community zone
From the Regions
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AO Middle Europe: building the new harmony This burgeoning region reflects European culture and civilization as well as its geographic location.
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Jarek Brudnicki Orthopedics and Trauma Clinic, Rydygier Hospital, Academy of Physical Education Cracow, Poland jarek.brudnicki@aoalumni.org jarbru@mp.pl
Everyone knows that proverbs, which are present in every culture, often contain a profound wisdom. A Polish proverb says: “Harmony builds, discord ruins.” Our history confirms this truth. AO Middle Europe: an open group of nations In 2005, at the first regional course in Portoroz, Slovenia, representatives of that country together with those from Israel, Turkey, Hungary, and Poland signed a letter of intent proposing the creation of a new AO region. We wanted to create a union of countries with similar economies, clinical experience, and political conditions to facilitate scientific exchanges, make access to the AO’s philosophy and courses easier, and to share our experience. We wanted to affirm our potential to be recognized as equal and rightful members of the AO family. The idea of creating a new region met with great enthusiasm from other European countries and from representatives of AO Education and the AO as a whole. Soon other countries interested in the idea of regional cooperation joined the core group of signatories. We knew we had a lot of work to do. European countries are more diverse than those in Latin or North America in that we have different cultures, languages (even alphabets) and religions,
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and sometimes a cruel and painful history behind us. We spent many hours in discussion, organized and held many meetings, and sent many letters to set up the rules of cooperation. We decided to call ourselves the AOMID region. Firstly, for Middle Europe, but also to reference the Mediterranean Sea–the cradle of European culture and civilization. We are an open group and we do not want to be recognized only as a union of countries from Middle Europe. From the moment the idea for an AOMID region was born, we received strong support from the AO in organizing regional courses and other events. We were also lucky in that we had great leaders: Andrej Ales from Slovenia and Rami Mosheiff from Israel. We constantly improved our courses, corrected mistakes, and worked to create a spirit of cooperation and to bring about as many benefits as possible. Our efforts were well appreciated and now, after our last meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece, in April 2008, there are 15 countries either united in AOMID or applying for membership. AOMID faculty dominate regional courses After three years we can say that in a sense we are already successful. During the third regional course, in Antalya, Turkey, in 2007, the faculty