1. INTRODUCING
THE FUNDAMENTAL
PRINCIPLES
PART 1

2. INTRODUCING
HUMANITY
Out of the chaos
The flash of recognition
Of a human eye.

3. INTRODUCING
IMPARTIALITY
Seeing beyond
Clothes, religion, race, culture
To life’s beating heart.

4. INTRODUCING
NEUTRALITY
Embracing difference –
Seeing the whole repeated
In each of the parts.

5. INTRODUCING
VOLUNTARISM
The well of feeling
Rising above the surface,
Making new pathways.

6. INTRODUCING
INDEPENDENCE
Strong navigator –
Not swayed by fear or favour –
On course through the maze.

7. INTRODUCING
UNITY
From all directions,
Streams and rivers creating
Humanity’s sea.

8. Roots in all cultures,
The great tree of humanity
Unfurling new leaves.
INTRODUCING
UNIVERSALITY

9. PART 2
PRACTICAL
ACTION

10. PRACTICAL ACTION:
WE CARE
We care. Everywhere.
In front page disasters and
In forgotten wars.

11. PRACTICAL ACTION:
WE DELIVER
We deliver. In
Emergencies: food, shelter, hope,
Water, medicine.

12. PRACTICAL ACTION:
WE STOP HUNGER
We stop hunger. Here
And now and for tomorrow,
Helping rebuild lives.

13. PRACTICAL ACTION:
WE QUENCH THIRST
We quench thirst. Not just
Plastic bottles of water –
Tube-wells, irrigation.

14. PRACTICAL ACTION:
WE TEACH
We teach. We explain
Humanitarian law
For every nation.

15. PRACTICAL ACTION:
WE BRING HOPE
We bring hope. We reach
Behind locked doors and become
The prisoner’s friend.

16. PRACTICAL ACTION:
WE UNITE
We unite the lost
Children of the aftermath
With their families.

17. PART 3
COMMUNICATING THE
FUNDAMENTAL
PRINCIPLES

18. COMMUNICATING
HUMANITY
Humanity can
Never be bought or sold and
It is not a brand.

19. COMMUNICATING
IMPARTIALITY
Impartiality:
Don’t lose your meaning in
The cultural gap.

20. COMMUNICATING
NEUTRALITY
Neutrality: free
From political, racial,
Religious messages.

21. COMMUNICATING
INDEPENDENCE
Independence: not
To be manipulated,
Used, sold or traded.

22. COMMUNICATING
VOLUNTARY SERVICE
Voluntary service:
The act born of empathy
Is the pure message.

23. COMMUNICATING
UNITY
Unity: open
To everyone: the language
Of humanity.

24. COMMUNICATING
UNIVERSALITY
Universality:
One song of humanity
In every dialect.

25. PART 4
TALKING
HENRY DUNANT

26. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
SAMARITAN
Jean Henry Dunant:
Samaritan from Geneva:
World citizen.

27. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
HOME TOWN
The White Gentleman:
He is from my home town: at
Least he seems to be.

28. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
CONSCIENCE
The man of conscience
Cannot look away: he has
No choice but action.

29. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
BLOOD
The uniforms were
Different but the blood is
All the same colour.

30. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
MORTAL DIFFERENCES
Both sides bleed and die:
Mortal differences are
Not even skin deep.

31. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
SOLFERINO
Solferino dawn:
Now they are fallen they have
So much in common.

32. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
TUTTI FRATELLI
Chiesa Maggiore:
Five hundred men lie injured:
Tutti fratelli.

33. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
MOTHERS
Enmity is death.
Castiglione mothers
Every injured son.

34. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
WITNESS
The witness of war
Wrote the truth, paid the printer
And appealed for action.

35. TALKING HENRY DUNANT:
INSTINCT
He did not wait to
Be asked, approved or sponsored:
He worked on instinct.

36. PART 5
TALKING
JEAN PICTET

37. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
CEMENT
Red Cross actions like
Stones in an edifice. The
Cement: principles.

38. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
FLOWER
The flower of action –
Once plucked by officialdom –
Will wither and die.

39. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
BUREAUCRACY
We must not let the
Bureaucratic machinery
Destroy the garden.

40. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
BEWARE
Beware invasive
Professionalism which
Kills initiative.

41. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
DOCTOR
The caring doctor:
Not only curing sickness:
Promoting health.

42. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
PREVENTION
Prevention is better,
Cheaper, happier than cure –
But makes no headlines.

43. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
HAPPINESS
To give happiness
Is the greatest charity –
Free and contagious.

44. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
NO MERIT
There is no merit
To be found in grey walls, sour
Faces, tasteless food.

45. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
NEVER AN OBJECT
A human being
Is never an object or
A means to an end.

46. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
ONLY CASUALTIES
For the Red Cross there
Are no just or unjust wars:
Only casualties.

47. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
TRANSITION
The Red Cross journey:
PER HUMANITATEM AD
PACEM: transition.

48. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
SYMBOL
The symbol of peace
In the midst of combat: a
Moral element.

49. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
THE SWIMMER
Head above water –
Swimming in politics but
Never swallowing.

50. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
THE COMPASS
The compass needle:
Selflessness. The Golden Rule:
Gold counts for nothing.

51. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
LIGHT
If there is no light
Within us, how shall we find
The path in the darkness?

52. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
SOLIDARITY
Solidarity:
The duty to help marries
The right to receive.

53. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
KEEPING ON THE TRACK
A train of actions:
Not prepared to leave the track
Of the possible.

54. TALKING JEAN PICTET:
TRUE AID
True aid consists in
Making the man who suffers
Into a free man.

55. PART 6
A QUESTION
OF QUALITY

56. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
CHOICE & INVOLVEMENT
Is it generous
To give pork sausages
To hungry muslims?

57. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
COMPETENCE & ACCURACY
Will the food arrive
If the driver is lost and
Cannot read the map?

58. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
EFFECTIVE ACCESS
Is the open sign
Contradicted by a closed
Unwelcoming face?

59. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
EFFECTIVE REDRESS
Are you too busy
To answer questions? And too
Proud to delegate?

60. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
EMPATHY
When you meet can you
Feel the other heart beat, stand
In the other’s shoes?

61. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
EQUITY
Is it a question
Of how long the string is or
How long it needs to be?

62. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
INFORMATION
Do you stop to check
You are heard and understood
Or broadcast regardless?

63. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
RELIABILITY
Are your words really
Foundations for building
Or castles in the air?

64. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
REPRESENTATION
Do representatives
Tell you how it feels
On the receiving end?

65. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
RESPONSIVENESS
Is there a keyworker
To open the door
Of co-operation?

66. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
SECURITY & SAFETY
Can you be trusted?
Are vulnerable people
Quite safe in your hands?

67. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
TANGIBLE ISSUES
Is the reception
As comfortable as
The director’s office?

68. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
USER STATUS
Do you show respect?
Or do you look down on the
Person you’re helping?

69. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
PARTICIPATION
Did you think that you
Could make the jigsaw with half
The pieces missing?

70. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
ORCHESTRATION
Is our ensemble
A concerted harmony
Or a cacophony?

71. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
IMAGINATION
Can you imagine
If she was in your shoes and
You were barefooted?

72. A QUESTION OF QUALITY:
UNDERSTANDING
The barefoot Red Cross:
Must start from where people are,
Build on what they know.

73. PART 7
COMMUNICATION

74. BATTLING BABEL:
BATTLE
Battle of language:
Principles are hostages,
Prisoners of thought.

75. BATTLING BABEL:
HI-JACK
Empty, hi-jacked words
- justice, human rights, charity -
stolen from humanity.

76. BATTLING BABEL:
SNOW TYRES
They cannot buy you
Credibility by
Selling you like snow tyres.

77. BATTLING BABEL:
TEN PER CENT
Adding ten per cent
Of black to all your colours
Does not help you care.

78. BATTLING BABEL:
THE OTHER SIDE
Waiting for posters:
Wrong messages but the backs
Are virgin paper.

79. BATTLING BABEL:
MISSING THE POINT
Word processed papers,
Power point presentations,
Miles from reality.

80. BATTLING BABEL:
MINUTES
Minutes of meetings.
Tick. Tock. Worlds apart from the
Minutes of agony.

81. BATTLING BABEL:
BRIDGES
We can only travel
On bridges built from
Both sides of the river.

82. BATTLING BABEL:
MEANING
Say what you mean and
Mean what you say. In that way
We know where we are.

83. BATTLING BABEL:
LISTEN!
Have you come here to
Tell me what I need or to
Ask me what I want?

84. BATTLING BABEL:
TWO-WAY
Communication
Is a two-way process
Or a waste of time.

85. BATTLING BABEL:
TOUCH
The touch of your hand
Can communicate hope if
You have hope to give.

86. BATTLING BABEL:
TONE
The tone of your voice
Can offer more shelter than
The refugee tent.

87. BATTLING BABEL:
LOOK
The look in your eye
Can offer more strength than the
Food you are serving.

88. BATTLING BABEL:
SECRETS
Beware protocols,
Locked doors, closed files, dark secrets,
Red tape inertia.

89. BATTLING BABEL:
THINK!
Acting without thought
Compounds disaster. Think! And
Think and think. Then Act.

90. BATTLING BABEL:
RESPONSIBILITY
Everyone is
Responsible to everyone:
Eyes, ears, hands, heart, brain.

91. PART 8
TODAY’S
DILEMMAS

92. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
WHEN TO SPEAK
To understand when
To speak out and when to work
Anonymously.

93. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
HOW TO SPEAK
To avoid the tricks
Of advertising: to give
Real information.

94. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
BRIDGING THE GAP
To bridge the gap
Between clean theory and
Muddy reality.

95. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
LOST FOR WORDS
To communicate
In this strange world of spin and
Stolen languages.

96. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
ORIENTATION
To keep our bearings
When the compass swings wildly
And the sky is dark.

97. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
RESISTING POLITICS
To resist the lure
Of politics, slippery slope
To partisanship.

98. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
CONTINUING TO CARE
To keep caring in
Disasters which threaten to
Overwhelm reason.

99. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
STRIKING A BALANCE
To strike a balance
Between helping others and
Living our own life.

100. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
INSPIRED BY LOVE
To continue to
Be inspired by love and not
By selfish motives.

101. TODAY’S DILEMMAS:
PERSPECTIVE
To stand back from the
Single thread we weave and see
The entire fabric.

102. PART 9
THE KEYS TO
THE FUTURE

103. THE KEY OF
HUMANITY
Humanity.
Respect for others. The key to
A human future.

104. THE KEY OF
IMPARTIALITY
Impartiality.
The key which opens borders
In lands and minds.

105. THE KEY OF
NEUTRALITY
Neutrality. The
Key which opens prison doors
And must never be sold.

106. THE KEY OF
INDEPENDENCE
Independence. The
Key to the kindergarten,
Research lab and truth.

107. THE KEY OF
VOLUNTARY SERVICE
Voluntary service.
Key to connectedness and
Gateway to action.

108. THE KEY OF
UNITY
Unity. The key
To symbiosis, synergy,
Co-operation.

109. THE KEY OF
UNIVERSALITY
Universality.
Cultural diversity.
The key to liberty.