The Vice-Chancellor of Monash University has sent me a begging letter. A few days previously, the Vice-Chancellor of Sydney University had done the same.

Both eminent personages pointed out to me that their university is doing wonderful research into issues of great significance to the community. The Monash letter started with the description of a research project into obesity, which is now a major problem in Australia.
I am upset and disgusted that people of such august position should have to go cap in hand to graduates, begging for money that should be supplied to the university by right. I pay taxes. I want those taxes to be spent mainly on Health, Education and Welfare, not for politicians’ perks and hidden subsidies to big business. The ‘economic rationalism’ that has hit Universities as it has hit everything else is UNECONOMIC IRRATIONALISM. It destroys the very fabric of society, including the ability of universities to educate, and to do research.
Why should I dip into my pocket to help a research project into obesity? If this is a major problem for Australia, shouldn’t Australia as a whole pay for it? And if we want to retain the skills and commitment of the researchers who work at all these partly funded projects, shouldn’t we pay for them as a nation? Who will benefit if they give up and go abroad to continue their work?
In any case, I feel I can save the government and the university a little bit of money. Perhaps that researcher into obesity should contact me, and I’ll pass on all the necessary information.
In fact, I’ll do better and list it here.
Obesity is a problem because so many Australians have reduced their physical exercise and changed their diet to rubbish. And that’s it, though I can enlarge on the details.
I was a long distance runner as a student. One of my mates was a garbage man, and I envied him, because he got paid for a big chunk of his 100 miles a week training. He did it running after the truck. Now, the same job is done while sitting on a comfortable seat in a truck, pulling a lever.
Service stations once used to be peopled by, well, people who served. Now there is just the one person, sitting behind a counter. Multiply this by hundreds of examples. Should you be lucky enough to have one of the jobs that have not yet disappeared, chances are it is sedentary. If you want to do vigorous exercise, you’ll need to pay for it, rather than to be paid.
And what do we do for entertainment? For most people, sport is what they see on the idiot box.
Now for the other half of the problem: food. Most of us eat way too much sugar, salt and fat, courtesy of takeaway cuisine and the convenience food industry. One way of reversing the obesity problem would be to outlaw MacChuck and its various clones, and to ban freezers and microwaves. The art of cooking is fast disappearing, and I believe some high-cost new apartments now come without a proper kitchen.
Home-cooked food can make you fat too, but at least it’s self-imposed: you know what has gone into it.
Beating obesity is simple: eat lots of vegies, salads and fruit, fill up on starch, eat lean meat in moderation, keep the sweets as special treats. In contrast, we are a nation of chocaholics, and in fact the food triangle is turned on its head.
And of course even the best diet can make you fat if you have too much of it. As a psychologist, I often work with people who want to lose weight. Many of them simply don’t know what a hunger pang feels like. They overeat because they misinterpret sundry other signals from the body as hunger. Others use food as far more than fuel: it is a depression-fighter, time-filler, love replacement.
The Pilgrim Fathers who founded the New England States of America had a rule: you should leave the table when you feel you could still eat a little more. And they never ate between meals. They lived long and healthy lives.
But of course, if everyone followed my dietary advice, business would suffer, and that can’t be allowed. So, here is another reason I won’t be sending a cheque to subsidise the university’s research into obesity: it is doomed to have no effect as long as Big Business calls the tune.



Dr Bob Rich is a writer, mudsmith and psychologist. He has a byline column in ‘Earth Garden’ magazine. Visit him at http://www.
bobswriting.com/