An Old Speech

In 2004 Prof. Ricardo Bento and I organized the first (and only) meeting of the Collegium Oto-rhino-laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum held in the southern hemisphere. I had the opportunity to welcome the members of the Collegium to Costa do Sauipe, near Salvador, where the Meeting was held.


I was looking at old papers in my office and found this speech, that was not published. I would like to share it with you.

My wife and I at the opening of the Collegium Meeting in Bahia

A little more than 500 years ago a group of Portuguese sailors, commanded by Pedro Alvares Cabral, landed not very far from here, officially discovering Brazil. Two years previously they had found the sea route to India.


I feel that they were as brave and intrepid as the men who now venture in outer space. They did not know how to measure longitude. In order to know where they were they had to rely on logs of previous voyages and on the beautiful stars of the southern hemisphere skies, such as the Southern Cross. They had no communication. Their ships were light and vulnerable. And yet they succeeded, along with Spanish and Italian navigators, in enlarging considerably the amount of the world that was known.


We now feel that their knowledge was small in view of the enormity of their task. But they had technology. Their navigation schools had all of the knowledge available at that time.


It was also at this area that Brazil’s colonization began. Bahia, the city of Salvador, was founded in 1549 by our first General Governor and was the capital of the colony for many, many years. You will see in it wonderful contrasts, very modern buildings and those of different times, going back almost to the old Portuguese caravels.


Technology was also in the mind of these pioneers. They imported from the island of Madeira the specialists in sugar plane plantations and for many years Brazil became the largest sugar producer in the world.


We now live in an age in which technological progress occurs very rapidly. It has become a challenge, for all of us, to keep up with what is new.


There are now, in Medicine, many accusations that increased technology is making us loose the ability to develop an adequate relation to our patients. Some people feel that the engagement with science precludes us from personal involvements.


But these were not the feelings of the pioneers who, in 1926, founded in Groningen the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum. Since its very beginning the Collegium thrived for both science and technology. And it also thrived for personal friendship among its members. These important tasks of our group have always been pursued, stimulating us to be good scientists and humane persons, maintaining these two qualities as fundamental in Medicine.


The Collegium was founded soon after the end of the First World War. This was a time when there was a general feeling that another war would eventually happen. Our founders watched, in a somewhat perplexed way, that those physicians who belonged to countries that had been at war were still good friends. Wars come from Governments and politicians, never from the general population, never from physicians. And so they felt that stimulating friendship among otolaryngologists they could somehow promote world understanding and peace.


We now live in different but equally troubled times. The world is cultivating hate, extracting it, in some distorted way, from religions that are well-meaning. The friendship among our members is now as important as it was at the beginning, or during the Second World war.


To me it is a great honor to belong to this prestigious organization. And it is a greater honor to become its President.


Now, like the Portuguese sailors, the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum is discovering another part of the world. It has crossed the Atlantic Ocean a few times, but now it crossed the Equator, coming for the first time to the Southern Hemisphere. All of the South American members welcome you all, very cordially, as scientists and friends. Welcome to South America. Welcome to Brazil.