A Plea From and a Plug For Pro-Med

Keeping US Informed of Infectious Disease Outbreaks Throughout the World / Performing a Much Needed Service That Our Government Should Provide;


LIVE AS A BANKER
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A ProMED-mail post

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases


Date: 20 Dec 2007
From: Stuart Handysides



Times are hard, I know. Jobs are less secure than they were. The
pension you've worked for looks a less certain prospect than it did.
Your trousers (pants/pantalon/hosen) keep falling down, not in a
farcical way, but because you need to make another hole in the belt
to hold them up.

And ProMED-mail is asking you for money.


Before you tell me to "Get real!" (do people still say that?),
consider this opportunity. Giving to causes like ProMED-mail places
you alongside other famous philanthropists -- Andrew Carnegie, John D
Rockefeller, Paul Getty, Bill and Melinda Gates people who have
nurtured valuable causes over the years. These people were not
bankers, you say (apologies to Mr and Mrs Gates, who still aren't
bankers). No, but they were philanthropists (apologies to the Gates,
who still are philanthropists), and no famous banker philanthropists
came to mind.

If any bankers read ProMED-mail, hello to you, you're not our obvious
target readership, but you are most welcome, especially if reading
and responding generously to this appeal. Many people disapprove of
your bonuses, but we will take the view that some of our best bankers
are friends if you choose to share them with us.

In appreciation I have a present for you. It's a little job I did
this morning. It took at least a minute -- ought to be worth USD 1000
or so. I am sure you are familiar with the verb "to google", meaning
to command the genie of the Internet in its Google persona to search
cyberspace. I googled "philanthropist AND banker" and found 178 000
entries. Now doesn't that give you bankers a warm glow inside, just
like hot chocolate with brandy on a snowy day, or too much chilli on
your barbie (for those of you in the southern hemisphere)? That's a
USD 5000 glow if ever I felt one.

So, gentle readers, if you want that philanthropic banker glow,
please send ProMED-mail some money. There are no limits -- it doesn't
have to be as much as USD 1000 or as little as USD 5000. Send what
you can afford, to reflect the value you feel ProMED-mail adds to
your life, your institution, the world. I believe we send our
generous donors mugs or something -- quite handy if things go
belly-up and you're reduced to singing "Brother can you spare a
dime". The passing public will know you gave to good causes in better
times and look kindly upon you.

Your gift is tax deductible in the United States [perhaps elsewhere,
too]. In addition, as a small token of our appreciation, each donor
of USD 250 will be entered into a prize draw to win a new iPad (a
gift of USD 500 gets 2 entries into the drawing, USD 1000 gets 4 entries, etc).

Donors of USD 100 receive a ProMED-mail water bottle, and donations
of USD 50 are eligible to receive an environmentally friendly ProMED
shopping bag.

Our goal this year is to raise USD 145 000 through the year-end
Internet-a-thon. Please go to the Internet-a-thon donation webpage
now and please give generously.



Yours, in grateful anticipation

Stuart Handysides
Associate Editor, ProMED-mail
Buntingford, England, United Kingdom


PS We welcome contributions to support our work from organisations
that benefit from the service we provide. To learn more about
institutional giving, contact Amy Galblum at .

PPS In the interest of human filiality I omitted to mention that
"banker AND jokes" yielded 818 000 results.
...................sh/lm/ejp/mpp

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