House - Dutch Eucumenical Community invites European students for a seminar about politics of health. The seminar takes place in Pszczyna, a small city, 20 km from Auschwitz, 100 km from Krakow. We will visit the memorial place of Auschwitz and Birkenau and share our impressions about what happened there. We will also visit the city of Krakow and have a historical city-tour. During different workshops the questions about health and health organisation will be disussed:

• What do we know about health?

• How can a society build up health organisations which can be payed?

• How do different european countries manage their health system?

• How can be avoided that health is misused?

• What about nazi-politics and Auschwitz?

• What can we learn from Bible and Religion about healing and health?

• Which kind of alternative methods exist to the usual health systems?

We want to discuss these questions in workshops and discussions and also share our own experiences and backgrounds from different countries. We will prepare some bible studies about health. The seminar is planned for 15 students of European countries. We will speak English. We are guest in the protestant community (Parafia Evangelicko Augsburska Vpszczynie) in Pszczyna.

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Sat 26. 4. BERLIN

• 3.00 p.m. Arrival of participants from the Netherlands and Germany and lunch in the Hendrik Kraemer House in Berlin

• 4.00 p.m. Visit of the Jewish Museum in Berlin

• 11.00 p.m. Travel by nighttrain to Kattowice and Pszczyna / Polen

At 15.00 p.m. the participants from the Netherlands and Germany arrive at the Hendrik-Kraemer-House (HKH) in Berlin. After a short first meeting the group visits the Jewish Museum, build by Daniel Liebeskind, in the neighbourhood of the HKH. At dinner we meet the retired chaplain of the HKH, rev. Bé Ruys. At 23.00 p.m. we travel by night-train to Pszczyna in Poland.

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Sun 27. 4. PSZCZYNA

• 9.00 a.m. Breakfast

• 10.00 a.m. Worship in the protestant community of Pszczyna

• 1.00 p.m. Lunch

• 2.00 p.m. Introduction of the programm
  Visit of the Jewish Cemetary in Pszczyna

We arrive in the early morning and walk to the house of the local chaplain of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church. We go to the Sunday service and although the language is ununderstandable for us, we hear several times the name of Thomas, so the lecture of this Sunday after Eastern must be John 21: 24-29.

The chaplaincy of Pszczyna is our place to stay during the seminar and the basement with kitchen, the first floor with three sleeping-rooms and sanitary and also the garden were at our disposition. A nice place to be, although the temperature is low on which we have to get accustomed to.

In the afternoon we walk through te village to visit the Jewish cemetery, near to the road between Pszczyna and Oswieçim (Auschwitz).

At evening time the group participants is complete and we start with the program: introduction.

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Mon 28. 4.

• 9.30 p.m. Workshop 1: Introduction. Health in ecumenical, economical and ecological perspectives, Bible study

• 1.00 p.m. Lunch

• Afternoon City-tour through Pszczyna

• Evening Discussion with Rev. Jan Badura, Lutheran Chaplain in Pszczyna

The first subject

Information about the World Council of Christian Churches (WCC).
An Assemblee is organised every 7 or 8 years. The last one was in Harrare, Zimbabwe. The WCC is important for the young churches. The main programs on which the HKH is attending: anti-racism, anti-mammon, anti-globalisation are strongly connected with the themes of the WCC.

The Roman Catholic Church is not a member, nevertheless we use the word oecumene (greek) and it means: the whole habituated world. Oikos is the word for house; it occurs in terms as economy, ecology. And that is the point of discussion: in an intensive habituated world we have to re-think economy because of the vulnerable state of ecology. Although economy is a sub-system is seems to reign the reality and it has gotten priority in our consciousness. Ecology should have the priority, but it hasn’t, with all the disastrous effects on it: an un-healthy situation.

The second subject

What is health. We try to define it. A few definitions of the members of the group: Health is the feeling of wholeness and satisfaction of all parts; the ultimate quality in the relations of a person with himself and with his environment; the degree in which body and mind can work in the way they are intended to work; the dependence on the genetical and psychological precondition of an organism.

Bible study: Marc 5

The healing through Jesus of the blood flowing woman and the arising of the daughter of Jairus. The two stories are familiar to each other: one person is given back to herself, and the other to her social relations.

In the evening we meet our landlord, Reverend Jan Badura and he tells us about the history of his Lutheran church in Poland. The parish of Jan Badura counts up to 1500 members. The sovereign of the region round Pszczyna sympathised in the time of the Reformation with Luther and Melanchton. The noble family later on loved music and stimulated composers like Telemann to visit Pszczyna. This side of Poland is influenced by Germany and was for several years part of Prussia. Much people were of German origin and left Poland after World War II; those who stayed beyond left their possessions.

Poland has 39 millions of inhabitants, over 90% of them are Roman-Catholic; other Christian churches in Poland: Orthodox, Old-catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Baptist church.

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Thue 29.4.

• Visit of Auschwitz and Birkenau, fascism and medical science

Excursion to Auschwitz

The area of the former concentration camp is closed for the public because of the Holocaust Day. Instead there was the „March of Life“ of 2500 people from Israel, Poland, Australia and South Africa including Jewish survivors of WWII. The presidents of Poland and Israel lead the March from Birkenau to Auschwitz.

Health Systems

The main focus in this workshop is on the health systems in different countries. We discuss The Netherlands, Germany (representatives of Western Europe), Ukraine, Poland (representatives of eastern Europe) and India.

The Netherlands & Germany

In the Netherlands every person has to be health insured. There is a state system of insurance. Above that there is a private insurance market, which provides better services according to the insurance fee. The health care is structured in three “lines”. To the first line belongs the general doctor, the dentist. A patient has to go to one of this first line, before he can visit a specialist (second line) or the hospital or nursery home (third line). One of the main problems of the health system in the Netherlands are the long waiting lists for surgery. Therefore private clinics, where one has to pay extra, are establish parallel to the public ones, which provide surgery without waiting.

The main problem in Germany is the high insurance fee. There are at the moment large discussions, how to reduce the costs of the health system. One approach is to charge the patients for extra services. One of the main advantages of the German health system is the free choose of doctor. This is one of the main differences to the Netherlands. There is no “line”-system in Germany. Additionally to the direct health care, the governments have a general health policy, which covers food & working condition inspections as well as sport subsidising and disease prevention campaigns.

Ukraine & Poland

In both countries, the health system was based on a communism political system. Formally the health care is free (Ukraine) or covered by a low health insurance fee (Poland). But since the health personal is badly paid, the public health care is in a bad shape. Doctors are only providing a proper heath care, when they are bribed. So a black market system developed along the state system, which was already established in the time of the communists, but the bridle grew even worse after the breakdown of the systems. In Poland has been a scandal two years ago, where doctors, bribed by funeral companies, killed people on purpose.

India

In India, health has been declared as a human right. Nevertheless, the public health care is in a bad shape. Sick people have to travel long distances to reach the next hospital and have to pay for the travel themselves. Parallel to the public health system, two other kinds of hospitals are established: 1. Mission hospitals: They are based on a solidarity system, which charge the poor a lot less than the wealthy. They are providing an excellent health care, but they can’t effort up to date diagnosis machinery. 2. Private hospitals: They charge a lot of money for their service, but provide the newest technologies for their patients. More and more rich people use these private hospitals and not the mission hospitals, which damages the financial background of the mission hospitals. New initiatives try to educate common people the essentials of disease prevention and use of herbs for curing purposes. One of the basic demands is three meals for every person in India.

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Wed 30.4.

• 9.30 a.m. Workshop 2: Medical research and interests of profit, Bible study

• 1.00 p.m. Lunch

• Afternoon Workshop 3: The logic of the pharma business

• Evening Spare time

Bible Study: 2.Kings 1-27 Elisa heals Naaman and punishes Gehasi

The „Book of Kings“ in the Bible has the name „Early Prophets“ in the Jewish tradition.
The two main figures in this Book are Elia and Elisa. The stories in this book are a lot of times critic on the Kings. The main point of the story is, that low person like the slave girl gets involved without having any profit from her action. She shares her knowledge without fee, the same does Elisa. He even punishes his servant Gehasi, who is just interested in mammon. So this story shows the conflict with the interaction with money. It is okay to gain rewards to share with the public, but it’s not okay to gain rewards to accumulate it for oneself.

Excursion to Auschwitz

A: Auschwitz I
B: Auschwitz II Birkenau
C: Train station Oświęcim

The area and the buildings of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau are open to visitors. Only in Auschwitz I some blocks, where the departments of the museum accommodate administration, are not accessible. In Auschwitz II Birkenau there is free entrance to all barracks. In order to get a real impression from the place, which became the symbol of the Shoah ( “Holocaust”), an attendance of both places, both Birkenau and Auschwitz, was done.

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Thur 1.5.

• Visit of Krakow, the old city and Kazimierz (former Jewish part)

It’s Labourday and we will visit Krakow.

We rise at 6.00 and take the train at 7.25. Upon arriving in Krakow we split up into smaller groups. We visit the Wawel, the royal fortress, and various beautiful churches, eastern-orthodox and catholic. In the morning Bas, Sabine and Beate visit a debate about the effects of EU enlargement on the Polish small farmer communities.

At 14.00 we assemble again for a guided tour by Sabine of Krakow’s Jewish quarters called Kazimierz. Before World War II 65.000 Jews lived here and consequently there are a lot of synagogues and Jewish remains. We visit some, including a cemetery. Sabine tells us that grave stones were taken away by the Germans to be used as pavement for concentration camp roads. They have now been brought back but some were broken; they are used in one wall on the inside of the cemetery. Sabine also tells us that the film Schindler’s List was filmed partly in this part of Krakow, which makes sense because the story also took place here. The tour ends at 16.00 and we disperse again for some time on our own. We leave Krakow by train at 19.00.

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Fri 2.5.

• 9.30 a.m. Workshop 4: Health systems in the countries of the participants

• 1.00 p.m. Lunch

• Afternoon Workshop 5: Philosophy and praxis of alternative healing methods

After breakfast at 8.30 we start at 9.30 with looking back at our visit to Krakow.

After this Magda tells us something about Polish history.

First she tells us that Krakow had for a long time been under Austrian rule, and that during this long time there was a lot of cultural freedom in the city. This drew many artists, poets, and musicians to the city and consequently Krakow became a flourishing cultural center.

She also tells us that tomorrow, 3rd of May, is Constitution day in Poland. It is an official holiday so al shops will be closed and it remembers the day when Poland received, as the first country in Europe, a real constitution. This constitution was based on the constitution of the united states of America, and was made a few years after it’s adoption in America. Unfortunately it was only in effect for a short time, because the rulers did not except it.

In 1791 the Polish people helped Napoleon in his advance towards Russia by providing soldiers and support. In return they were promised an independent state, but only ever received a very small state including Warsaw and it’s surroundings. Eventually Napoleon retreated from Russia and was defeated, and the kingdom of Warsaw also disappeared.

In the coming years Poland was slowly divided in three parts belonging to it’s three larger neighbours; Prussia, Russia and Austria-Hungary. Despite the division the Poles still retained a single identity, because they still used their Polish language and also because they were all mostly a part of the catholic church. This single identity led the Poles to try time and again to unite all Poles in one nation-state, however they were always unsuccessful and remained divided. This division of the country is also important for the Polish mentality; it is still always very divided.

Pharmaceutical companies

At 10.20 am we start our workshop about pharmaceutical companies. Bas had prepared an opening speech and argued that the fact that pharmaceutical companies want profit is leading to unethical practices. In their minds market enlargement is desirable and this means that more illness among the people is better for them. The industrial producers of medication he claims, are also adding addictive elements tot their drugs in an attempt to extend their use by patients. He also argues that advertisement is unnecessary for products which you need. It is only making the product more expensive and enlarging the profit of the companies. Companies are also said to do inadequate testing on their products in order to save time, and if they do test, he says, they hide the negative results and bring the product on the market anyway. A solution to this problem is to let a government agency perform this testing and force the companies to provide the test results to patients and doctors so they know what the side-effects of using the drug will be. This is already happening in many Western countries, but is often lacking in third world countries.

Bas also notices that the medicine-market works different than the ordinary market; the patient consumes the drug, but the doctor decides which drug he should take, while the insurance company pays for it. The industry produces and sells the product while the government hopefully tests it.

The World Health Organization has made a list of 300 drugs which are necessary for all treatments performed by doctors. However there are over 4000 drugs on the market and this makes it very difficult for doctors to choose among them. Bangladesh has therefore banned all drugs other than the 300 on the WHO list, but western countries responded very negatively to this.

Research in medicine is done at both universities and companies, but the research at universities is getting less independent because these days companies are paying for ever larger parts of their research programs. The point is made that this is simply a consequence of the fact that governments are paying less and less money for research. Universities then simply start looking for other sources of money so they can still continue to do research.

It is also noted that while universities do more fundamental research, companies tend to focus on the application of science to make products.

The requirement of drugs for treatment is also discussed; some people feel that in some cases drugs are being used to suppress the symptoms, while attention should be paid to the underlying source of the disease. For example unhealthy lifestyles and social difficulties should be changed instead of prescribing pills. A suggestion is made that maybe both require attention; in cases where the source will take longer to eradicate it is better to combat the symptoms while working on a more permanent solution.

The testing of drugs on persons is also discussed; Nadia knows from experience that there are three steps in testing; earlier stages involve cell material and rats, and only in the last stage are they tested on test persons. Beate notes that in Poland many people offer themselves as test persons for money.
The workshop ends at 12.00.

Bible-study: John 9:1-41 The blind-born man

The program starts again at 16.00 with a bible study about John 9:1-41 by Kees Kuyvenhoven.

Kees draws our attention to the similarities in words between this text and Genesis 1, the beginning of Gods creating work. He thinks that this is a message to the reader that we witness here the creation of a new world and of the first man in it.

The blind man is first in the darkness and then when he washes himself he is created into the new world, which he can then see. Kees also tells us about the equivalence between the Jewish menorah and the seven days of creation. He explains that the three branches on the left can be seen as the introduction of new elements into the world; light, water and earth. On the right side, counting inwards then are connected with them the stars on day four, and the fish on day five and the animals on the earth on day six. In the middle the week is completed by the holy Shabbat resting day.

The discussion in the story comes to the existence of disease in the world. It is said that God has a plan with the world and that he sends disease, but not as a punishment for sin to the people who get ill. Man is also noted to have free will, and if he sins he feels guilty but God looks beyond his guilt and wants to forgive him so he can better his life. Some people may think that one should better his life before God can forgive you, but it is exactly the other way around. First God must forgive you and only then can you better your life. The blind man is helped and then he believes in Jesus. This believing is not a choice but a gift. So it also happens in our lives; the spirit visits man and he believes, it just happens. Everyone should love oneself because they are a gift from God. Life is holy and God’s gift, God doesn’t want people to lose their lives, but collective sin takes their life away.

Alternative health systems

At 18.15 we start to talk about Alternative health systems. It is asked what we would want in our new health system. Very obvious suggestions such as cheap but good health care for everyone and less corruption are mentioned. We end at 19.00 and have dinner.

After dinner we go back to the conversation about alternatives. The solidarity-principle of Germany is stated to be a good thing and there seems to be an agreement that it is so. It is mentioned that lessons in school about healthy lifestyles and self-care would be a good thing and would result in less ill people later. The idea is raised that the global financial market should be taxed and the money used to provide cheaper health care for all the people in the world. Doubts about our modern stressful city lives are raised but it is also mentioned that progress has produced a longer average lifespan.

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Sat 3.5.

• 9.30 a.m. Conclusions and evaluation

• Afternoon Contact with the protestant community and celebration

• Evening Packing

• Night Departure by train to Berlin

The seminar is shortly evaluated: we all notice our remarks on this very interesting conference. We close the discussion and we get ready to leave for Berlin and further home in Germany and Holland. Many thanks to Bas Wielenga and Sabine Albrecht of the Hendrik-Kraemer-Haus!

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Sun 4.5. BERLIN

• Hendrik-Kraemer-Haus, breakfast and the possibility to get in contact with the Dutch community, Departure (afternoon).

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