Bridges to fellow human beings and to the world

Living together without violence

It is ever more urgent to reflect on what humanity needs to live together in peace. Wars, the death of innocent people, the destruction of villages, cities, and livelihoods require a decisive response. How can we preserve the achievements of our culture – democracy, human rights, the rule of law, access to qualified education based on humanistic and scientific principles, and a high-quality social welfare system for all people without distinction? How can we protect children and young people from becoming targets of commercialisation that dumbs them down or ‘human capital’ of the globalised economy?
  Violence and arbitrariness, which destructively penetrate many areas of our social coexistence, are excesses of misguided goals and ideologies of people and their environment who lack the necessary social and emotional prerequisites to make a constructive contribution to social coexistence.

In the flow of humanistic thought

An attitude towards shaping our lives together based on ethical values does not develop by itself, even if humanity and cooperation are inherent qualities of human beings. It can only grow in a value-oriented environment. Its development begins on the first day of a child's life. It needs to be nourished with guidance in a caring, loving environment. The relevant knowledge and insights are available to us today – if we want to know them. They are rooted in the stream of humanistic thought that has developed since ancient times, from the Greeks to the Arabs and Romans to the early modern period, and is now supplemented and confirmed by the research findings of modern sciences. They define the responsibility of caregivers toward younger generations: Caregivers must teach children the basics of coexistence and the values and traditions of their culture, thereby cultivating the ‘garden’ for their social-emotional and intellectual development. Only in this way can interpersonal relationship skills develop. Children and young people need role models and ideals to guide their thoughts, feelings and actions – embedded in a humanely educated culture.

Making a contribution

Children and young people naturally like to contribute to human coexistence within the scope of their possibilities. They are therefore fascinated by people who exemplify something that deeply resonates with their inner selves. This makes it all the more enriching for them to meet people they can emulate. Often without realising it, these people have a major influence on the development of children and young people.
  One such person is Toni Rüttimann, whose life’s work was featured in this newspaper two years ago in an article entitled “Building bridges between people and places”¹. The article described how, in 1987, the now 57-year-old Swiss man from Pontresina – also known as Toni el Suizo – was so shaken by reports and images of a severe earthquake in Ecuador that he set off for the earthquake-ravaged country on the night of his graduation from the Lyceum Alpinum in Zuoz. He wanted to personally contribute the 9,000 Swiss francs he had previously collected in the Upper Engadine to a social project.
  Supported and guided by a Dutch engineer, he built his first 50-metre-long suspension bridge and then returned to Switzerland as planned to begin his studies in civil engineering. But the question of whether he was actually on the right path with his studies plagued him in the weeks that followed. “. . . at night, alone in my room, the images from Ecuador came back to me: the lost children and the screaming people on the riverbank.”

You want to study here for five years? You’ll get used to all the comforts: three good meals a day, a nice home, friends, a girlfriend, sports, holidays. And then, after five long years, will you still be determined enough to say: Yes, now I’m ready, now I’m going to help the poor?

At the end of the sixth week, he withdrew from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, said goodbye to friends and family, emptied his savings account, and went back to Ecuador. So began his life as a bridge builder. Over the next 14 years (until 2001), he built bridges throughout Latin America. In Ecuador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, etc., 332 bridges have since crossed rivers and deep gorges.
  Rüttimann then moved his activities to South East Asia after a Cambodian refugee approached him and told him about a lack of bridges in his home country. Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos became his new fields of activity, and new bridges were built. The 777^th bridge in Pay Pin Taung was a very special one, as it marked the beginning of a new chapter in Rüttimann’s life. He started a family, and six years ago his wife Palin gave birth to their daughter Athina. His field of activity was now Myanmar and Indonesia.

Learning to build bridges

The life and career of Toni el Suizo impresses children of all ages. They describe him as a “cool” guy and would love to meet him in person, at least according to the results of an ethics project carried out by a secondary school class. They sent him an email inviting him to visit their class during his next stay in Switzerland. His response gave them food for thought.
  Rüttimann referred to his current projects and his responsibility for them. The bridges had to be built before he could return to Switzerland: “It’s nice to hear that you consider our bridge story to be something valuable. If I can hold out for another year, I’ll build another 40 bridges. That will help 200,000 people. There are now 898 completed bridges, and these help 2.5 million people. Better than nothing, I think. In the meantime, it's best if you just build your own bridges wherever and however you can.”
  He encouraged them to consider the following question: “Where are my bridges to my fellow human beings and to the world?” This question is particularly important for young people who are searching for themselves and their own purpose in life. A question on which they would also like to hear the opinion of adults who are important to them. And the younger pupils? Under the expert guidance of their teacher, they began to build a bridge using the Stokys metal construction sets (and in the process acquired important manual skills with wrenches, metal plates and screws). Perhaps the seed for a future career aspiration was sown?

Struck by fate – what now?

A person’s life rarely follows a straight path. Many children know this, especially if they have found it difficult or failed to settle into school. “Numbers, letters – what are they for, why can’t I do what comes so easily to my friend?” They are constantly faced with new, challenging tasks and unexpected difficulties, which they are required to solve and which encourage them to develop. If they succeed at school, they make progress in their social, emotional and intellectual development that they can take with them into their lives, because adult life spares no one from challenges and sometimes unexpected blows of fate.
  This was revealed in the newsletter in which Rüttimann shared his projects and thoughts. I received such a newsletter in May with the title: “Struck by lightning – once again”. He wrote: “I am paralysed again. Total paralysis, from the head down, and it is the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) again, just like 23 years ago when I was working in Cambodia. Seeing both arms, legs and feet lose all their strength and mobility within 48 hours is impressive.”
  “This can’t be true,” I thought, “such an abrupt disruption in the everyday life of such a committed person. How will he cope with this difficult situation this time?” I saw before me the many children and young people I had met, who shied away from even the smallest, age-appropriate demands and were masters of evasion in a wide variety of ways – whining, tantrums and a broad range of psychiatric-like symptoms. None of that with Toni Rüttimann.

Knowledge and patience

He had already been ill for four weeks. After feeling a strange tingling sensation in his right hand on Friday morning, he struggled to walk up the ramp to the emergency room at the Thai state hospital on Saturday morning. The attending physician and he already suspected that he had contracted GBS again and, based on his knowledge and experience from the first bout of the disease, were able to act immediately. When he was discharged from hospital after only seven days, he knew that a long, challenging period lay ahead of him, during which he would have to practise sitting, standing, lifting his arms, moving his hands and holding a pen again. Muscle by muscle, with thousands of repetitions. Last time, it took two years.
  Once again, my mind wandered to experiences with our students, who have to learn that it often takes patience to master a seemingly easy skill. Toni wrote about how he now uses the computer programme he developed during his first hospital stay, with both thumbs and a chopstick in his mouth, to continue designing bridges, and how he was able to translate and send the newsletter into 15 other languages using the AI programme DeepSeek.

A life-saving effect

As a young man, Toni had not simply left home without a goal. While building all those bridges, he had gained experience and built up a huge network of contacts, which now proved useful. He received sympathetic feedback from many people, as well as professional advice from doctor friends and therapists he knew in several countries. He had given hundreds of lectures and wrote: “It is impossible to know what effect these many speeches had, but one clearly had an impact, because it is now helping to save my life.”
  He is referring to his impact on Alex, a young man from Ticino, whom his uncle took to a lecture by Tomi Rüttimann nine years ago. That evening changed Alex’s life. As a trained bricklayer and construction manager, he spent two months or more with Toni’s family over the past six years, helping them to build their new home on the border with Myanmar. On the seventh day of Toni’s hospital stay, after a 50-hour journey from Ticino, he arrived at Toni’s hospital, put him in a wheelchair and drove him home. “From then on, I was on the road to recovery,” writes Toni.
  Thanks to their expertise in the construction industry, they were able to convert the garage of the house into a mobile crane with safety belts, “on which I initially just hung, then gradually put weight on my bones and muscles. Now, seven weeks later, I walk 20 steps back and forth, fifty times a day.” The water reservoir now also serves as a training ground for exercising his still very weak muscles, always carefully supervised by Alex, who, with his sense of discipline, order and humour, makes sure that nothing happens to his friend. And then there is his wife Palin, who cares for him and makes sure he eats a healthy diet. His six-year-old daughter also plays her part when she asks him, “Daddy, when will you be well again? It’s already eight weeks now,” thereby reflecting his importance in her life.

Bridges inside and outside

“To build so many bridges without incident,” he reflects, “even in times of serious crisis, you need a handful of people you can rely on in your life.” These include Martin, who has been helping him remotely for years with his expertise as an electrician free of charge, or the 83-year-old woman who has been paying the salaries of all the welders involved in bridge construction for 23 years and has now also spontaneously covered the hospital costs. It is just such relationships – and people who stand up for their fellow human beings, help them, and give them confidence in difficult situations – that build bridges between people.
  Or as Toni Rüttimann writes: “There is still a long way to go, and much depends on the bridges inside and outside. But we are building.”

What is possible

For human history has shown that wherever people have achieved more peace, prosperity, justice, knowledge, education and free development, it has been when they have joined forces as equals and each individual has actively participated and taken responsibility in his or her own way for the good of all—and doing so while self-aware of the unique importance and value of one’s contribution toward the well-being of all. This very self-awareness of one’s unique value and significance in contributing to the well-being of all, in turn, also provides the best conditions for the free development of the individual’s distinctive personality. War and violence are then not an option! •

¹ Bridges between people and places”; https://www.zeit-fragen.ch/en/archives/2023/nr-19-19-september-2023/bruecken-bauen-zwischen-menschen-und-orten