On disability and on difference

Zagreb 11th October 2005 Disability guidelines, a key element of social strategy is seldom high on the country’s policy. Yet, disabled are frequently present in the rhetoric of governance structures, those now in place and those that might be expected to yield improved policy outcomes while promoting the democratic principles or pointing out to political oversights. Society has a general tendency to repress the embodiment of difference. The issue of disability is thus a powerful territory for exploring shifts, attitudes, oversights as well as improvements within particular society groups. Negative attitudes and behavioral stereotypes have been reinforced by society or religion over many centuries, setting up the care for disabled into charitable rather then medical care domain. Medicine underpinned by cultural attitudes and values about body went, on the other hand, under very slow process of shaping itself with regard to disabled treatment, rehabilitation or resocialization. What was the situation in Croatia, how cultural setting shaped institutionalization of our medical practice, who was the role figure in that process, and how it developed further, were the key elements for setting the program of interdisciplinary symposium taking place in Croatian Academy of Sciennces and Arts (CASA) on October 11th 2005. Entitled Božidar Špišić: origins and developments of orthopaedics on our territory it was dedicated to the memory of Božidar Špišić (1879-1957) the founder of Croatian orthopaedics, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the first Institute for Orthopaedics foundation in 1915. Promoted by the Department for the history of medicine of CASA the interdisciplinary character was its main feature. It was covering various topics from the sphere of humanities (art, history, and architecture, which Acta Dermatovenerol Croat 2005;13(4):258 MARKO POLO’S DIARY