As of late, I have been giving a lot of thought to what has been happening in the world, especially with regards to the events of September the 11th, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and many other conflicts, past and present that involve people of different religious backgrounds. What has come to the forefront of my mind… Read More
On 16 April 1963, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. The challenge of that time was racial segregation in the Southern United States of America. Having read his letter, it occurred to me that although we live in a different time, if Dr. King was alive today and was… Read More
About twenty years ago, about six months into my medical training, a discussion ensued in my class, which although I did not know it then, has in hindsight, helped me to understand the true nature of the political beast. At that time, we had two very distinguished professors who were constantly destructively criticizing the other,… Read More
Over the past month, much has happened in my life and the life of my community that has caused me to pause and reflect on my health and also the health of my community. What has been fermenting and now is bubbling up to the surface is my discontent with the happenings around me as it pertains… Read More
Two weeks ago, I was honoured to be asked to give the keynote address to an incoming class of medical students, and during my preparations I realized that there was so much I wanted to say which could not have been said in ten minutes. Although the main points I wanted to get across were… Read More
It is a pleasure and an honour to be invited here today and to be asked to give the Keynote address. It was only 20 years ago that I started my medical training at the Mona Campus at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. And seeing you all here today, I can well imagine what is going through your mind, as believe it or not, I was once a medical student just like you. Although I was naive, insecure, and unsure of my skills and the challenges that lay ahead, I had many mentors along the way who reassured me that although the journey would be a difficult one, I would eventually succeed and that my dream of becoming a doctor, would one day become a reality. They were fond of telling me that, “medicine is easy”, (which I did not believe at the time, but now I do), and that “the only difference between them and I was time.”
What I hope to do in the next ten minutes or so is to share with you some of the insights gained, and words of wisdom given, that have shaped me, and that have allowed me to stand before you today.
Who am I, from where did I come, what is my purpose here on earth, and what will happen to me when I die? These are the questions that have preoccupied man’s search for meaning since the dawn of civilisation. I will attempt to show that we can deepen our understanding of the mystery of… Read More
Source: Holt-LunstadJ, Smith TB, Layton JB (2010) Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLOS Medicine 7(7): e1000316.
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316
