Doctors as political leaders

(中文在下方)

Question - What’s the difference between a doctor and a lawyer? 

Answer - A doctor can bury their mistakes, a lawyer leaves them hanging around in the air for everyone to see.

This old joke refers back to the days when hanging was still a penalty for capital crime. 

It jokingly highlights there are major differences between doctors and lawyers and their successes, or failures, which in an odd way may go some way to explaining that while both professions are represented in the field of political leadership, doctors have seldom made the best candidates. 

The National Library of Medicine in Washington DC contains a biographical analysis of medical doctors as the state presidents and prime ministers, which found just 29 examples.

It is not inspiring reading. The paper says “most of them ruled in countries with fresh or unstable democracies, most often in Asia, Africa and Latin America, three of them were bloody dictators.” It goes on to say that with the exception of Georges Clemenceau, twice Prime Minister of France and Sun-Yat-Sen, the Founding Father of the Republic of China, they were not famous as historical figures. Although it does name four which it describes as “good administrators”.

On the other hand, few professions are as well-represented in global leadership as lawyers. Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Mahatma Gandhi, Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Franklin D Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln to name but a few. Administrations who report up to country leaders are similarly stuffed full of lawyers in almost every country you look at, even if their leaders are not lawyers themselves.

The reason is fairly obvious. Lawyers are good at persuasion, have to work constantly to understand problems from clients from all walks of life, and of course, understand legislation. They are generally good at public speaking and have keen analytical skills across a broad range of subjects they develop when at law school.

Doctors, on the other hand, have little, or any of this background or skills. To be brutally frank they are often dealing with people in trauma, delirious or unconscious on the operating table most of the time. Which brings me to the main point of this little article. 

Yes, you guessed it, Doctor Dismal the Taipei Mayor and his equally dull wife, whose behaviour seems to bear out all of the facts above. 

I said a while ago I would not write anything about Mayor Ko unless he, or his wife, did anything spectacularly ill-judged or stupid, but I have to rate recent developments a 5, the worst mark on my Squirrel Scale.

Mrs Mayor says she is beset by controversy because her husband compared an unlicensed doctor to the recently developed Medigen vaccine, and this coming from a surgeon, not an epidemiologist. I think I’d rather trust the ranks of epidemiologists involved in developing Medigen than the word of someone with little or no expertise in the field.

She is advising the public not to trust this vaccine from the standpoint of a non-expert in vaccines and that, to my mind, is outrageous behavior for a responsible doctor. In fact, just as outrageous as someone who pretends to be a doctor, which as her husband rightly points out is illegal. Pretending to be an epidemiologist is morally just as bad as pretending to be a doctor, although not strictly speaking illegal. 

Why is she doing this? I think not because she ‘cares’ about the public’s health. Given her statements are coupled with thinly veiled accusations that the government is pushing Medigen because they all have shares in the company is an obvious smear campaign and clearly politically motivated.

The fact she has said in the past “I have hatred in my heart for the rest of my life” apparently directed at President Tsai, seems to pretty much prove the point. 

She also seems surprised that as an aspiring president, her husband is under attack from his political rivals. Well I hate to break it to you dear but that is what happens in politics. Or do you think that somehow he should be immune to the cut and thrust of the real political world? 

For her own part she really needs to shut up if she doesn’t want to keep getting personally attacked for her inane outpourings and Facebook antics. Look around the world dear lady and find another politician's wife who does what you do. Just stop typing and concentrate on the children you are taking care of, it’s easy to do and probably the best thing to do.

Maybe she truly believes Mayor Ko is the reincarnation of Sun-Yat-Sen and she is duty-bound to do what she can to aid his divine mission towards his ultimate goal and a solid place in the history books. 

Who knows, in a hundred years maybe the history books will publish her salmon recipes and there will be guided tours of their flat, by which time it will be designated as a national monument…..Er.

Tinkerty Tonk…

問：醫生和律師有什麼區別？答：當犯錯時，醫生的錯誤會和倒霉鬼一起入土為安，律師的錯誤卻會把人送上絞刑台，每個人都看得到。

這個古老的笑話指的是絞刑仍然存在的年代，它說明了這兩個職業的差別，或是他們成功或失敗的差別。在某種程度上這也解釋了雖然這兩個職業在政治領域都有代表人物，但醫生很少是最佳領袖人選。

華盛頓特區的國家醫學圖書館有一個關於醫生成為總統和總理的醫分析報告，其中僅發現了 29 個例子。

其實這個報告一點都不有趣，裡面寫道：這29人多數統治新興或是不穩定的民主國家，而在亞洲、非洲和拉丁美洲最多，其中三​​位是血腥的獨裁者。報告裡還說除了曾任兩次法國總理的克列孟梭和中華民國開國元勳孫中山之外，他們在歷史上的名氣並不大。這29人中有四位在報告裡被描述為優秀的管理者。

另一方面，很少有職業能像律師那樣在國際領袖中佔有一席之地，隨便提幾個就有歐巴馬，普京，甘地，卡斯楚，曼德拉，克林頓，羅斯福和林肯。在你所看到的幾乎任何國家中，向這些領導者報告的政府裡也一樣塞滿了律師。

原因是顯而易見的，律師善於勸說，要不斷地從各行各業的委託人那裡了解問題，當然還要了解立法。他們通常擅長公開演講，並且在法學院廣泛學科中訓練出敏銳的分析能力。

反觀醫生，他們幾乎少有這種背景或技能。坦率地說，他們經常在手術台上與處於創傷、精神錯亂或失去知覺的人打交道，這就是我寫這篇短文的主因。是的，你猜對了，不太聰明的台北醫生市長和他同樣呆板無趣的醫生妻子，他們的行為似乎印證了上述所有事實。

不久前我說過我不會再寫任何關於柯市長的文章，除非他或他的妻子嚴重判斷錯誤或做了愚蠢的事情，但我必須將最近的事態發展評為 5，這是我松鼠量表上最差的分數。

最近市長夫人說她因為某個爭議飽受困擾，因為她的丈夫將密醫與國產高端疫苗類比。這個說法來自外科醫生，而不是流行病學家。我想我會相信參與開發高端的流行病學專家，不會相信在該領域幾乎沒有專業知識者的隻字片語。

她從非疫苗專家的角度建議民眾不要相信這個疫苗，在我看來，對於負責任的醫生來說這是令人髮指的行為。事實上，就像冒充醫生的人一樣令人髮指，正如她的丈夫正確指出密醫是非法的。冒充流行病學家在道德上與冒充醫生一樣糟糕，儘管嚴格來說並不違法。

她為什麼要這樣做？我不認為是因為她“關心”公眾的健康，理由是基於她過去的發言加上隱晦的暗示，就是政府支持高端疫苗是因為他們擁有該公司的股份，這是一場明顯的抹黑運動，並且明顯具有政治動機。

她過去說過心中的恨意永生難忘，眾所周知是針對蔡總統的，這幾乎可以證明我的看法。

她似乎也很驚訝，她的丈夫因為有當總統的抱負，正受到政治對手的攻擊。好吧親愛的，雖然我不想告訴您實情，但這就是政治。或者您認為無論如何，他就是應該在廝殺刀刀見骨的殘酷政治世界中免疫？

就她自己而言，如果她不想因為她的愚蠢傾訴和在臉書上的滑稽表現而接連受到攻擊，她真的需要閉嘴。

環顧世界，親愛的女士，看看您是不是能找到另一個政治人物的配偶跟您在做同樣的事。您只需停止打字，並專注於您在醫院裡照顧的孩子，這很容易做到，而且可能是最好的事情。

不過也許她真的相信柯市長是孫中山轉世，她有責任盡她所能去協助他完成神聖使命，實現他的最終目標，並且在歷史上留下不可動搖的一席之地。

誰知道呢，也許一百年後歷史書籍會出版她的鮭魚食譜，並且會有導遊帶領參觀他們的公寓，屆時或許將被指定為國定古蹟……..呃。

Tinkerty Tonk… 掰掰。