yes that their male counterparts and that the country's russian speaking minority also fall victim to discrimination. next artie's interview show spotlight talks of the real life version of the movie character patch adams the doctor who heals with humor to find out if laughter really is the best medicine that's next here on r t. welcome to the spotlight. today my guests are patch adams and mary. he became famous using laughter and joy for healing people and has devoted forty years to trying to improve america's health care system she is russian house founder of my real children rehabilitation center for orphans in moscow the two are

here today to me the spotlight on yours and my question is. when you're down americans against you all you need is a law that's what occurred to an american doctor patch adams while he was being treated in hospital he founded the tide institute for laughter repeat they want to make it a health care eco community believes a person's health depends of the society he lives in and says if the world does not change from valuing money to valuing love humans will be extinct. to help change the world patch often comes to moscow to meet his russian friend money. she's the head of the marias children rehabilitation center for disabled all fronts patch and their friends dress up as clowns and go to often just to bring children the love and care they lack today mary ann patchett will tell the story here on spotlight. hello

maria hello hello fashed thank you very much for being with us thank you for coming on the show well first of all patch i would like to ask him a maybe a serious question you've been as far as i know i read at ten thousand deaths that as a clown so so can you teach people to overcome the fear of death. to do. or live i don't know that it's a teaching. i think one can emphasize the fact that while you're alive you're living and that you can be celebrating your living rather than hovering on your fear of dying. and that i think my experience i've been in war zones and refugee camps and disasters and that people remember they are living in the worst of situations if the engagement is human

and it doesn't mean that doesn't include crying and these sorts of things but when one is real with someone profoundly ill they act like they're alive and then gauged as they can be we we we talked about quality health care i said only to mention that you've been trying to prove the quality of killed health care in america why do you think that that funding played chile and cloning is is so so in central essential for quality health care while in the business of care one doesn't want healthy people. in and the intelligence of health care one wants an emphasis on wellness on being well being well physically through exercise and diet but much more importantly being well mentally which. there's never been any science to show any value to being serious or rude or nasty

or unkind or apathetic but there are thousands of papers on the value of being joy and loving and funny and keeping a joyful spirit whether you're in the worst of situations or simply going through life is. means you will smoke few fewer cigarettes drink less drinking hit be less violent and all of those things and and also stimulate your immune system and just so many benefits to express being alive being alive isn't suffering being alive is engaged in the process of living there the reason you started doing what you do and dressing like like the way you dress is because you you became disgusted in the in the traditional medicine were in a way of life in general in the society you live in general. yes that's true i.

i decided eighteen that i wanted to put joy in the public space we are a depressed nation an anxious nation and i was looking how how can i be a person that by my presentation of self people will want to engage with me that instead of feeling alienated that they will feel instantly a connection as i expanded on it in didn't i notice that if i saw a violent act in public a parent and child in a grocery store i could change into my clown character in one hundred percent of the time and stop the fight would you choose clones and then the titles for example said it was better than the well i've been in the santa clause it's santa clause if you're carrying a santa clause doesn't work nearly as well in july as he does and this isn't what i described and i've tried and and there's a there's a broader it's like putting on a batman costume you're stuck in batman but

a clown is more universal you know and also all you need with a clown is a nose and and with the santa claus you need a lot more paraphernalia. welcome to share. well once again i would i want to two to two on the scale when did you hear and when did wendy's you're going to queen to do it with a will with a method. mr adams and that patch adams and the end know how in what way did he inspire you to to stop doing what you're doing your charity. i heard the batch in ninety and ninety in the wrote him a letter and met the nineteen men tonight and ninety one. in the hospital and the cancer hospital where i came to invite him to my art to ensure that i had with children the three and one of them of course. he did. how he inspired me

i already was working with the kids but at one or don't for that were children at risk but with bajaj good the chance to go as a clown he invited me and i when he gave me a we in the clown costume so right after i met him i went with the dry myself so you are actually the person who introduced patch to russia to russian nations to russian can just imagine all that idea of was coming to russia before but i i only heard of him and invited him to my studio is it hard for you to to take a personal like patch and to make the russians take him seriously because russian america are different people should take you for a freak i mean when you come here. i'm not trying to hear the big breakthrough. the ball is giving you trouble i mean. you. were arrested on where it ran square one time for misbehavior

you know what did you do we know where the red squares clowns thing. and we didn't obey the requests of the police and so we were able to clown in a russian jail it was very long i think we drove them crazy after a couple of hours and so they released us. will be safe for you very very much is happening maria one of the one of the great things that patch is doing. at least according to the film seen. in the movie that was shot is like trying to to to to get this distance between the patient and the doctor yes well well this is it really so serious and what creates it in that. if if. we now. we tried to do something with our kids

the to do and with. children who graduates from their financial they're now volunteers and clowns at the hospitals and we tried to have a seminar and a couple of russian hospitals where the doctors and nurses. to try to introduce them to bed to fell off a fair which became our there was the fear that the doctor or a nurse can have more colorful and they're more friendly local sometimes act fine year so the kid. just become more a little more legs. it was interesting what they answer to us they said. that they can not be fine in because if they do look fine ear or they blame. the parents would not trust their good doctor if they want take them third or do

you have this problem in the states. well it's like a cardboard house. the doctor hides behind professional distance scientific detachment or saying what maria is saying so that they don't have to be light hearted loving no i've never never had the problem anywhere that. at this very profound moment when people are suffering. they ache for tenderness they ache for friendliness compassion that is before technological medicine this is mostly what the doctor had to offer to sit at the bedside to be a presence of comfort. it's scientifically proved that live julie happiness it really helps people. helps people to overcome disease to be healthy but if so if it has scientific proof why don't

clinics around the world introduce your technique i think the world is encouraging adults to be pardon me tight assed and. there's this idea that you when you grow up you want to be serious even though there's no scientific proof that being serious is ever good for you i think that as you join the adult world there's a. an invitation to hierarchy to where the doctor at the top of the hierarchy has a position of power humor is a hierarchy killer. there's nothing that lowers the hierarchy quicker than humor and so i think that that this is. to preserve this power over that is so prevalent in the world that humor is pushed down to the circus and they want it out of i would like to say that i had a one of the first times i was in a russian hospital i was in

a poor hospital that had no pain medicine and. in the u.s. hospital they have pain medicine so i never experiment having a patient who needs pain medicine like bone metastases that you're not going to say well let's not put this patient on pain medicine so we can try humor but i remember walking into the room of a six or seven year old boy who had bone metastasis no pain medicine in the hospital the child was screaming screaming bloody murder it's a horrible pain and from the story i was told is that this was something that went on for five months that the child had no respite from the pain and i remember because it was the first time walking in the room and the child. stop screaming and for one hour the child was playing the look on the mother's face was breathtaking and so from ever since then in russia i say when i enter a hospital please show me the people who are suffering the most patch adams said

american physician in the early saver here in the spotlight studio will be back shortly after a break so stay with us then go. welcome

back to spotlight i'm now we're not in just a reminder that my guests in the studio today here i pad chatham us and maria yes they save us we're talking about healing people we're left with a joint patch you called your clinic give. and it's a jam and when well why did you call your clinic because sounds funny. but there are lots of reasons like a lot of things to do some of the engineers in hollywood well at. means wellness or health in a summer literally but for joining us should be wellness and we're interested in people being well it also when you tell people since americans don't know languages they think it means sneeze institute so they laugh and interestingly enough

i'm a scholar of cartoons and it's it is an english word now as we steal words internationally and it's the most east single used words in cartoons as a punchline so all of those are reasons ok very. do you believe that children really miss patch after he visits your patients and then goes away did do you have a feeling that they feel sorry and left does that make them even even more sad than they were before he came there no when talking about the kids the clan visit sort of is it. hard to give. i believe the. i don't think they feel worth the killer no i don't believe in that it was the thing i believe that. it's better to do a little than nothing i believe that it's the good impressions that he brings the

inspiration the collar it's the with the birth and it doesn't go away doesn't it doesn't become mine become for just the last thirty maybe that may be the question of your life i mean i mean is missing something good better than not knowing what are we calling. a lovely memory missing ok you you can read a good book and it affects you the rest of your life it doesn't mean the book may be good return to the library let me give you a well this is the thing about good books you keep them on your table a need or you can write your meal or and then you go over the line and you very much have to have when when your grandparent dies you have their memory you have the grieving. part ok so you can be sorry they left the room but a lot of times we try to leave a memory let me tell you a beautiful story a woman i believe she's from siberia she visited her in st petersburg hospital she

had one of these orthopedic rings on her head and and she was lying flat on her back and we had a great time and she i gave her my address she promised she would come back and clown in three years later she said i want to learn english and now twice she's come all the way from siberia when we go to st petersburg and clown's with us specifically for children who were in her place as any english speaker you probably don't use any of the languages excepting and and they your system is based on well you're being an american is it absolutely universal you mentioned visiting lots of countries including afghanistan so what you do or how you dress what what you say is it universal forever what do you around the world do you like to think it's univers of you like you come on if there's one thing that's really clearance that we are i mean charles darwin and one of his books showed that that people all over the world recognize that the look of anger is is in all people the look of joy that

the looks on people's faces that you can go to a culture and say what are they feeling and they'll say because they're the expressions are universal what i i don't see humor as a therapy or love as a therapy i see them as a context for a humanist approach to people so if if you have a twinkle in your eye a smile in your face and a willingness to greet i have found in every culture that they welcome you i've never seen any culture that and fact it opens a door they either go into a country i always learn friend thank you and i love you and that they they they see a lot of tourists especially poor countries you go there and you take your pictures and and maybe you buy something. but you go home and you didn't really touch or embrace one person from that society where for us we're not going and buying stuff we're going to embrace the people and the people see that so they trust us more you

would be amazed that even in poor countries if if they see us in gaijin the people the person can put their camera down and even if someone steals it they can go and get it back from the person that stole it because it's it's a way of saying welcome to our culture well let's get back to maria actually every day volunteers at the marias children's center in moscow open a gate to a brighter reality for our friends spotlights yelena dimmy of the riaa has witnessed the working miracles. it's hard to make this children smile as in their everyday life they just don't have many reasons for joy they're leaving no from the edges and many of them have serious health problems tamara tries to make their world greater with the help of art a trained physicist she accidentally learnt about this under nine years ago and has been given soon remix lessons that was scenes. of this i'm happy when they succeed

in doing something and they're proud of the achievements every time they're coming here the creativity almost took us lucrative over he wanted to make it clear helicopter so his painting it now and then will fire it and i have no doubt that it will have another masterpiece here. artwork made by the new phones is regularly exhibited for children it's a chance to feel themselves true artists who are adults who come and see their work it's a chance to concede a volunteer eventually it's hard to tell who gets more pleasure from the art lessons students other teachers is. not all volunteers at the center. excelling crafts some just come here to talk to children for many of these kids it's their only chance in the atmosphere of a family when you're in a place like this you immediately forget all your troubles and worries there are

just too many bright colors all around children who come here like to draw rainbows flowers and castles in the clouds it's their escape to dreamland and they welcome anyone who wants to join. we didn't see a single person. resembling patch in your in your center of the other clown inductors are there doctors that at least tried to do something are the kind in here in this country. yes we had one doctor with the picture thinner. it's a professor from a lot of cleaning practice sort of john and he. looks. a little time you need me ok. and i. hated person. is great with the kids he is the third children surgeon and the he. he he looks

like he met but it's only last year last november but he looks very colorful smiley that similarity you mention it's called living a life of joys don't write patch are you sure that you can teach well the people that are suffering people that even maybe are dying to to to to feel joy . well ok well think about it you have one week to live ok that's it no one's going to cure you you're going to live for one week during that week do you want to spend the time going. oh god i'm dying is that is is that your fantasy week bank ok rob a bank ok that's my idea firm but see the thing is we could it would be our style at our hospital you know something more funny than writing about well i'm telling

you if that was your son at our hospital style as if you had a week and that's what you wanted to do we would go rob a bank i mean who wouldn't use real guns and that sort of thing but would put the mask on him with weird work with the banks so you could rob a bank that our idea and it would be able to give the money and from. that i know you're in a way if you needed that i mean. would have been ok particular if you were a poor family i would have taken one hundred dollars gotten it in one dollar bills we would have gone to the bank giving it to the bank to give to you you when. all that up maria the children in your rehab center yeah they're not there for good you just take them for a while to make them feel better and then they go back to their orphanage is that right is it hard for them after they spend a wonderful time with you then to go to the to the usual routine in the usual orphanage which are not very fun places i know i i've been there as a journalist for

a. couple of times of course the difficult is just the same question of us before about but you didn't about the blood and not about the mind to do for the kids like this that we've just seen of the movie is for them the only place they visit they live in then to use and where they are not able to see their world rather than the one time a week when they visit so yes i believe it's sad touch the i'll just sit here and there is also had summer camps for the kids and trips down the volga river that it's that she's she's taken them she took some kids to beslan right. so that's the thing is when you're trying to help somebody at first i remember when maria had to leave two rooms and took in twelve kids ok but now many years later you try to add things you say i read your interview you like saying that that if

people will not move from value money and power to value love humans will be extinct right yes right jesus christ preached the same and he was crucified so those don't mean we're all doomed. well. let me give you some background my library is thirty thousand books there's no john question it's either great literature or the state of the world for we are and so i've read a couple of thousand books on the environment i've studied history. there is not one government on the planet i respect that clearly the value system if you watch t.v. is money and power over not power but power over this is what we're teaching young people they watch t.v. they they want money and power over they don't want humanism there's no humanism education on t.v. and so in studying those things we. any the environmental

environmentalist know that we are a very fragile species the reason i have no pessimism is i don't think it's too late with there will be a point if we don't change where we as a very fragile biological species will not survive in and this century will be that century that we decided thank you thank you very much for being with us in just a reminder that my guests here in the studio today were patch adams an american physicians who treats patients with by a set of emotions and have to end money a yearly save a founder of maria's children which is a rehabilitation center for orphans in moscow and that's it for now from all of us will be back until then stay in russia today and take care thank you.

all.

a u.s. government initiative to help struggling homeowners comes under attack with three hundred thousand families still facing repossession every month. riding high russia's prime minister settles an iron peace that is international by convention in ukraine before going on to meet the country's leadership. and report reveals that it's still women earn a third less than their male counterparts and that the russian as the country's russian speaking minority are also falling victim to discrimination.