"Brain drain" or "Drain drain" ?

My friend Joe mailed in to comment on my previous post “Should Indian Doctors emigrate?” As usual he will have his own arguments which will never go in tune with mine.

His immediate cynical response was “What brains you are talking about??” He continued to mention “we have cheap labor and that’s it, nothing more. When thousands of people emigrate you bound to see one or two successes. That is comparable to the statistics of any other country’s emigrating population…….” Concluding it by “Don’t worry about this ‘Brain drain’, what’s happening is only ‘Drain drain’ :) :) :) “

I’m still worried. The drain you are talking about is getting drained at the cost of my tax money. ....... :) :)

Seeji

Should Indian Doctors emigrate?

This is one question which I always find difficult to take a stand on. It is little easier to take a stand when you reframe the question “Should Indian doctors emigrate after studying in the Indian tax payer’s money?”

This week’s Shashi Tharoor’s column in ‘The Hindu’ deals with this issue. He questions “Should the Indian Government continue to subsidise medical education?”. A very basic question indeed.





He has supported the engineers & management graduates by saying

“…..The old fears of a "brain drain" seemed to me to have been supplanted by
hopes of a "brain gain", as desi software designers and high-tech gurus from
Silicon Valley have opened thriving firms in India, employing their countrymen
and women, increasing the country's export revenues and pumping up the national
GDP….”

Then I should ask “How many of them?”. If the IT boom which started here by the resident Indians was not there, would they have mind to come down here?. I don’t find any difference between a NRI coming to India for opening a firm and Microsoft coming to India. Both of them are here for business and for cheap labour. That’s it. How justified it is to blame Doctors alone when even IITians & IIM guys have studied with the same tax payers money causing a big hole in their pockets.

Having said that, I am not supporting the idea of funding someone’s education, only to see him going abroad and making money. There should be strict legislature of a bond to work in home country atleast for specified years after completion. That is not a very difficult legislature to bring in. That should be applied to Doctors as well as Engineers.

Apart from this basic question, Mr Tharoor also gives a strange picture where Indian doctors are ready to serve the poor at remote places of US but not the same poor in India who are in much needy position.

“Towns like Welch, populated largely by the very poor and the often sick,
have little appeal for American doctors whose principal objective is to earn
back the quarter of a million dollars they have spent on their medical
education. …….. Fifteen of the 19 doctors in the town hospital were from abroad,
including India.”

Situation is not that gloomy, as recent evidences show a reverse brain drain in medical fraternity. But there is a huge rise in number of young medical students moving abroad looking for higher pays, better career and better life. This may have been resulted because of minimal number of post graduate seats not catering to the thousands of graduates coming out, rampant illogical reservation system, a very low pay package compared to other professions. But they should not be the excuses for someone to burden the taxpayer

Mail me your views at drprasannacg[at]gmail[dot]com

Seeji.

Back to 'Andaman'

Hi,

If you have observed my ‘Current Reading List’, the autobiography of Conrad Hilton, “Be my Guest” is there for very long time. This is unusually long, coz I often complete reading a book at a stretch of 3-4 days. Very few books have tested my patience. I can give the example of “The monk who sold his Ferrari” which took months. That was the last “self-help” book I picked up and I developed hatredness towards that genre of ‘personality development books’ after reading it.




Unlike Robin Sharma's book, “Be my Guest” is superbly written, a rarity in the genre of ‘Autobiographies’. The Life of Conrad Hilton is so much adventurous and you get excited while reading every phase of his life. It also feels like, you can’t put down the book while reading. I can say, If I didn’t know about Conrad ‘Connie’ Hilton, someone could have passed it to me as a thrilling fiction. It has thrilling sequences, family emotions, Faith, Romance and a constant touch of humor throughout. Still, for some obscure reasons I am yet to complete it. (I can blame my busy schedule). Last 20-30 pages are still waiting to be read.




Last evening, I found a book of Tejaswi. My friend was reading it when I visited him. It was like finding a treasure. You don’t happen to see your favourite Kannada books in Tamil Land everyday. I almost snatched it from him and gave “Be my Guest” a rest . ‘Alemariya Andaman & Mahanadi Nile’ from Tejaswi. This particular book is not a very famous work of Tejaswi compared to ‘Karvalo’. ‘Parisarada Kathe’, ‘Annana Nenapu’ etc. Being the first Tejaswi book I read in my childhood, this denotes a remarkable phase in my life. After reading this I was hooked to ‘Travelogues’ . I read obsessively “Lakshadweepadalli Lekakaru”, “Americadalli Goruru” and many others. It was also the starting point of reading ‘Tejaswi’. Now I can proudly say, I have read most of the literary works of Tejaswi. Not once but repeatedly.

I have never visited Andaman in my lifetime. But I know each & every place there, the people there, the tribal society, their stories, the marine life there and hundreds of other stuff. Courtesy Tejaswi. Hence this is a repeat trip of Andaman now. This time “Alemariya….” marks my fourth reading of the book. Hopefully I will come up with a review of both the above-mentioned books sooner. Wait for them.

Seeji.

Remembering the HIV Medics of Libya on World AIDS Day

Hi ,

Note: This post was originally posted in my other blog Pharm House, which I am cross posting here

When the world observes World AIDS Day and concerns coming from everywhere about the depressing statistics, I want to go tangentially and write on a different issue of high concern.

I want to write about the 'Tripoli Six', Six medics in Libya's prison who are waiting for the final verdict on December 19. The trial of five Bulgarian nurses and One Palastenian doctor ended earlier this november and the verdict is awaited. They had missed previous conviction of sentence to death in 2005 after pressure from the scientific community around the world. Worst part is that they are in prison since 1999 and waiting for justice.




Nature in its September issue, strongly condemned the General Gaddafi's (Libyan President) attempt to scapegoat the inocent medics. Nature in its 'news section', regularly followed the proceedings of the Tripoli trial.

Nature's strong editorial titled 'Libyan Travesty', reads

Imagine that five American nurses and a British doctor have been detained and
tortured in a Libyan prison since 1999, and that a Libyan prosecutor called at
the end of August for their execution by firing squad on trumped-up charges of
deliberately contaminating more than 400 children with HIV in 1998. Meanwhile,
the international community and its leaders sit by, spectators of a farce of a
trial, leaving a handful of dedicated volunteer humanitarian lawyers and
scientists to try to secure their release.

Implausible? That scenario, with the medics enduring prison conditions
reminiscent of the film Midnight Express, is currently playing out in a Tripoli
court, except that the nationalities of the medics are different. The nurses are
from Bulgaria and the doctor is Palestinian.

The case is politically embarrassing for Gaddafi. Finding a scapegoat is easier
than having to admit that the infection of the children was an accidental
tragedy. But the most likely diplomatic compromise — that the medics will be
condemned to death, with this being commuted to a life sentence — is
unacceptable. They are innocent, and the law and science can prove it, if they
get the belated opportunity.

The scientific community has also been relatively silent on the case, perhaps in
the hope that it would be sorted out by diplomacy. But the latter has not proved
to be the case, and scientific leaders need to use all their influence urgently,
as the fate of the medics will be sealed in the coming weeks. It is time not
only to save the doctor and nurses, but also to defend a common vision of
science and law in establishing the truth, above all other imperatives.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi has the opportunity to put this affair behind him by giving
the six an immediate pardon.

................

Richard J Roberts, 1993 Nobel laurette in Medicne heading a team of 113 other fellow Nobel laurettes wrote an open letter to General Gaddafi showing their concern for the medics.

Strangely enough, the efforts from the US & UK are not impressive till date. Both US and EU had several opportunities in resolving this issue. Unfortunately this plight of medics was not in their priority list.

On this World AIDS Day 2006, I keep my fingers crossed for the acquittal of those innocents. Let us hope for a just verdict on December 19. I will update you on this.

Seeji.

Trivia section:

The theme for World AIDS Day 2006 remains 'Stop AIDS. Keep the promise.' It focuses on keeping commitments to stop AIDS at all levels: personal, community, organisational and governmental.

Do you know the count !!!!??? 40 million and ticking, with India contributing a significant fraction.....!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahem...