By Stephen Richards
It would appear to be an unusual time to emigrate. The World Cup appears to have been an overwhelming success, the country united, things running relatively smoothly and even prominent corrupt officials are surprisingly being found guilty. An email from a friend painted the picture of a revamped, utopian Durban beachfront. Cape Town as a backdrop is a pleasing site to the eye especially on Australian television. And even the stream-of-conscious thought from the youth league has taken second place to the World Cup (thankfully).
To add to all this, Australia can give one the feeling of being regulated, as my wife found out after being forced to buy our toddlers’ library book that had a slight water mark on the corner of a page. And the continual patriotic rah rah can be rather tiring after living with it for a few months. It’s not uncommon to see a flagpole erected in the average garden — independent of sporting event. Perhaps the six-month mark is also the most difficult in terms of friends and family. I have read that somewhere. And the news is just not the same — full of repeated non-issues such as what to do with the couple of refugees on Christmas Island. Granted Julia Gillard coming into power was a relatively bigger issue but even that lacked many of the qualities such as mismanagement and corruption that surround similar news events in Southern Africa.
But then it’s probably not that much fun in the casualty department in which I worked. Alcohol, public holidays and sporting events tend to have a sort of direct relationship with trauma. The department will be short-staffed, equipment supplies low. The risk of a needle-stick injury is just that much higher. And the potential frustration also just that much more, as increased patients means increased poor management due to lack of resources and personnel. Needle-stick injuries and poor management beyond one’s control also tend to cause considerable angst, and both those tend to last longer than the duration of a World Cup!
An Australian medical senior supervisor was curious about the retention rate of South African doctors. Of all the international doctors in his department, he found that the South Africans were the least likely to return home. That probably holds true for the current situation in which all 11 South African doctors in the department appear to have no intention of leaving Australia. The staffing issue in South Africa is perhaps one reason for this. The department I work in has approximately 26 doctors on shift per 24 hours, in a department seeing about 60 000 patients a year. My previous hospital in South Africa had 4 doctors on shift per 24 hours, for an emergency department seeing about 30 000 patients a year. But perhaps it is not the figures that are the most important. Besides, history is full of heroic stories of feats accomplished with seemingly impossible odds, with limited resources and manpower. Unfortunately, a medical management/system that appears to oppose and neglect doctors instead of working with them, has not created the necessary platform for near-impossible feats to occur.
The stadiums look spectacular, the vibe sounds contagious, and even Zapiro’s English journalists are eating their words. Yet as the excitement dies down and the vuvuzelas are packed away, will there be any real change? The link between the soccer World Cup and a lasting health legacy may be a tenuous one. But a desperate situation could use any sort of tenuous link available. Perhaps the World Cup will be seen as more than a privilege, vote of confidence and success. Perhaps it may be used as a defining moment — a moment from which to move forward and to put in place the necessary steps to rehabilitate a country with a health system that is arguably failing. Or perhaps I am just being naive, and a return to reality the inevitable.
Stephen Richards is a medical doctor who recently moved to Australia.
Have you thought that now there are only 3 doctors per 24 hour shift? If you all keep leaving, soon there will be none. Of course if you do not feel able to be a builder but just a hanger on, then perhaps we don’t need your skills, as SA requires builders.
I don’t think it necessary to justify your decision Stephen. We all make our choices, however the latest statistics reveal an almost 180 degree turn on the ” Brain Drain” experienced over the last few years, with figures revealing a considerable nett gain of returning South Africans. This I am sure is partly to do with the Global economy, but also because people are realising that firstly the grass is not always greener, and secondly that there is no substitute for home. Having travelled for close on 12 years, I have come to understand the meaning of the ties that bind.
In my opinion, there has been a noticeable difference in the attitudes of average South Africans. Although it was obviously exaggerated over the world cup period, there is definitely a sense of unity that will remain long into the future. The problem is that this renewed pride may not have rubbed off on the more intellectual individuals, such as doctors perhaps. I heard recently, that the South African government puts approximately R1 million into the training of one new doctor (over and above there relatively insignificant tuition fees). Although I know so many doctors feel the system is working against them in SA but what about the doctors working against the system. Taking their MUCH needed skills elsewhere! Most doctors choose their career path to help others and there is no doubt this can be achieved, more so, by staying in SA than leaving!
Of course there will be change. There will always be change. Change is the only constant. But change in South Africa will continue as it has been before, downhill. The loss of people like the author (doctors, engineers, architects, managers, etc) is causing the irrevocable decay of South Africa such that it, like all other African countries, will become a stale state stuck in the time of its independence with slowly collapsing infrastructure. It will need vigour and action to reverse this situation, something alas, not found in the curent government. The DA perhaps?
As long as the ANC continues to be a ‘Struggle/Revolution’ organisation, nothing will change. There are two many debts to pay to ‘comrades’ and struggle veterans so we shall continue to have un-qualified people holding high office.
It needs to be noted that the World Cup, almost in is entirety was produced by competent and qualified people in the private sector, whilst the ‘know nots’ at least had enough sense to stay on the sidelines and sooth out red tape when and where it was needed. At least in the case of the WC these ANC people knew that they were out of their depth and left it to the ones who could deliver, could meet deadlines and were accountable.
A World Cup run by unaccountable people would have been a disaster as is the case with health, schools, municipalities, local government, roads, water and everything else. Finance remains reasonable but everything else is a mess and will only get worse.
In order to stay in power, the ANC will have to revert to their war songs and “you owe us” type electioneering. Corruption will remain and promises that have no hope of being fulfilled will again become the order of the day.
The gravy train and the plunderbus are priorities.
Imagine a World Cup where JuJu was appointed as the project manager, after all he can, we think, hit a nail into a piece of wood!!
Its so sad – since 1995 we have heard the doom and gloom. Alas, 1995 came and went, and we were OK, then came the World Cup announcement, and wow, again the the same old stories of going downhill and being the laughing stock of the world. That never happened.
It seems to me that some people just cannot get it in their heads that we South Africans are survivors, and that we survive so well that we are the envy of many people in the world.
We are also nice people, and therefore will not think the less of you should you return to the country you so miss!! Just do it!!
Emigration from your native country is a very serious issue. Most people emigrate because they feel that they and their children have no future if they stay. Real emigrants don’t bolt as soon as they encounter rpobelms in tehir new country. Just ask people who emigated to the US throughout history. Even highly qualified people often had to labour in degrading jobs for years. Medical doctors, no matter, how experienced, were not allowed to practice before they passed board exams. Lost your good job? Too bad, you had to wash dishes for awhile to survive. I have no sympathy for pampered South Afrcicans, who scurry back at the slightest problem, forgetting why they left at the first place.
Judith and those who likely add to but not contribute to the system picking on someone who has left for what he believes is a better life.
I suppose the patriotic Judith & co do not pay taxes nor employ people. If they did they would realise the besides the stadia we get almost zilch, [ compared to other countries ] for our tax rand. They would take connisance of the fact that the world cup only gave us the taxpayer what were are due as a nation. Namely security, roads and a slightly better transport system. The SWC did not provide housing nor water or electricity that we have to pay huge sums to use. They would also realise that the momentum and gains from the world cup are unsustainable and that we still have to face the never as yet mentioned debt accrued by government.
Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor…doctors are not the only ones. Affordability is the common denominator. If you can’t afford to leave, you stay, and some of us are still happy to be here, even if it’s only a lack of money that kept us here. Sixteen years on, I don’t think I’d leave even if a miracle made it pragmatic, but I suspect my son might. People who whinge at home don’t necessarily want to leave, they want the country to perform to its full potential; more for others who deserve more than for themselves.
Doesn’t it get up your nose that some overpaid and non-delivering public servant with a regular salary got to attend a WC match at taxpayer expense when you couldn’t afford one? And then threatened to strike the next day for an even better package?
Ours is definitely a land of milk and honey. Some have both; others neither!
I understand what you mean about the regulation and patriotism, Stephen! I assure you it’s even worse here in the US. You did the right thing, though: Working conditions in S.A. are awful for doctors. My German husband is a brilliant doctor and fell in love with S.A. but we came to the US instead as he was just too white to get anywhere down there. I guess that’s S.A.’s loss, really. Life may be regulated here and the patriotism can be annoying – but we have a special kind of freedom that only personal safety can bring.
See you after few years….
With regard to your original question as posed in your headline.
It is unlikely.
As an example: I [and many others] routinely visit a chiropractor who irons out the kinks that have accumulated over weeks/months/years of bodily misuse.
The hope is that, having been ‘straightened out’ one will henceforth reap the benefits in the form of less pain, more productivity et al.
My chiropractor stays in business [as do others] because he knows that within minutes of leaving his premises the old habits return because they are ingrained and the feel good factor will inevitably wane and a month or two later we return for another dose. [The same can applied to shrinks, shiatsu or even sex].
In SA corruption and indifferent performance have become ingrained habits fuelled over some 60 years of indifferent governance by parties intent on self gratification and the exclusive promotion of sectional interests.
As Mo Haarhof pointed out ‘affordability’ is the real issue. People have been leaving since 1900. Those of us who stay do so because we have few choices and hope that things will improve, and as my visits to the chiropractor demonstrate things do improve for awhile…
So there will be some beneficial improvements following the world cup experience, some people will change and some will have had a nirvana type experience… gradually the effect of constant manipulation will improve circulation and we will become healthier but we are talking centuries: because the problem of habituation is almost insurmountable.
Firstly the vuvuzelas won’t be packed away, the PSL begings in August (I forgive your ignorance).
ZA is a developing country, limited resources, comprende good doctor?
During apartheid all the countries resources were for the benefit of only 10% of the population.
You don’t have to make excuses for being nomadic, your forebears were nomads as well.
@ian shaw – Whilst I agree with you in the main I must point out that some have to work at “degrading labour” all their lives with none of the privilige of choice or hope for less degrading work.
Sorry, but I really cannot feel sorry for people so priviliged that they can actually choose a safer country to move to, bemoaning their lot, when to the majority there really is very little option how safely they live, or even, whether they could become a doctor, no matter the fact that they might have the mental ability but lack the requisite background, education and means.
@Stephen Richards – Stick with Australia, you only miss the exitement of crime when you are away from it. I bet you don’t worry about your children being mugged on the way to school for their cellphones anymore, or your wife being hijacked and kill on her way to do some shopping. What’s a library book between friends? Given that I have involuntarily “donated” to the criminals and their subsidiaries, the police and security companies, a substantial amount over the last few years, I would jump at the chance to donate books to my local library if I had a choise in where I donate my degradingly laboured for means.
“It is more blessed to give than to recieve.”
I choose to stay where I can give more rather than going where I can get more. At the end of the day, this is more rewarding…even if it has its sacrifices.
Judith, Ian
If you never had a needle stick injury yourself, then refrain from critisizing doctors who do find this as a reason to leave SA.
Does not matter whether they were “pampered” or suffered under apartheid.
I know one doctor who got a needle stick on I think it was Christmas Day. The hospital would not even help her, one of the biggest academic hospitals in SA. She had to drive home, and then ask family members to rush to a pharmacy to get ARVs. This was not her first needle stick. And the ARVs have nasty side effects.
“but we have a special kind of freedom that only personal safety can bring” – Carla has put it in a nutshell. I left that hell-hole called South Africa 4 years ago after my teenage son was viciously attacked and stabbed by 2 previously disadvantaged goons simply because he happened to possess a mobile phone. Our adopted country affords us the personal safety which South Africa is unable to offer it’s citizens. The readers who perpetually demonize those who have emigrated, are living in a fools paradise. Their chickens will still come home to roost. It takes more than money to start a new life abroad. To the author I say “Well done in leaving, mate”.
Teen held for rape of two five-year-old girls
2010/07/16
A 17-YEAR-OLD boy was arrested for allegedly raping two related five-year-old girls in Libode.
The mother was at work at the time and “on her arrival, one of the children told her what had happened”, Transkei police said.
The suspect, who was arrested in Mpindweni, was due to appear in court in Libode today. – Sapa
This article was published in the Port Elizabeth Herald. Need one say more. The author made a wise choice in deciding to leave.
@Long-gone, this from http://www.sagoodnews.co.za
Poem: Careful Spirit (South Africa)
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
It was called a place defined by colour.
Discriminated were the blue people,
And arrogant were the red.
Then there were the golden ones,
Who reached through the glimmer of the rainbow
And offered hands to all.
But I’m colour-blind to its open arms.
Shocked by the brilliance of the laughing waves
Sparkling blue in the Cape .
Awe inspired by the diverse trees, who, like the country’s people,
Derive personalities from stories told by the land.
Spirits that were once overcast by history
Now having their chance to offer their warmth,
Like the sunset they view, with its radiant affection
Of soft rose-orange and yellow glow,
Leaving stars as souvenirs.
For later, the remembering of old shadows come
And the chilling of night sets in with foreboding fears.
The stone-cold aggression of poverty and crime
Replicating masks of past mistakes.
New battles faced from the icy dark nights
Can threaten the leftover clouds that did not disperse.
For if it starts to rain the flooding will come,
And I don’t want my South Africa to drown.
By Clair Melvill (15)
Need one say more.
Our love for this place soars way above our fears;
this is why we’ll never run away from heres.
@Poetician – Please recite that poem when you are being violated. Your age belies your ignorance. Your cocoon has yet to burst.
There is a new book of short articles on whether South Africans should stay or leave. First article is by famous poet Andre Brink. He says he is too old to leave now. He tells just one story, of the brutal murder of his nephew Adri and related matters. A week later, a gang of robbers were arrested, and some of them were caught with cellphones and the laptop taken from Adri’s home. A few days later, they were released, because the docket got “lost”. This same gang has probably murdered other residents in the same area subsequently.
In the area where I live, it costs only R1000 to get a policeman to cause a docket to get “lost”.
Life is cheap in SA, perhaps cheaper than anywhere else in the world, and is one reason why patriotic South Africans emigrate.
I ‘ran away’ several years ago that was because my first priority (by a country mile) is the safety of my family.
I don’t give a rodents backside about sacrificing my or my loved ones lives to ‘build’ something for others to trash.
If anyone is unable to leave then they have my sympathy. If you have children and can leave , yet choose not to , you are dumb.
Good for you Stephen, you made a decision to leave for good reason, you may miss Africa or Home for a while and it will pass, and in the end you are smilling.
Poetician, that’s very pretty, but you’ll forgive me if I failed to appreciate the rose-orange and yellow sunset at my murdered aunt’s funeral, and that of my husband’s aunt… If I wasn’t thinking of the Cape’s blue waves the night my sister was raped, or my husband was hijacked and dumped far from civilisation… or while I sat in a police cell, arrested by abusive traffic cops because I was an easy female target.
I’m making plans to take my family to the USA, where there are also beautiful beaches and sunsets, but people who work towards a better society… instead of crying “no resources” like Africa4Africans. Ever heard of GOLD, Africa4Africans? You can keep your Africa.
XCepting sayd:”Sorry, but I really cannot feel sorry for people so priviliged that they can actually choose a safer country to move to, bemoaning their lot, when to the majority there really is very little option how safely they live, or even, whether they could become a doctor, no matter the fact that they might have the mental ability but lack the requisite background, education and means.
My comments: emigrants who initially had to take jobs whatever they could, were not “bemoaning their lot”. On the contrary, they worked hard and eventually succeeded in creating a better life. Yes, not everyone has the privilege of choice. I think, most people want to stay in the country of their birth, until it becomes quite clear to them, that their efforts to contribute are not only ignored, but their lives are in danger. Yet if you are in the privileged position of having a choice and the means and the intelligence, you must act upon it. I heard once that every situation in life can be handled in three ways: 1.you live with it, 2. you try to change it, 3. you quit.