 |
 |
<bigger>Listmembers, </bigger> <fontfamily><param>Times New Roman</param><bigger><bigger>First a parable: Once upon a time a certain mister X did some shopping. He did spend all his money except the last 2 euro's. As he started to walk home a beggar came up to him, who not only said he was hungry, but who also looked the part. He begged mister X to give him some money so he could buy some bread Mr. X took his last 2 euro's from his pocket, intending to give one if them to the beggar, as another man came up to him. This one did not look like a beggar at all, but he too asked for money. In fact he did advise mr. X to invest his money (by buying a booklet fom him) in some very profitable project, that would create a future in which nobody would ever have to beg again. He was, so he explained, a researcher who wished to free humanity from suffering. He had worked for a long time on a prestigeous project to cure humanity from the disease of hunger by changing his genes in such a way that he no longer needed food to stay alive. And now their goal was on the verge of being fulfilled, but they needed some funding to go on and finish the last phase of the project. He very enthousiastically told about a future world without hunger. Seeing mr. X's doubt he added: " If you don't mind about human suffering, do it for the returns this investment will give you and believe me they will be fantastic." But mr X, although greedy to collect returns on investments, was not a complete fool. He said: "If your story is true, why is it that not many people queue to be able to invest in your project ?", and because he did mind human suffering, he gave his money to the beggar, who happilly bought his bread, and left.=20 During the next weeks the anti-hunger project came into his mind=20 frequently and bothered him. Didn't he miss a big chance? After a few weeks he saw on tv a program about a project that had started in the fifties and was completely forgotten. He saw on his screen how some researchers and politiciens said they needed funding to be able to definitely and completely the fight against thirst, the technoloy for changing people in such a way that they did not need water to stay alive, was on the verge of being found. The resemblance of their rhetorics and the rhetorics of the man, who recently accosted him on the topic of hunger, was striking. From that time on the thoughts, which had bothered him never came back and he forgot the whole thing.=20 Why did mr X give his money to the beggar rather than invest it in the project? I think it is because he did not believe the story about the project. Seeing later on tv the program about the thirst project, he concluded that his disbelief had been sound. It might have been possible to convince mr X he had better invest his last euro in the project, if a very down to earth and understandable plan had existed, which explained in a convincing way what was found already by the project and what had yet to be found. Does a plan like this about the conquering of parkinson exist? If yes, why don't we all know that plan? If no, why doesn't it exist? I'll tell now a quite different story, but this is one that really happened some years ago. A young man, a recently qualified doctor, did not want to practice as a GP. He was from a family of scientists, and two Nobel Price winners and wished to follow in the footsteps of his successfull relations. But he was not that brilliant and could only get a research job in virology. He was very depressed, because doing research on influenza and things like that, would not be the heroic struggle he had dreamed of=20 for so long. But then, miracles do happen sometimes, there was AIDS . It was for him a gift from heaven. This may seem cynical; but that's the way it is.=20 The relation of this story with the funding of the Udal bill is that the Parkinson researchers, who would find a cure, would secure an upgrading of their status, (which is very important to most of them), like that doctor whose research object changed from influenza to AIDS. This makes me wonder why we are not flooded by solid and competing plans from eager researchers, that map the route to a cure. Might it be that those solid plans simply do not yet exist? =20 Ida Kamphuis</bigger></bigger></fontfamily> -------------------------------------------------------------- Vriendelijke Groeten / Kind regards, Ida Kamphuis mailto: [log in to unmask]