The Reith Lectures

British academic lawyer Professor Sir Ian Kennedy explores the concepts of modern medicine in the third Reith lecture from his series entitled 'Unmasking Medicine'.In this lecture entitled 'Suffer the Little Children', Professor Kennedy considers how the National Health Service needs reforming and gives a conceptual blue print of how he believes improvements should be completed. Exploring the political, economic and social decisions which influence the way the NHS is run, he questions whether more preventative measures could be taken to stop certain illnesses reaching hospitalisation level?

British academic lawyer Professor Sir Ian Kennedy explores the concepts of modern medicine in the second Reith lecture in his series entitled 'Unmasking Medicine'.In this lecture entitled 'The New Magicians', Sir Ian Kennedy compiles a list of the inappropriate directions that modern medicine has taken, revealing how he believes that it can be pinpointed to the medical education system. He complains medical practitioners have become driven by solving problems of science to the detriment of humanity.

This year's lecturer is the British academic lawyer Professor Sir Ian Kennedy. He founded of the Centre of Law, Medicine and Ethics in 1978 and has lectured at prestigious universities in London, California and Mexico. Professor Kennedy explores the concepts of modern medicine in his Reith lecture series entitled 'Unmasking Medicine'. In his first lecture entitled 'The Rhetoric of Medicine', Professor Kennedy reviews how we define illnesses. Examining the role of the doctor in the modern world, Professor Kennedy questions the power medical authorities have over our minds and bodies. He calls for the public to become masters of medicine by learning its complicated language. He explores the political and social judgement centred on the definition of ill health, and asks, what is illness?

In his sixth Reith Lecture, Professor Ali Mazrui examines Africa's physical location on the globe in relation to its economic, political and military destiny. The Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan gives his last lecture in the series entitled 'The African Condition'. In this lecture entitled 'In Search of Pax Africana', Professor Mazrui explains that geographically, Africa is the most central of all continents, but politically and militarily it is probably the most marginal. What are the implications of this paradox, and how is Africa to get out of the prison-house of political dwarfs situated in the middle of the City of Man?

Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ali Mazrui, explores Africa's lack of cohesion in his fifth Reith lecture from his series entitled 'The African Condition'. In this lecture entitled 'Patterns of Identity', Professor Ali Mazrui argues that an understanding of the size and fragmentation of Africa is essential in diagnosing the nature of its aches and pains.

Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ali Mazrui, considers Africa's lack of economic development in his fourth Reith lecture from his series entitled 'The African Condition'. In this lecture entitled 'The Burden of Underdevelopment', Professor Ali Mazrui questions how such a resource rich region of the world accommodates some of the poorest countries in the world.

Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ali Mazru, explores the conflict between African and Western cultures in his third Reith Lecture. Delivering his third lecture from his series entitled 'The African Condition' In this lecture entitled 'A Clash of Cultures', Professor Mazrui argues that African societies are not the closest culturally to the Western world, yet they have been undergoing what is perhaps the most rapid pace of Westernisation of the 20th century. He explains that Africans are therefore caught up between rebellion against the West and imitation of the West.

Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ali Mazrui considers the injustices that have been inflicted on the African people over time in his second Reith lecture. Delivering his lecture from the series entitled 'The African Condition' he explores the sufferances of the African people.In this lecture entitled 'The Cross of Humiliation', Professor Ali Mazrui argues that Africans and people of African ancestry have suffered more humiliation in modern history than any other race.

Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ali Mazrui gives the first Reith lecture from his series entitled 'The African Condition'. The Kenyan-born university lecturer questions why Africa is the last continent to be made truly habitable. In this lecture entitled 'The Garden of Eden in Decay', Professor Mazuri analyses the problems Africa faces in his lecture and compares it to the Garden of Eden in decay. He argues that the long-term solutions to Africa's crisis of habitability depend on the continent acquiring two things: the capacity for self-pacification and the capacity for self-development.

Reverend Dr Edward Norman, Dean of Peterhouse, Cambridge, considers the Christian situation in Africa in his fifth Reith lecture. Speaking from his series entitled 'Christianity and the World Order' he considers the persistence of religion in a secular society. In this lecture entitled 'The Indwelling Christ', Reverend Norman explores the contemporary understanding of Christianity. He evaluates its change from spiritual devotion to a sanctification of political morals. However, Reverend Norman explains that Christianity is far more than just morality and warns we should not forget the role of spirituality in our lives.