The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7333 p92
22 January 2005

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How to make sure that an election is truly democratic more
Chemistry suffers a changing image with the passage of time more
So much to do … more

How to make sure that an election is truly democratic

As the recent presidential election in Ukraine demonstrated, elections can be rigged in favour of an incumbent leader or ruling party. In that case, the supreme court invalidated the first election result and ordered a closely monitored rerun, which produced a different result. But the way in which other elections due in other parts of the world are conducted is widely seen as a cause for deep concern.

The philosopher Oliver Wendell Holmes, writing in the 19th century of “The freeman casting with unpurchased hand / The vote that shakes the turrets of the land”, was not exaggerating the impact of democratic elections. But there are many uncertainties in the manner in which such elections operate.

In ancient Athens citizens scratched names upon pottery fragments to show which prominent figures they wished to consign to exile. And in the later Greek and Rome empires citizens showed approval or disapproval for those set in office to govern them by placing small coloured balls secretly in a box that was later checked by some appointed person. The system became known as the ballot (from Italian ballotta, a small ball). It was not until 1872 that a voting system introduced in Britain by the Ballot Act started to operate.

Two important considerations for the operation of a democratic voting system from its beginning have been the need for a secret ballot to guard against intimidation by employers and relatives, and the method adopted in counting votes in order to avoid errors and deliberate cheating. The need for voters to personally attend a centre where they are given a piece of paper on which they make a mark to signify their choice of alternative candidates deters some people from taking the trouble to vote at all. And the subsequent counting of votes by hand has always been tedious. Improvements have been made, but there is still much more to be done, in the shape of postal and electronic voting. Moreover, the methods of single and multiple choice in order of merit have aroused controversy in professional organisations such as our own Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

In Science for 29 October 2004 there is a review of the problems posed by electronic voting systems now available. Touch-screen and push-button devices seem simple enough, but it remains difficult to determine whether they always record a voter’s wishes accurately and whether they correctly record totals for transmission to the pool.

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Chemistry suffers a changing image with the passage of time

The public image of chemistry is an important factor in determining the choice of an academic subject of study by young school-leavers. But from time to time it changes, as described in a paper by Vikki Allen in Chemistry World for December 2004.

She states that children as young as eight years already hold strong preconceptions about what it means to be a chemist. One interesting view held by some children is that they are afraid that in studying or practising chemistry they might be risking injury to themselves or others. Moreover, they feared working in what might prove to be an isolated environment, instead of in a group.

At a conference in Paris in September 2004, it was revealed that in Europe opinions on the chemical industry vary widely from country to country. In Germany, for example, chemistry has a strongly positive reputation, whereas in Sweden it finds little support. It may be that the more people work in an industry the greater its support from the public. A negative image arose long ago when the practice of alchemy was a mystery viewed with fear and discredited by the church. Nevertheless, people were attracted to the promises that alchemy would provide riches and even eternal life.

In the Middle Ages the so-called “gazed-at” flask became a common symbol. It was first an emblem of medicine, afterwards of alchemy and chemistry. And laboratory glassware, such as flasks, beakers and retorts, has come to symbolise chemistry. In the 1930s the public image of chemistry was a positive one, associated with antibiotics and other wonder drugs but after the 1939–45 war the image was dulled as drugs started to pose problems as well as to solve them. During the 1970s global pollution by chemicals became a worry.

The tainted image of chemistry in its industrial aspects persists, and perhaps better communication and education are called for to arrest the decline. Chemists should improve the way they present themselves to the public. Meanwhile, events such as the Royal Institution Christmas lectures stimulate children’s imagination and promote the cause of chemistry.

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So much to do …

The comment “So little done, so much to do …”, with all the sense of frustration that it carries, is reported to have been made by Cecil Rhodes on his deathbed in 1902. A more healthy attitude might be to concentrate on the matter at hand to the best of one’s ability before considering the tasks that lie in the future. Yet detachment from all considerations affecting past and future is virtually impossible in this life, and might even prove dangerous in some situations.

The modern mania for “faster, ever faster” is another matter. We feel the competitive urge. John Buchan in an early essay commented: “We live in an age of hurry and feverish activity. Men live and work in a whirlwind, eagerly striving after many good things and pleasures; their fellows, even their friends, know little about them; their wives and families have only a slight acquaintance with them. They have no time for anything but business, and so they bustle and scheme until Death comes with his sponge and wipes them from the face of the earth, and there is an end of them.”

It is strange to think that this was written in 1896, for it carries the stamp of our own furious century. Anything that promises to get us somewhere quicker is given precedence over anything that might improve the quality of our leisure. To save a few minutes in journey time we increase our risks of travel. To have to follow a slower vehicle on a road goads many car drivers to fury.

It seems to me that the great urge to do things faster, ever faster, derives from the spirit of commercialism, which preaches the gospel that everyone, to survive, must be one move ahead of his fellows. How this deplorable state of affairs may be remedied poses a vast challenge to any reformer. Meanwhile we shall have to take comfort from William Henry Davies, when he writes: “What is this life if, full of care, / We have no time to stand and stare?” What, indeed?

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