Thanks for your service, docs

THE EDITOR: Open letter to Drs Parasram, Hinds, Abdool-Richards and Trotman.

Allow me, on behalf of a very grateful nation, to thank you for your service to this country. I have no doubt that the past 18 months or so have taken a toll on you, your families, and the teams which have been entrusted to your care.

Our systems usually shield our public servants from the full glare of the media, and for better or worse, rightly or wrongly, the “blows” are usually heaped upon the minister.

While we have never met, I feel as though I have come to know each of you. I have seen Parasram’s hair begin to change colour ever so slightly; Abdool-Richards has grown tremendously in her delivery and confidence before the microphone; Hinds has become more adept at presenting his slides in bite-size pieces so people like me can better grasp their import, and Trotman’s smile, though fading at times, restores hope that we will make it out of this crisis.

To listen to you being publicly harangued and shamed by no less a person that the former prime minister and current Opposition Leader has left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I am certain in the mouths of many citizens.

The tragedy is that the goodly lady knows that, as public servants, you cannot respond to her directly. I know you would first have to value her opinion before it could have any impact on you, but on behalf of the rest of the country, I offer you an unreserved apology. You do not deserve this.

I expect that publicly you will brush it off as par for the course, but privately it must rankle, it must hurt, especially as it has come from someone whose solutions to the crisis involved enjoying copious amounts of sunshine.

In a very real sense, your presence at the daily press conferences, your sober and at times sombre presentations, your exhortations to adhere to the three Ws, have proven to be the antibodies to the virus of indifference and a huge factor in the heightened degree of vaccine acceptance across the country.

I humbly suggest that it is through you tens of thousands have come around to accepting not only the efficacy of the vaccines, but the propriety of being vaccinated.

Your service to country reminds us that our lives are a precious gift and we grow by giving ourselves; not preserving ourselves but losing ourselves in service. What a sign of contradiction to the individualism and self-obsession and lack of solidarity that so dominate the thinking of some amongst us.

Today, I ask you to remain steadfast in your service to country. As best as possible I ask you to, if not completely ignore the rantings of our Opposition Leader, compartmentalise them in such a way that you can continue to do your work, to provide service to your fellow countrymen, and be of service to your God.

STEVENSON ESTRADO

via e-mail