HEALTHY COMPETITION

[Ferland Louis H.]

Bert,

What a wonderful thought to bring with us into the New Year! 

You are absolutely right that the choice is ours but, on the pessimistic 
side, the problem resides precisely there: it has to be a COLLECTIVE 
choice. How do we achieve this?

Louis F.



On 29 Dec 1995, Bert Gold wrote:

> Date: 29 Dec 1995 23:05:10 GMT
> From: Bert Gold <bgold at itsa.ucsf.edu>
> To: bioforum at net.bio.net
> Subject: HEALTHY COMPETITION
> 
> When competition spurs us on to work and think harder and to do more
> with less, to run faster and farther than the other runners in a race,
> it is healthy.
> 
> When competition involves hiring thugs to disable a fellow skaters'
> capacity to compete (a la Tonya Harding) it is NOT HEALTHY.
> 
> Giving others poor grant reviews, poor paper reviews for publication,
> holding onto papers in competing fields where friends can get
> time leads to fend off foes, preventing younger scientists
> from applying for funding by arcane institutional rules, wiring
> grants for funding before they are reviewed, making impossible
> demands of underfunded scientists before they are allowed to
> continue down the pathway are not signs of healthy competition.
> 
> The world we and our children have to live in is our choice.
> 
> We can live in a world of Tonya Harding competition, or a world
> of healthy, I would choose Glenn Cunningham as an example,
> competition.
> 
> The choice is ours.
> 
> Bert Gold
> San Francisco
> 

Dr. Louis H. Ferland
Centre de Recherche, Hotel-Dieu de Montreal
Dept de Nutrition, Universite de Montreal
Phone: (514) 843-2757     FAX: (514) 843-2719