Re: Call for a US Faculty to lecture on Rehabilitationof PLWHA

[Guest guest]

Dear Dr. Diwakar Tejaswi and others,

Commensurate to reactions from the section of the forum members, I also felt

similarly, that in India more than often we give a lot weightage to the foreign

experts at the expense of our own. May be that the price we pay for being part

of the colonization.

Though what Dr. Diwakar is trying to put may be right to some extent, with my

own humble experience of 20+ years in the field of prevention, control and

management of HIV/AIDS in India, I would like to state that there is no dirth of

Indian medical caregivers, who have experience of dealing with almost all

aspects of HIV/AIDS including rehabilitation.

Moreover, we Indians have more patient burdon than the westerners and thus

better practical experience.

In any case, I feel that the organisors should have requested for an

'International Expert including our own, for Rehabilitation of HIV/AIDS

patients' rather than asking for 'US Expert'. That would have avoided the pro-US

bias if any in the approach, when the demand goes public.

Thanks.

Sincerely yours,

Dr I S Gilada

e-mail: <ihoaids@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear Dr. Gilada and others:

I think there are other angles to the issue of calling for US expert. Sometimes

the grant stiplulates collaborative ventures between Indian and foreign

scientists. Not knowing the specifics of the workshop structures or the grant

requirements, we don't know whether the call for US scientists was trying to

fulfill those stipulations.

Secondly, any collaborative venture beween US and Indian Scientists is

beneficial to both the experts and the workshop participants. It is always good

to exchange ideas and experiences between experts in the field--the US experts

may get a different angle to their rehabilitative efforts from the Indian

experts and the same may be true for Indian experts.

One postive point for the US experts is that they have been doing this for a

much longer period than the Indian experts so exchange of ideas might lead to

exposure to issues that Indian experts might not have encountered before.

Thanks,

Sathi Dasgupta.

e-mail: <sathi_dasgupta@...>