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Veterinary Record. Where was the peer review when this article was reviewed before publication...? See page 14 of the
IAVH President Edward de Beukelaer
I am reading a book called Bourgeois virtues by Deidre Mccloskey. It is a book in defence of the values that come from the freedom of thinking
and freedom of enterprise. She writes that if we have our wits about us we make progress and can achieve lots of things. Every time a corporation or government of some kind tries to put their laws down to control ‘the rest’, progress halts.
She points out that the virtues mainly come from fair and thrifty interactions between people: when people are free to interact, they become virtuous. In her next book, which I read first, she writes that the Bourgeois dignity is what has made us become so rich in the last 200 or so years. The dignity she refers to is the freedom of enterprise in a society, where the rule of law is fairly assured and where people are allowed to fail and succeed.
What has this to do with the IAVH? Well, everything. The IAVH is the organisation for veterinary homeopaths. But for the IAVH to be virtuous we have to interact amongst each other, exchange information and participate in discussion. The IAVH in itself is nothing but the result of the cooperation and exchanges we have amongst us and with other organisations.
An example of our interactions with other organisations is that we will soon be working toward a statement on homeopathy by the WVA (World Veterinary Association). Because we have become members of this organisation, I will be at their board meeting in Spain in May and meet with the relevant committee that will consider such a statement.
Our cooperation with other organisations has also resulted in a good quality reply to the recent publication by Sundrum and Keller on mastitis in cattle, published in the
mag for our reply.
I always say to myself that the fact that so much
aggravation is directed towards homeopathy is proof that homeopathy is something to be reckoned with, and this in the good sense of the word meaning that it is clear to many that homeopathy is a threat to the monopoly of chemical medicine. But let’s be virtuous and become better homeopaths by remaining in contact with our conventional colleagues and continue to use modern medicine for what it sometimes does well. Also, because we are a free and curious society, the interactions we have with others make that the novelty homeopathy brings to medicine guarantee us a future: deep down humans want to progress even when at the surface there is often a tendency to resist. By the way, off course, homeopathy is not a novelty but it is new to some....
There is much room for optimism. I have on purpose started working in a very conventional practice to slowly bring the message of homeopathy forward. It is not uncommon that clients, who rarely ask for homeopathy, seem relieved when I offer to use homeopathy instead of a conventional prescription. There is a demand out there for homeopathy but it is often not clearly expressed by clients.
Go on spreading the good medicine: amongst your clients and also amongst you colleagues by publishing your cases.
Also, take note of the IAVH-ECH November meeting in Sofia: together with the ECH we organise a colloquium of 2 days, proposing a variety of presentations. One of the main themes is the integration of homeopathy into the current medical world. For those who are interested in research, before the colloquium, a day of presentations and discussions will be held on the subject of research in homeopathy. See: www.iavh.org for more information.
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