ONE MAN STANDING
A Humanitarian, a Diplomat, A Contrarian
Preface by Bernard Kouchner
This is the story of a man born in Algeria in ‘51, who came to France in ‘62, qualified as a doctor in 1980, worked as a doctor in Afghanistan, Kurdistan and Morocco, then as Director of Operations, ministerial adviser for Health, Strategy and Technology, was struck down one ill-fated day then, the next day, was appointed as the first ever French Consul General in Kurdistan.
From humanitarianism to diplomacy, on his feet, riding on a mule or in a wheelchair, from makeshift clinics to republican palaces, from Blida to the mountains of Iraq via Auvergne, Kurdistan, Somalia and Haiti, Frédéric Tissot’s fragmented life saturated with light and shadows feels more like an iPod on “shuffle” than a series of well plotted chapters. He has witnessed the rage of a dictator, the fall of a mullah and war crimes; he has tended to civilians and soldiers, believed in the rebuilding of a nation, uncovered generosity that kills just behind the sort that saves, experienced the absurdity of economic agreements and the omnipotence of geo-strategic “concerns”. By chance or out of necessity he has brought together all these decisive moments from history in one life, his, a dizzying geographical and humanitarian odyssey, a sort of brightly lit hotchpotch… that looks something like freedom.
This is the story of a man born in Algeria in ‘51, who came to France in ‘62, qualified as a doctor in 1980, worked as a doctor in Afghanistan, Kurdistan and Morocco, then as Director of Operations, ministerial adviser for Health, Strategy and Technology, was struck down one ill-fated day then, the next day, was appointed as the first ever French Consul General in Kurdistan.
From humanitarianism to diplomacy, on his feet, riding on a mule or in a wheelchair, from makeshift clinics to republican palaces, from Blida to the mountains of Iraq via Auvergne, Kurdistan, Somalia and Haiti, Frédéric Tissot’s fragmented life saturated with light and shadows feels more like an iPod on “shuffle” than a series of well plotted chapters. He has witnessed the rage of a dictator, the fall of a mullah and war crimes; he has tended to civilians and soldiers, believed in the rebuilding of a nation, uncovered generosity that kills just behind the sort that saves, experienced the absurdity of economic agreements and the omnipotence of geo-strategic “concerns”. By chance or out of necessity he has brought together all these decisive moments from history in one life, his, a dizzying geographical and humanitarian odyssey, a sort of brightly lit hotchpotch… that looks something like freedom.
Dr Frédéric Tissot, a public health specialist and a humanitarian doctor who has long worked for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and AMI, was the first French Consul General in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan (2007-2012). He is currently Director of Studies at the Paris School of International Affairs.
Marine de Tilly was born in 1980. She is an author, journalist and literary critic for the news magazine Le Point.