One special feature of the 2012 Rio Congress is that Abrasco, our Brazilian partner, is a public health organisation with capacity in nutrition, and more generally in food and nutrition policy and practice, rather than a nutrition organisation with capacity in public health. This will shape the nature of the Congress.

Another factor that guided our Council is the impressive track record of Abrasco in the organisation and control of big congresses held in Brazil. A number of Association members participated and spoke at the Abrasco global congress on epidemiology held in Porto Alegre in September 2008, and the national congress on collective health held in Recife in October-November 2009. They reported that the energy, enthusiasm and efficiency evident throughout these meetings was awesome. They also reported that funds for both congresses came from registration fees, supported by grants and other material and practical support from publicly-funded bodies, or else companies whose businesses had no real or perceived conflict with public health. This is Abrasco policy.

Our thanks to our Brazilian partners go above all to Álvaro Matida, executive secretary of Abrasco, and to Inês Rugani, chair of the Abrasco food and nutrition working group. Information about our Rio Congress will be posted on this site regularly from now on.

This letter is about balance, and I am also prompted to ponder ageism. In the spirit of Buddhism and feminism, I once thought this term referred to the veneration and celebration of old stagers. Now I see it means the reverse: putting down and persecuting people and groups because they are old.

As President of the Association, I can safely state that we are not ageist. Indeed, sometimes I feel that a bit of veneration is in order! One of our correspondents from Brazil is the UK citizen Geoffrey Cannon. As our Publications Secretary he makes a big contribution to this site. In his current blog/column he discloses that he is 70 this month. Goodness me Geoffrey, whoever would have believed it, you look so much younger, not a day over 69 ha ha, so full of vigour and vim, etc etc...

There is a serious point here. The Association is committed to balance, within the framework of its aims, objectives and policies. What does ‘balance’ mean? Yes, one thing it means is the building of capacity and the creation of opportunity. We want Association members who are near the beginning of their careers, to be working hard as contributors to this website, and to become members of Council and Association working groups. This month, as well as the blog/column by Fabio Gomes from Brazil, we have a new column, from Reginald Annan from Ghana.

Balance for us also refers to gender and geography. We think we are doing pretty well here also. Yes, we are expecting that our Council will in future contain more members who are nationals of lower-income countries and settings, or who are living or working in such settings.

Equally important are other forms of balance, as between public health and nutrition, and between the various points of view on the nature, purpose and mission of our work as professionals. Another and more subtle balance concerns attitude. In her profile posted in this issue, Harriet Kuhnlein, who continues to do great work protecting the interests of Indigenous Peoples all over the world, describes herself as a ‘good news person’. On the other hand, Geoffrey Cannon brings his original training as a journalist and then as a campaigner, to his conference presentations and his writing. My policy is to let all voices sound. Public health nutrition often is and needs to be contentious.

Yet another balance concerns energy and commitment. A number of leading lights in the UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition (SCN)’s civil society group, are criticised for being ‘activists’. Maybe the term is being used as a euphemism, but it seems to me that we need fewer passivists and more activists. Part of the job of the Association is to empower people to engage, to be involved and committed, perhaps at some cost to themselves. I well remember the time in Australia when as a young activist I was thrown into a police cell with 20 others for trying to stop a native forest from being destroyed. Scary stuff! But Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi tell us that we have to fight for what we believe in, and accept that this may well be a lifelong road.

There again, a balanced life is not fixated on any one topic, however important. Let’s not suppose that public health nutrition is all there is to life. It’s a means to the good life well led. For me this includes football (soccer, for wretched countries in which this is not a national game). In Geneva I miss my wife and family. I also miss cheering on my beloved Southampton Football Club. We have dropped like a stone down and down from the top British division, but have recently saved from extinction by Markus Liebherr, a leading European industrialist. Long may his tribe increase!

Wherever I travel in the world I so often find common ground discussing football. My friend Association founder member Ali Dhansay, Vice-President of the South African Medical Research Council, has got me tickets for the football World Cup in South Africa in June. This is will be such a great time for Africa. Having spent many months over the last ten years in South Africa, experiencing its changes, I am proud and excited. South Africa will show the world how to organise a vast event in great style. The noise will be amazing! More on this later...

Barrie Margetts