I came across the following story in my readings on media advocacy and
thought I would share it with all of you.

"       The story involves three people who meet in a coffee shop and start
discussing a wide range of topics.  Finally, they come to the topic of the
world's first profession, each claiming that their profession is worthy of
that distinction.  The first person was a surgeon who argued that surgery
was clearly the world's original profession because Eve was created with a
rib from Adam. 'Taking a rib from Adam obviously required a surgical
operation,' he said, 'hence surgery must be the oldest profession.'

        The second person, a public health activist, was not very impressed with
this explanation.  She pointed out that long before Adam and Eve there was
chaos. 'It took someone highly skilled and committed to social change to
bring order out of chaos,' she said.  'Obviously, this person was an
activist who had great organizing skills.  So, it was activism and
organizing, not surgery, that is the world's first profession.'

        The third person was a politician.  He sat and listened to the others'
arguments, but was not impressed in the least.  Finally, on behalf of
politicians everywhere, he simply asked, 'Who do you think created all that
chaos to begin with?'   "

                - Wallack, Lawrence et als. "Media advocacy and public health"



My apologies if you have heard the joke before.


Yun Jen
Department of social and preventive medicine
Université Laval
Quebec City, Quebec