Wel(l)come to the world of pharmacy!

"Oh, the word to change him back
into what he was before!"*)

The December 2004 issue of the very well made, really great, glossy gay magazine "hinnerk" (Hinnerk is both the local form of the first name Henry and a pet name for your male family jewel...), published in Hamburg for the northern part of Germany, carries a full colour two page ad by GlaxoSmithKline. The history of this company reads like the history of modern medicine or pharmacy, at least that financially successful part of it which bears, to more critical, thus alternatively and better informed minds, a striking resemblance with Goethe's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"*). One lives best from problems one has oneself created or omitted to solve. Politicians are an even better example of this.

In 1995 the companies Glaxo and Wellcome merged; in 2000, when GlaxoSmithKline was formed, through the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and Smith Kline Beecham, the Wel(l)come was dropped. I still remember when the big letters of the company name suddenly had changed on the facade of their Hamburg building which you can see when driving by with the city train.

This company, of course, is only one example among many, but no doubt a prominent one, as you will learn when reading Wendy McElroy's column of this week: NYC Must Come Clean on Foster Kids AIDS Scandal.

~~~

You only need to compare the majority of the people spending their life's time participating in the "gay scene" as portrayed in the monthly "beautiful people!" centerfolds with those gay people outside that scene as portrayed in this issue's title story, and you will know who is more likely to ever need that Wel(l)come by the pharma industry...