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Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology 1991 Presidential Address
Special Article
Pan--American Association
of Ophthalmology
1991 Presidential Address
Enrique S. Malbran, MD The Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology is a solid and mature institution at present, despite its youth. This is the result of being aware of the value of its rich tradition, of its search for truth, and of a primary concern with providing a service to the community in the scope of its continental activity. The American Academy of Ophthalmology, a model institution, is the mirror in which most of the institutions in our specialty would like to be reflected. The Academy understands what I have just stated and, having offered us a helping hand many times before in different fields of action for the unmistakable benefit of our activities, today presents us with the strength of its powerful arm to carry out this splendid J oint Meeting. The leaders of the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology accepted this invitation because they knew the Association could rise to this challenge due to its selfconfidence, its conviction that it is an accomplished organization, its great faith in the future, and its hopeful wish for further development. It is, in fact, a special privilege for me to have the opportunity of delivering the Welcome Message as President of the Association in the impressive setting that the Academy of Ophthalmology provides year after year. I assume this privilege joyfully, with special gratitude to all my predecessors and to all the present executives who have led the Association to this level of development. I believe that this meeting marks a historical milestone in the life of our institution, a turning point that calls for reflection as to where we are, where we have been, and where we are headed. This is not the right moment to make a critical review of the rich scientific, educational, and community assistance programs that our Association has among its activities. Rather, I do believe that my message must pursue a more prospective view of the principles that must guide our future action.
Reprint requests to Enrique S. Maibran, MD, Fundacion Oftaimoiogica Argentina, Jorge Maibran, Parera 164, Buenos Aires 1014, Argentina.
160
One of these principles is to cultivate tradition. Peoples, associations, and individuals enrich themselves insofar as they can acknowledge their traditions as one of their values. Sometimes, only the present is taken into account as if a wrong pragmatism or even hedonism were the value, the supreme goal, as if the present moment itself, which inevitably and hastily becomes past, were a sovereign entity, born through spontaneous generation, orphan of transmitted values, omnipotent, omnipresent, committed to neither past nor future. It is tradition that hands down to us real values, values that were once new and positive and are, for that reason, still valid now and will remain so in the future. To recognize and develop this sense of continuity and continuing relevance makes up a significant part of maturity. The Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology is well grounded in the tradition of its history, its actions, its leaders. Following in their footsteps provides us with the confidence that we enjoy today. This does not mean that we deny the importance and the positive aspects of modifying the present according to the circumstances and needs of the moment, as long as we are guided by the search for true values such as wisdom, justice, truth, ethics, solidarity, and morality. A commitment to strive for these is what makes humans free. It is what helps ensure human dignity and, therefore, that which distinguishes us from beasts and machines. "The dignity of the human creature is the adequate criterion to judge the true progress of society, work, science, and not conversely." These are the words pronounced by His Holiness Pope John Paul II in New York in 1979. In the search for truth in science, in education, in community services, we will be authentic provided that human dignity is respected and understood as the supreme purpose. Authentic does not mean spontaneous, but, rather, the manifestation of truth. Hence, we will consider our colleagues and our patients as people with their qualities and flaws and with their needs, rather than as faceless entities hidden behind numbers or as mere competitors or stepping stones to our promotion.
Malbran . Presidential Address Humans always need to believe in somebody, in something. It is not a religious experience, aquestion of creeds; it is a need of our human condition, which is eager for the spirit of truth. It is said that when the truth is rejected, freedom turns into arbitrariness and egocentrism becomes the rule. We must believe in people, in our countries, in our parents, and in our teachers, in those who handed down to us as little or as much as we enjoy today. In short, we must believe in all that is worth our faith. There exists no science, no education, no love in any of its purest forms if there is no faith. It is inconceivable, therefore, to have scientific development without faith, and to have faith involves believing in something that aims to discover a parcel of truth. This is an intellectual action, an exercise of the will and not merely something sensitive as when you believe only in what you wish: such a false and voluble attitude is characteristic of immaturity. We see, then, the necessity of truth, of its search and its experience. That is why I insist that our expectations are a question of values. Insofar as we are truthful, we will make our organization perdurable. The re-creation of a sense of ethics is the reassurance of long-lasting success: it is the guardian against and antidote for immoral conduct. Astrong sense of ethics will enable us to capture the transcendental aspects of life, to discern the harmonious from the disharmonious. We will understand that what is worthwhile is what allows us to escape, among other things, from the manipulations of the matters of the moment that tempt us with dangerous, fading solutions based on short-term successes, on voluptuous propaganda, to the detriment of the right behavior,
and on so many other false attitudes that create a dependence on the present moment, with all its errors, its mirages. The Association, with all the ingenuity and dedication of its leaders, for the benefit of its programs and with the counseling support of its members, will have its cornerstone, its touchstone, its identifying culture for a promising future ifit is absolutely clear that there should be a global view of knowledge, of education, of solidarity, of continental integration with the prevalence of principles in which the search for and cultivation of values is the supreme goal. It will then be a real OLOCXUKaAtCX, a didaskalia, as in Ancient Greece; a teaching and transmitting doctrine. Educating is a sublime form of human love, which involves, as Fray Luis de Granade stated: "loving, counseling, helping, suffering, forgiving, edifying." I have faith in this because I know the leaders who will bear this responsibility. Because, as such, they know which are the principles that involve the values that are to be fulfilled and developed. Because they have a stake in this, not only as an attitude but also as an experience in which they commit themselves personally. They understand what is implied in the onus et honor (burden and honor) of those who have to govern, those who must be leaders. In this Welcome Message, which is at the same time the last of my term, I would like to express my best wishes for the successful outcome of this meeting. I would like to take the opportunity to re-create our Pan-American brotherhood, which also hosts and enjoys the presence of colleagues from other continents, whose active participation is becoming greater and greater.
161
Pan--American Association
of Ophthalmology
1991 Presidential Address
Enrique S. Malbran, MD The Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology is a solid and mature institution at present, despite its youth. This is the result of being aware of the value of its rich tradition, of its search for truth, and of a primary concern with providing a service to the community in the scope of its continental activity. The American Academy of Ophthalmology, a model institution, is the mirror in which most of the institutions in our specialty would like to be reflected. The Academy understands what I have just stated and, having offered us a helping hand many times before in different fields of action for the unmistakable benefit of our activities, today presents us with the strength of its powerful arm to carry out this splendid J oint Meeting. The leaders of the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology accepted this invitation because they knew the Association could rise to this challenge due to its selfconfidence, its conviction that it is an accomplished organization, its great faith in the future, and its hopeful wish for further development. It is, in fact, a special privilege for me to have the opportunity of delivering the Welcome Message as President of the Association in the impressive setting that the Academy of Ophthalmology provides year after year. I assume this privilege joyfully, with special gratitude to all my predecessors and to all the present executives who have led the Association to this level of development. I believe that this meeting marks a historical milestone in the life of our institution, a turning point that calls for reflection as to where we are, where we have been, and where we are headed. This is not the right moment to make a critical review of the rich scientific, educational, and community assistance programs that our Association has among its activities. Rather, I do believe that my message must pursue a more prospective view of the principles that must guide our future action.
Reprint requests to Enrique S. Maibran, MD, Fundacion Oftaimoiogica Argentina, Jorge Maibran, Parera 164, Buenos Aires 1014, Argentina.
160
One of these principles is to cultivate tradition. Peoples, associations, and individuals enrich themselves insofar as they can acknowledge their traditions as one of their values. Sometimes, only the present is taken into account as if a wrong pragmatism or even hedonism were the value, the supreme goal, as if the present moment itself, which inevitably and hastily becomes past, were a sovereign entity, born through spontaneous generation, orphan of transmitted values, omnipotent, omnipresent, committed to neither past nor future. It is tradition that hands down to us real values, values that were once new and positive and are, for that reason, still valid now and will remain so in the future. To recognize and develop this sense of continuity and continuing relevance makes up a significant part of maturity. The Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology is well grounded in the tradition of its history, its actions, its leaders. Following in their footsteps provides us with the confidence that we enjoy today. This does not mean that we deny the importance and the positive aspects of modifying the present according to the circumstances and needs of the moment, as long as we are guided by the search for true values such as wisdom, justice, truth, ethics, solidarity, and morality. A commitment to strive for these is what makes humans free. It is what helps ensure human dignity and, therefore, that which distinguishes us from beasts and machines. "The dignity of the human creature is the adequate criterion to judge the true progress of society, work, science, and not conversely." These are the words pronounced by His Holiness Pope John Paul II in New York in 1979. In the search for truth in science, in education, in community services, we will be authentic provided that human dignity is respected and understood as the supreme purpose. Authentic does not mean spontaneous, but, rather, the manifestation of truth. Hence, we will consider our colleagues and our patients as people with their qualities and flaws and with their needs, rather than as faceless entities hidden behind numbers or as mere competitors or stepping stones to our promotion.
Malbran . Presidential Address Humans always need to believe in somebody, in something. It is not a religious experience, aquestion of creeds; it is a need of our human condition, which is eager for the spirit of truth. It is said that when the truth is rejected, freedom turns into arbitrariness and egocentrism becomes the rule. We must believe in people, in our countries, in our parents, and in our teachers, in those who handed down to us as little or as much as we enjoy today. In short, we must believe in all that is worth our faith. There exists no science, no education, no love in any of its purest forms if there is no faith. It is inconceivable, therefore, to have scientific development without faith, and to have faith involves believing in something that aims to discover a parcel of truth. This is an intellectual action, an exercise of the will and not merely something sensitive as when you believe only in what you wish: such a false and voluble attitude is characteristic of immaturity. We see, then, the necessity of truth, of its search and its experience. That is why I insist that our expectations are a question of values. Insofar as we are truthful, we will make our organization perdurable. The re-creation of a sense of ethics is the reassurance of long-lasting success: it is the guardian against and antidote for immoral conduct. Astrong sense of ethics will enable us to capture the transcendental aspects of life, to discern the harmonious from the disharmonious. We will understand that what is worthwhile is what allows us to escape, among other things, from the manipulations of the matters of the moment that tempt us with dangerous, fading solutions based on short-term successes, on voluptuous propaganda, to the detriment of the right behavior,
and on so many other false attitudes that create a dependence on the present moment, with all its errors, its mirages. The Association, with all the ingenuity and dedication of its leaders, for the benefit of its programs and with the counseling support of its members, will have its cornerstone, its touchstone, its identifying culture for a promising future ifit is absolutely clear that there should be a global view of knowledge, of education, of solidarity, of continental integration with the prevalence of principles in which the search for and cultivation of values is the supreme goal. It will then be a real OLOCXUKaAtCX, a didaskalia, as in Ancient Greece; a teaching and transmitting doctrine. Educating is a sublime form of human love, which involves, as Fray Luis de Granade stated: "loving, counseling, helping, suffering, forgiving, edifying." I have faith in this because I know the leaders who will bear this responsibility. Because, as such, they know which are the principles that involve the values that are to be fulfilled and developed. Because they have a stake in this, not only as an attitude but also as an experience in which they commit themselves personally. They understand what is implied in the onus et honor (burden and honor) of those who have to govern, those who must be leaders. In this Welcome Message, which is at the same time the last of my term, I would like to express my best wishes for the successful outcome of this meeting. I would like to take the opportunity to re-create our Pan-American brotherhood, which also hosts and enjoys the presence of colleagues from other continents, whose active participation is becoming greater and greater.
161