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INAUGURAL ADDRESS TO THE WORLD MEDICAL ASSEMBLY
Author(s) -
VOSSENAAR T.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1973.tb111199.x
Subject(s) - honour , meaning (existential) , wish , statement (logic) , association (psychology) , field (mathematics) , multinational corporation , public relations , simple (philosophy) , sociology , epistemology , law , political science , philosophy , mathematics , anthropology , pure mathematics
At this moment, fully realizing the honour you have paid me, by electing me to this high office and grateful for the confidence that you have thus shown me, I am more than ever aware of my limitations not only in expressing clearly my thoughts as to my commitment to you, but also on the role of the World Medical Association in these times. The statement by Asher that “words, though they provide a vehicle by which thought can travel, seldom allow it to arrive Intact at its destination” can often be applied to simple, straightforward, uncomplicated situations, in which all people concerned work within the same field and speak the same language. In this multinational association, implementation of the words seems, at first, very difficult indeed. However, there is one thing that we all have in common, no matter how great the variations in cultural or geographical background, no matter how different the patterns of our professional educations: we are all doctors; we have come together to discuss fundamental problems that beset our profession, and through our united efforts we wish to find guidelines and solutions to resolve them. This common denominator will, I think, make it possible to attach a universal meaning, no matter how different words may sound.