Just discovered that:
Somerset Maugham, Conan Doyle, Schiller, Smollet, Keats, Crabbe, Chekov and Rabelai were doctors....
Goldsmith got his degree from Oxford
and Goethe and CS Forester failed to qualify from their respective universities
So maybe there is hope left
and hats may cause baldness....maybe that is a fallacy but it suits my purposes for now....

I am looking over this post now..and it occurs to me..that there is a clean break of thought.
Maybe I am slowing beginning to understand why people find it hard to follow what I am saying
Or maybe not, let random thought flower and we shall coax the snakes out of their snake holes..ok that made no sense..but i have always wanted to use that phrase...let out my inner communist
like that time I wanted to pat Hans Blix on his head..i always miss all the fun..
but i missed out on Hans Blix...who stikes me as an exceptionally cute old man...
In the grandfatherly sense of the word....
Slightly more grandfatherly...then the famous Dr Mahatir..who is crucifying( how on earth do you spell that)...Rafida for her role in bringing in foreign cars...
Supply usually responds to demand( cobble together some economic theory). If the public want foreign cars, it is not the place of the goverment to coddle its own unpopular industry. If other choices are made so expensive, naturally everyone would buy proton...but if there is a free choice, and pple still buy proton..then you can vouch for the superiority of your product...
however, with that said, the free market economy in my opinion is slightly overrated...
but since anything i have to say concerning economics...comes from my uncle who believes that the western powers are out to enslave the world...and joseph stiglitz( how ever that is spelt)....I should stay silent....
i really do believe that if you want to change the world, you need to understand economics....my friends have been trying to teach me..but now..i need to sit down with a textbook and understand...
If i could get a second degree in something..it would be econs and history...
so many doctors, go spend years in africa...helping the poor..and they all say that it is the most rewarding experience of their lives...but if you really want to help pple, you need to eradicate the poverty
It makes more sense to clean up the water than it does, to treat pple for cholera..
According to the World health organisation, most of the childhood deaths in africa are aided by malnutrition...
And here, the link to economics....
we have a debt to pay to africa...and the other parts of the world that we exploited
( ok not us as in singaporeans..but those who once exploited africa, you know who you are:-)
with the same ease that we interfered with them, we have to rehabilitate them
giving money and loans...IMF and World Bank ways..do not seem to work..because opening up an economy without any of the pre developed fall back systems..is a road to disaster( stiglitz here)...but it makes sense...
and so much foreign aid that we give...does not combat the direct problem of poverty
for example some of saudi arabian aid( i dont know what percentage) is in the form of religious texts....ok...as much as i do believe that religion alleviates pain, food in my stomach would have a similar effect too..
and the only countries that are meeting their aid targets are those in scandinavia...
ok..america does give money..but it is not a significant proportion...
so much poverty.....and then there's disease..
AIDS that is ravaging the continent and creating so many orphans...
and stupid(childish but satisfying) drug companies which sell their retrovirals at ridiculous prices..these drugs can significantly reduce the mother child transmission of AIDS....
ok...the companies have bowed down to public pressure and sell them cheaper...
but even at cost, these drugs are too expensive....
and the governments are not helping either..Mbeki in south africa actually dared to question the link between HIV and AIDS...
If the leaders say things like this...how are pple supposed to respond...
AIDS is stigmatised and treated as if it is some kind of disease for those who made the mistake and thus must pay for it...
In asia, telling pple abt AIDS is akin to being ostracized...that sweeping statement is a little unfair to make..but then..why is it in singapore..the government is informed every time someone is diagnosed..how is that anyones business....
In Africa, so many people are dying of this disease...and things arent changing fast enough...
and there is the satisfying though of civil unrest..and civil wars..which make life worth living.. :-)
take a stroll in the Ivory coast..and try avoiding fighting rebels..

Basically, we need to develop a social conscience...
and I am going to really hope that no one reads this..
It's idealistic and rather naive...but I am going to 'stick my neck on the chopping block' to quote Subash and....
say that idealism has a place in the world..
because change only happens when pple dream of it...
I know that Africa has become a cause celebre of many people...I mean Live 8...I do not intend to rival the Bob Geldof publicity machine...and portray Africa as a dying, poor nation...
It is more about starvation and death...there is progress as well....it is not some cause to be taken up as and when we wish..to show that we have some kind of care for the rest of the world..
but honestly, we should do what we can to help..around us..in our communities.
For every starving african orphan, there is someone who needs help here...
so go out and help your communities....
next weeks topic will be...class based care differences in the singaporean medical system
to be awaited with bated breathe:-)