[afro-nets] Efforts under way to stem brain drain of doctors...(8)

[Niagia Santuah <nsantuah@pcaccra.org>]

Efforts under way to stem brain drain of doctors...(8)
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We are probably so desperate that we may as well try everything,
anything. In any case, if we are to succeed we should be trying
just about any kind of solution. I see one immediate obstacle to
[y]our proposal: How do we ensure that the doctors are trained
and made available in the first place before they are pooled and
then distributed? You have hinted at sourcing funding from G8
and other 'do-gooders', and that brings us right back where we
started from - at the beginning! I would not discount your pro-
posal as stillborn though.

I have an entirely divergent opinion. We should encourage the
brain drain or is it 'brainlooting'!? If doctors are in such a
high demand elsewhere we would be better off training them in
large numbers and selling them for hot cash! I hear Cuba batters
them off for crude oil from Venezuela. The rest of them are
posted on bilateral agreements to many parts of the developing
world - there are three of them in my village! Some are report-
edly recently imported into South Africa! See!!

We can make magic of a hopeless situation. We let the docs go
but tax they themselves and also tax the recipient countries for
using them.

I don't know which suggestion is more practical but somehow I
believe the solution lies somewhere in between the two. Let's
keep brain storming!

Santuah Niagia
Accra, Ghana
Tel.: +233-21-780-711
mailto:nsantuah@pcaccra.org