Got this link from a friend. Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning communist’s heart is still–despite his age and experience–with, and in China: to be precise, with Comrade Mao. This academician couldn’t hold back his gushing praise and promptly put his foot… where else?

In Hong Kong last week it was Nobel Prize economist Amartya Sen doing the sounding off, praising the state medical system in China under the Cultural Revolution. Mr. Sen asserted that Maoist China had actually made great strides in medicine, bringing down child mortality rates and prolonging life expectancy. Moving to a privatized system was making the system less fair and efficient…

And got caught when somebody who had lived through that remarkable era pointed to the contrary.

But, alas, there was someone in the audience who actually had lived through the Cultural Revolution in China, and had been one of Mao’s “barefoot doctors.” He didn’t see things quite the same way as Mr. Sen. In fact, he said the comments had quite surprised him.”I observed with my own eyes the total absence of medicine in some parts of China. The system was totally unsustainable. We used to admire India,” said Weijian Shan, now a banker in Hong Kong.

Tch tch! Sen should learn to rest on his laurels: enjoy his prize and all the perks that are associated with it–free trips, lunches, the works–and he must give that occasional talk but learn that knowledge is not the academician’s preserve alone. In case the learned Professor doesn’t know or has forgotten the accurate story of the Cultural Revolution, he can start at Wikipedia.