Since graduating from medical school eight years ago, I have had the chance of experiencing clinical psychiatry in four countries on four continents; Bombay and Goa, India, my home, where I trained in medicine and began my psychiatric training; Oxford and London, United Kingdom, where I acquired a taste for academic psychiatry and completed my clinical training; Sydney, Australia, where I worked in a liaison unit in a large general hospital and a community mental health centre; and now, Harare, Zimbabwe, where I am conducting a two year study on traditional concepts of mental illness and the role of traditional healers and other care providers in primary mental health care.

Should have noticed the portent of doom heralded by the fact that the results did not arrive in the post when everyone else's had. Should have noticed the warning signs when the man down the road knocked on the door holding a suspiciously fat-looking dog-eared envelope in his hand. Results delivered to the wrong address.

Compare the following: “AIDS, Why We Won't Be Silenced.” (Sunday Times, December 1993) and “… sex is an extremely important activity for a person's physical and mental health … wear a condom.” (Folha de São Paulo, February 1994). The first is the now notorious banner headline from the Sunday Times’ self-righteous campaign to “search for the truth” by casting doubt over the causal role of HIV in AIDS. The second is an encouraging and straightforward message from an editorial in an equally prestigious and widely read Brazilian newspaper in the run up to Carnival.

Buddhism started in India in the 6th century BC. It is not a faith, but a way of life that includes maintaining virtuous and moral conduct (Sila), improving the concentration of the mind (Samadhi) and developing insight or wisdom (Panna).