Horror in France
The French tolerance to Islam and its leanings to secularism in modern day France has its logical roots from its resurgence out of a class-centric French revolution. In fact the influential Basques cover a very large area of northwest France. Their roots are from the Moors with deep Arab links. Thus, Islamic strands could weave well with a potpourri of cultures flourishing in the French ethos.
The rise of militant Islam — the causes of which are yet to clearly emerge and would need extensive research — has been impacting the very image of this otherwise prolific religion. France too now seems to be as perplexed as many other nations around the globe, to understand and deal with increasing Islamic extremism. What is worrying is that the famously secular Turkey of Kamal Ataturk should be seriously in conflict with France subsequent to the dastardly beheading of the French teacher, that has ignited worldwide revulsion.
R. Narayanan,
Navi Mumbai
Community health
The results of this year’s common and uniform National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate medical courses are well known but there is a greater issue that needs discussion. The emphasis on the study of medicine is closely related to the basic need of the very huge population of India starved of primary health-care services especially after the fading of traditional systems labelled as obsolete and inadequate. In this connection, the Manmohan Singh government made efforts to introduce a B.Sc (C.H.) or community health degree course in universities with a view to creating a pool of health practitioners for primary health-care services in rural India. It is unfortunate that it did not move forward.
The MBBS degree is basically inappropriate for primary health-care services for obvious reasons. The B.Sc (C.H.) course would have been the ideal tool in India to alleviate the plight of the poor and enhance health services in rural panchayat areas. The ivory towers of hospitals with out-patient services cannot provide the services of health practitioners that could have been made available not far away from where the lower strata of society lives. In addition, health practitioners could have served as visiting service providers for institutions such as old-age homes, destitute homes and orphanages.
R. Narayanan,
Vyasagiri, Thrissur, Kerala
