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Words and Deeds


Shakespeare once wrote -
"Talking is not doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds" - and anyone with ME will probably have come across empty words given out by ministers and establishment departments.

Deeds have never been an inexorable consequence of the words uttered by establishment officials regarding ME. Lots of platitudes and promises from governments and funding agencies have all frequently been discarded.
People with ME may have good reason to question how they are treated in a society where their needs are often ignored and when words uttered out of ignorance or deceit by establishment figures and people in the media can cause long term discrimination.

When Covid-19 changes many aspects of life for all people then it is worthwhile reflecting on the type of society we hope to have – something people with ME have long had cause to question.

And words can affect how society behaves, reacts or treats areas such as disease or disability.

Norwegian journalist Jørgen Jelstad was invited to give the IIMEC7 pre-conference dinner in 2012.
His presentation is available on our You Tube channel and website.

The title of the presentation was 'Words Matter'

The talk was also documented on Jørgen's blog site here - http://debortgjemte.com/2013/05/30/scientific-conference-warm-up/

As Jørgen stated - "When words stick as a stigma, it’s just not right."



December is often associated as a month filled with humanity and generosity and events such as Christmas and New Year Evening.
Also a time for reflection.

So we thought to repeat the words of a person who lived in a different time, more troubling perhaps but beginning to look menacingly similar today, and who lived through it to influence the future deeds by way of his words.


Eliezer Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor.
He authored 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
Along with writing, he was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, and he helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D. C.
He also campaigned for victims of oppression in places like South Africa, Nicaragua, Kosovo, and Sudan.
He remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime and was described as "the most important Jew in America" by the Los Angeles Times.
Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, with the Norwegian Nobel Committee called him a "messenger to mankind", stating that through his struggle to come to terms with "his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's death camps", as well as his "practical work in the cause of peace", Wiesel had delivered a message "of peace, atonement, and human dignity" to humanity. source-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel


Words have the power to influence - and turned into deeds can change the world - for good or for bad.

Here are some pertinent quotes from Eliezer Wiesel on this twelth day of advent -

“Human beings should be held accountable. Leave God alone. He has enough problems.”



“My greatest disappointment is that I believe that those of us who went through the war and tried to write about it, about their experience, became messengers. We have given the message, and nothing changed”



“In any society, fanatics who hate don't hate only me - they hate you, too. They hate everybody.”



“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.”



“Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.”


“Someone who hates one group will end up hating everyone - and, ultimately, hating himself or herself.”


“Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories”


“Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.”


“Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give one another”


“Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.”


“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

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