THE
YOUNG INTERNATIONALS
(A
young professionals group sponsored by the Italy-America Chamber
of Commerce)
YIG
July 27 th at Brennan's Restaurant
On
July 27 th , the YIG met for the second time at Brennan's Restaurant
and, after a charming cocktail in the garden, the extraordinary
presence of Lisa Whitaker delighted the guests speaking about
her life and work.
Lisa
Whitaker, Sovietologist and CEO of The Living Bank, made an outline
of her life in Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall and
her no-profit activity at medical organizations, above all in
Saint Petersburg.
Here
a brief summery of the main topics she treated.
Her
definition about the situation before the fall of the Berlin Wall
was quite interesting: it was a sort of “poker game on the rise”,
where the Americans continued to raise the stake and the only
possible reaction for Russia was unproductive investments (such
as the rearrangement of the Russian fleet).
Her
conclusion regarding the actual situation in Russia is that there
is a relevant gap between a small cleptocrazy made up of rich
Russian businessmen and a real poor country. The risk, enlighted
by Lisa, is that Russia could fall again under a dictatoirship
if the world does not prevent it by keeping open the comunication
channels to make people aware.
Communication,
she noticed, has to be used at every level, from internet, to
the collaboration between hospitals, to the use of American doctors
training Russian equipe. Bitter smiles
when she said that, at the moment, the most useful and
important instrument to improve the sanitary system could be CAT,
meaning the animal, to stop mice invasion of hospitals.
Another
interesting aspect she explainded was her travelling around distributing
medicines to hospitals, pointing out how difficult and risky it
was, especially because sometimes people did not admit their effective
needs or because it was settled in war zones.
The
public really enjoyed the event, as a matter of fact, at the end
of the speech, Lisa was overwhelmed by interesting and passionate
questions, that really enchanted her public.
The
speech was really appreciated and YIG looks forward meeting you
all again.
Lisa
Whitaker, on the right, with some participants.
