Obstinacy in the service of democracy, a menoir /
Francesco Mugheddu ; foreword by Paolo Fresu ; afterword by Gerolamo Spreafico ; translation by Chiara Rotondi.
- Trento : Erickson Live, 2016.
- 187 p. ; ill. col. ; 21 cm.
Ch. 1. How it all started, the discovery of my illness and Kosovo -- Ch. 2. Vienna and the OSCE mission in Kosovo, OMiK -- Ch. 3. Back from Kosovo and the master course, getting ready for new missions -- Ch. 4. Nigeria, my first mission with European Union -- Ch. 5. Following the path of electoral missions -- Ch. 6. EUEOM to West Bank and Gaza -- Ch. 7. Burundi -- Ch. 8. From Africa to Latin America: Venezuela -- Ch. 9. Belarus -- Ch. 10. Back to Latin America: Mexico, Nicaragua -- Ch. 11. Quantum medicine and my last international missions: Ecuador and Bolivia -- Ch. 12. Democracy and human rights. The European Union and election observation missions.
His book is about the travels and encounters in life that make a person thick-skinned. It is through these that we form a hard protective shell and that at the same time we become more vulnerable vis a vis the world. Francesco narrates facts - and writes about himself - from behind a protective shell but also with a sincerity that reveals his weakness, which paradoxically represents his strength. And this very strength is what gave him a reason, in all these years, to face the complex realities in Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America in his role as international observer in the service of peace. His obstinacy in wanting to travel the winding roads of peoples in need and the progression of multiple sclerosis, are the key to reading this real-life story. Therefore, this book is a warning and an example at the same time. It reminds us how delicate our relationship with its difficulties and its successes, to show how the desire to live to the full always has the upper hand.