people suffering from diabetes have problems due to acute pancreatitis and failure to produce insulin which converts food to energy or metabolism. after eating, the starch breaks down into sugar called glucose, which is transported by blood to all cells of the body to produce energy. most cells need insulin to allow glucose to enter the blood. if the food is rich in sugar and large quantities of starch, the liver and the pancreas are unable to produce enough insulin as a result of which some sugar remains in the blood. excessive amounts in the blood affects the nerves and blood vessels, and leads to complications such as heart diseases, stroke, kidney diseases, blindness, diabetic neuropathy, gum infections, diabetic foot and amputation problems. the symptoms of diabetes are increased desire to urinate, feeling of thirst, numbness, weight loss, slow healing of wounds and others. according to the world health organization (who), the number of people suffering from diabetes has exceeded half a billion and a majority of them can be found in middle and low income countries. in 1921, the canadian medical scientist, physician sir frederick banting, in collaboration with his student charles best, discovered insulin, which regulates blood sugar. they are credited with helping millions of people with diabetes around the world live longer in the face of this chronic disease. in the summer of 1921, the two scientists worked hard to identify what destroyed the insulin-secreting cells and sought an alternative to help the body absorb sugar from food and found a way to extract insulin from the islets of langerhans within the cells of the pancreas and reinject them into the body. now, a majority of good insulin comes from the pancreas of pigs. frederick banting was then awarded the nobel prize for medicine, but the swedish academy did not honor his student charles best. however, banting shared the prize with him. banting had earlier begun new researches in aeronautics and discovered the cause of the nausea among pilots during flights. he attributed this fact to imbalance in blood distribution between the feet and the brain during flight, and sought to find a scientific solution to the problem, but unfortunately he and his wife died at the age of 50 when his private plane crashed in february 1941. canada and many countries have honored him by naming the streets and other landmarks. even the international astronomical union has decided to give his name to one of the moon’s craters. this is what they have done to honor the man. however, in a rare case, liberal kuwait in 1971 issued a stamp bearing the image of sheikh sabah al-salem along with the photos of dr banting and dr best on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of insulin. at that time, kuwait was open and more human. kuwait at that time did not hesitate to honor people who have served humanity. for example, the state landmarks and facilities are named after people such as ibn sina and al-razi. however, with the unblessed awakening, things have changed and it is almost forbidden to give the name of a foreigner to a street or any landmark, irrespective to the great services the person may have rendered to this nation or to humanity. this means what happened in the past should not be repeated. naming a street after an unknown sea captain, or a manager of a company just because his home was there is better than naming the street after president bush or al-farabi, thatcher, ibn rushd, or even william morten, who deserves all respect and gratitude of the world and worth thousands of trillions of prayers for discovering anesthesia. some streets in kuwait are named after undeserving people.

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