Dear editor: Jumbies, laws, bush doctors, believers, naysayers and sheer human stupidity


“Science is wonderful; it has given many truly wonderful gifts, negative and positive, from the atom bomb through computers to thalidomide to television to telescopes to space travel.

“But will it ever be able to treat human stupidity—in buyers and/or in sellers? In doctors or in ducktors? I doubt it.”

The following brief Letter to the Editor, which deals with human stupidity and local herbalist Trevor Sayers, was submitted to Wired868 by Mohan Ramcharan of Birmingham, England:

Photo: Self-professed herbalist Trevor Sayers.

A few years ago, I made an observation which I called Jumbie’s First Law. Here is what it says: “Every time you think stupidity can’t get worse, someone will come along to prove it can.”


It has never been proven wrong yet.

Today, I’m reading about a young police officer who went to Tableland to buy gold illegally and got robbed. The First Law has struck again.

Later, I saw a video in which a “healer” was advising people to spray insecticide into their eyes to alleviate/combat/treat conjunctivitis/“red eye.” It’s not a joke; he was dead serious. Not for the first time, I am absolutely convinced that at last the First Law is in danger of being proved wrong. Is it really possible to get stupider that that?

Insecticides are toxic, which is why they work. In fact, a simple online search shows that one of the active ingredients in Baygon accounts for about 10,000 deaths per year. Some other insecticides have active ingredients which are similar to the chemical sarin, which is used in chemical warfare.
Imagine spraying that into your eyes or breathing it in.

Trevor Sayers—a self-professed herbalist—is a danger to himself, to that child in the video and to the public at large. Science is wonderful; it has given many truly wonderful gifts, negative and positive, from the atom bomb through computers to thalidomide to television to telescopes to space travel.

Photo: A satirical take on technology.
(Copyright Glasbergen.com)

But will it ever be able to treat human stupidity—in buyers and/or in sellers? In doctors or in ducktors? I doubt it.

Which is one of the reasons we need laws, first and foremost, to protect innocence against ignorance.

And jumbies.

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About Mohan Ramcharan

Mohan Ramcharan is a Trinidadian living in England, an LLB (Hons) law graduate, systems thinking practitioner, and critical thinker. He is a product of two cultures and strives to be ethical and impartial in his thoughts and actions.

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20 comments

  1. Every time you think stupidity cannot get any worse up comes Trevor sayers MR. Mohan Ramcharan you could not have said it any better

  2. In other countries after seeing that video he would have been immediately arrested and charged for child endangerment among other charges related to spraying the child’s face

  3. This man knows nun bout herbs he use to fix fridge an now he big herbalist He should be band on a permanent an band from fb to!!

  4. More attention for the herbalist..

  5. There’s need for legislation and certification of these alternative practitioners…

  6. Permit me to indicate that his views are not shared by Naturopaths, and other complimentary medicine practitioners and Herbalists in this country.
    It is a known fact that he has in the past and continues to bring our profession into disrepute.
    We would welcome government’s regulation of this industry.
    Religious communities continue to support his businesses and he continues to strive.

    • Well said Patricia I firmly believe in natural cures my faith says for every disease there is a plant or herb

    • There is too much evidence out there to show that NO alternative treatment works beyond the PLACEBO EFFECT.

      I suggest you read “Trick or Treat: Alternative medicine on trial” by Simon Singh.

      Countless clinical trials dating back to the early 1900s have yet to show that any alternative has measurable benefits, and in fact, most in the long term are damaging, and merely bleeds the victim (I can’t rightly call them patients) for large sums.

  7. Is not Sayers is the gullibility of people who should know better, see people doing things or getting hoodwinked and we can stand from a distance and say Nah dem get ketch. The previous minister of health only spoke a lot but did little to combat people like him.

  8. Their is no current medical based legislation to stop him and the many similar but less ludicrous CAM practitioners. It also relies on complaints from the public or others and few are usually forthcoming.

  9. The sad fact is by his utterances hundred of people involved in similar business might suffer. That’s the actions of a selfish, self-opinionated, unscientific charlatan.

  10. A dentist friend of mine suggested that I get in touch with ‘Doctor’ Sayers and recommend that, given the obvious effectiveness of insecticide sprays against conjunctivitis, he should turn his focus to his halitosis. As such, using Gramoxone as a mouthwash, with him as the very first test subject, should be next on his agenda!!

  11. This ass should have been locked up a long time can’t believe he is still practicing. Please someone do something before he hurt another human being.

  12. Governments come and go but none has seen it fit to put laws in place to deal with these quacks and their claims to heal or treat almost all ailments.

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