Santosh Helekar <[email protected]> wrote: [1] The man appears to be making up stories either in self-interest or because of some problem.
[2] What is disturbing, however, is that the journalists and editors who published this story, besides being gullible and scientifically illiterate, did not have the sense to cross-check and independently verify what they are reporting. [3] It is possible that they too do not believe that their opinions have to be based on facts. [4] It should have been a simple matter to ask others who are knowledgeable about the specifics of the claims, such as the hospital authorities in question, if these claims had any validity. [5] The journalist also did not bother to find out which multinational companies were threatening this medic, to rule out obvious suspicions of ideologically based paranoia that any skeptical reader would have. == Dear Santoshbab, A few years+ ago, in Jamaica - we were a group of 'residents' in different disciplines of medicine who socialised about once a week. Our respective spouses agreed to make a dish each and we shared pot-luck. One day, one among us who offered to made 'dal' - came up with an empty vessel. His version of why? ...was quite unique. Only a Sindhi (I assume) could come up with such a delightful explanation cum excuse. He said: "Arre yaar, dal nicche gir gayee, or kutta kha gaya" ( As I was bringing the pot of dal up (to your apartment), the vessel slipped and fell down ...and the dog ate the dal up". Mind you, downstairs by our apartment was very sandy. There was not a grain of sand on the vessel (:-) This Ayurvedic doctor's 'story' looks like a lot of 'Dal' and 'Dal mein kuch kala' (Something amiss) in it. As far as our journalists are concerned, we know - do we not - that they do not believe that there is a need to verify the story they are about to write. How many times have we not had a journo (or alleged journo) hear a story over a shot (or two) of Scotch or perhaps a cup of chai in a "hole in the wall' chai shop .......and run with his mouth (and keyboard) and spread the nonsense all over the world? So - If you are surprised, please do not be. On technical stories, it is not like they do not know that they are not-with-it on such matters .....but that has never stopped them ....has it? To them, perhaps, it is more important to be "first" out with the truth - even if it is a bogus and impossible rumour. We have to accept that we have such folks who are out there controlling thought and print. What 'our doctor guy' has inadvertently allowed himself to do ..... is to slip (inter alia) on the "case" of PVS (persistent vegetative state). Unless the "vegetable" he was talking about ....is another of his 100 inventions. You see - there might, after all, be a lot of truth in the 100 inventions - this doctor has taken credit for. We (among our social group in Jamaica) did credit our Sindhi colleague for his magnificent invention of the Dal and the Dog. It is registered under D2. jc
