Fighting racism (2)

The letters by my medical colleagues Dr Michael Asciak and Dr Pierre Schembri Wismayer (The Sunday Times, January 30) were very succinct and to the point.

Norman Lowell is a likable, intelligent and knowledgeable person, who has what I can only term certain extreme views. So be it. In a democratic society, he is perfectly entitled to express his views. The only subtle difference is that they are diametrically opposite to mine.

To start with, to call Africans "black coal" is not a good platform to open a debate. Secondly, my medical colleagues have proved that Mr Lowell obviously has got his conclusions about our Maltese heritage completely wrong.

Thirdly, as a former British Army doctor of many years' experience, I would like to let Mr Lowell know that I have treated hundreds of patients of different colours, creeds and nationalities, without ever letting these aspects influence my judgment. On the contrary, I found that amazingly, my doctor-patient relationship was sometimes even better with some of those patients, than with the ones from the developed countries, with whom I had a terrific rapport.

If Mr Lowell's life depended on being operated on by an African, Asian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist or Hindu surgeon, would he decline that operation?

In the last 4,000 years, there have only been some 300 years of complete peace. Most of those confrontations were fuelled by racial or religious differences.

Yes, if anything, the world should become much more united. Euro-Asian and Euro-African marriages are certainly not to be discouraged. The abysmal gap between the super rich and the poor countries must be narrowed.

Finally, I must confess that as a medical student many years ago, I held somewhat similar views to Mr Lowell's, though not so extreme. Time, travel and training junior doctors in the art of general practice in various countries, while serving in the British Army, changed those dangerous ideas of mine.