Information gaps have the same causes as wealth gaps

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7264.831

BMJ 2000;321:831 ( 30 September )

Letters

Information gaps have the same causes as wealth gaps

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ If I substituted the words "financial wealth" for "information flow" in the editorial by Godlee et al on global informationflow in this issue,¹ I could imagine myself reading an upbeatbriefing on the virtues of trickle down economics from the 1970s.Information gaps have the same causes as wealth gaps. They area consequence of a powerful elite parading their culture and ideasas if these were universal. When there is the remotest opposition,the powerful will do everything to overcomeit.

The notion that thoughtful articulation of alternative views about health and society might, through the information revolution,modify the behaviour of the powerful in a way which will improvethe health of the poor is fanciful and misguided. The informationgap can be closed only when we are closer to securing the economic,social, and environmental justice within which all societies canflourish and express . . . [Full text of this article]