A new phase in the brain drain?

THE EDITOR: Are we now at the start of another phase of the brain drain, sanctioned and promoted by a minister of government?

Education Minister Anthony Garcia recently advised graduating doctors that if they cannot find jobs here they should seek employment overseas.

That was an incredible recommendation. As a matter of fact it was as disrespectful as anything because after TT taxpayers funded the education of the medical professionals (at least 200 graduate each year), Garcia has consigned them to other countries just so.

Furthermore the announcement was also a terrible flaw from a minister who has responsibility for guiding students. He did not even consider possibilities such as employing personnel in preventative medicine programmes or at the Couva hospital.

But above all, Garcia has no sense of contemporary history. He does not recognise that his solution is no way to deal with the consequences of economic problems that have bedeviled us and led to the migration of our professionals. He decided to add fuel to the fire.

In 1990, Dr Emmanuel Hosein, then minister of health in the NAR government, faced the anger of nurses affected by the IMF conditionalities.

May I ask that the minister read an article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times on July 15, 1990, headlined “Trinidad reeling from economic woes, brain drain.”

An extract from the article states: “At the height of street protests in the capital, hundreds of nurses converged on the Red House, the ornate Parliament building in Port of Spain, waving placards and chanting slogans demanding the immediate resignation of health minister Emmanuel Hosein.”

It added: “In San Fernando, workers from other trade unions joined the nurses, represented by the PSA, in one of Trinidad and Tobago’s biggest anti-government demonstrations in a decade.

“Hosein promised action to tackle the crisis and blamed the problems of the health sector on the previous government that had run Trinidad and Tobago during the oil bonanza that turned the country into the richest in the Caribbean.”

I recall that Hosein severely admonished the nurses. In no time one-third of the nurses left this country.

I go back further to December 11, 1970 and the 1971 budget presentation. Francis Prevatt, the then minister of finance, planning and development, revealed that “between 1962 and 1968 there were 17,200 emigrants from this country, among whom were 11,500 professional or technically qualified persons. Included in this number were 143 doctors, 170 engineers, 679 nurses, 784 teachers, 909 other professionals and over 8,200 technicians and craftsmen.”

He added, “The brain drain presents this country with an extremely intractable dilemma, one which can only be solved by appropriate motivation and by negotiations with the principal countries receiving our emigrants.”

So then is the brain drain supposed to continue without reserve according to Garcia? We have lost many nurses, are we going to lose a whole set of doctors now?

AIYEGORO OME, Mt Lambert