Medicine at the Cross-Roads in the Tropics Defining Moments, Refining Thoughts and Definitive Actions

• Main Author: Khalid Yusoff (Author)
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Shah Alam UiTM Press 2013
• Series: Professorial and fellow's inaugural lecture : Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Academy of Sciences Malaysia Professorial and fellow's inaugural lecture : Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Academy of Sciences Malaysi
• Subjects: Diseases > Tropical medicine > Risk factots; Tropical diseases; Tropical medicine > Diseases > Risk factor
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.

 The Equator has distinct geographical, climatic, cultural and political influences and impact on inhabitants of Mother Earth. Hot, humid, torrential, lively, and diverse are descriptions of the clime and the communities inhabiting this vast region of the Earth. The Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, 23.5° south and north of the Equator respectively, delineate the tropical region. The countries in the Tropics share some attributes as well as exhibit differences and uniqueness. The peoples in this area share a trait of being dark to brown to black skinned. They share a common history - they built great kingdoms, empires and civilizations in the past (eg. the Indus, Majapahit, Malacca, Maya, Aztec civilization) only to succumb for hundreds of years to Western colonization. They managed to get their freedom, often through peaceful negotiations but sometimes requiring armed uprising, only in the mid-late 20th Century, specifically after the Second World War. Thus they missed, unlike the Japanese and the Chinese, the great epics of the Industrial Revolution and the Reformation which changed World history and changed the way Man looks at himself and at each other, and at the environment.