By Gelane Gemechisa
Since the advent of “organized medical practice” in 1896, when the Russian Red Cross built the first hospital, Ethiopia has experienced a rapid expansion of the delivery of healthcare that lasted well into the 20th century. The establishment of the Ministry of Health in 1948 played pivotal role in centralizing healthcare and leading a concerted effort that resulted in the construction of 93 hospitals (public and private), and a sizable increase in the number of physicians in the public sector.
But, even with donor-funded and much celebrated projects such as the community-based health extension program,the trends in the past twenty years tell a different story. A population boom, with a record rate of growth averaging 2.1 percent over the last five years according to a World Bank report, coupled with minimal infrastructural development has taken a heavy toll on every aspect of the country’s livelihood, especially on the healthcare sector.
In a 2005 strategy report, the World Health Organization, found Ethiopia’s population per primary healthcare facility to be 24,513, a ratio triple the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. With only 13,469 hospital beds in the entire country, the figure comes to one hospital bed per 5,276 people and exceeds the average ratio for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa five-fold. As bewildering as these figures may seem, facilities and material resources are only a fraction of the complex problems that weigh on healthcare in Ethiopia. Read more
look what ever u say or tryin to explain idont get it.whole iam doing is serving my people with all iget .its not dollar its mybrain which is made her meant to stay here>
[...] Posted by Rahel Samuel on Oct 25th, 2012 // 1 Comment [...]
The problem African countries have in general with regard to brain drain is mainly attributable to the fact that African Universities and colleges teach their student in some foreign language. Recently I happen to visit China and during my short stay in that country I learnt that the Chinese are able to control brain drain by teaching their students in their own language. I strongly believe this problem is part of the conspiracy to keep Africa in dark and I challenge the reader to patiently read and ponder the following.
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Conspiracy Theory 101
1. Allow Africans relief assistance in the form of food, and medicine, which will not alleviate their chronic economic problems but address the temporary issues. As much as possible development aids which can bring about strategic transformation to the African Economy should not be given. Request for aids and loans for infrastructures like roads, and dams should be turned down.
2. Impose the policies of lending institution on the sovereign governments of Africa with the intension of keeping the continent dependent for years to come.
3. Develop policies and strategies and implement same to maintain brain drain from Africa. Inculcate in the mind of the Diaspora elite their continent is a hopeless case and will remain dark for years to come and going back is unadvisable. Entice the Diaspora to lead the Wester way of life by giving them whatever they need on credit basis repayable over a number of years such that they will not have excess money to invest in their mother land. Create a disagreement between the Diaspora intellectuals and those intellectuals who chose to stay in their mother land and contribute to the development efforts, such that the two groups will not have a common agenda of nation building.
4. Influence the curriculum of academic institutions such that such institutions will not be able to produce visionary and innovative minds. Make sure some former colonizer language is used as a medium of instruction in the school, colleges and universities of Africa. So that under the guise of scholarship the best students of Africa will be taken and after giving them the necessary subtle brainwashing and training and are lured to stay in the West. (Pls note all developed nations teach their students in their national language. Imagine the challenges our students face in our schools and colleges today. Where I live, speaking some foreign language is a sign of being educated. Please note the extent to which we have been deceived. Almost all gradates from our universities and colleges nowadays copy from the internet for their graduation paper, for they have note been prepared for critical analysis and they don’t adequately know the language to express their thoughts).
5. If some how a visionary leader emerges and sees through the machinations and decides to bring about a change, he will be heading towards a head on collusion with the interest of the neo-colonialist. Hence, wage a smear campaign against this leader or leaders through the main stream medias, like the BBC, CNN and VOA. Call him names like: dictator, tyrant….etc. Incite mass protest by organizing tugs and accuse the leader for shooting civilians. If the leader resists, then accuse him of genocide against humanity and take his case to ICC.
6. Establish a foreign language service in the mainstream media like the BBC, DW and the VOA and propagate against any government that stands in the way of the interest of the West. Use these medias to defame visionary leaders of Africa and accuse them of human right abuse and violation of the free press.
7. Protect and fund the private press and sometimes give the owners of these presses awards in the form of money and token gifts.
8. Establish and fund organizations like the Human Right Watch, Amnesty International and the CPJ and accuse visionary leaders of Africa and obstruct their quest to free Africa from age old backwardness and poverty.
9. Spread to the continent endemics like Ebola, Aids… etc in order to check the ever growing population of Africa. (Pls note. Don’t you ever wander why the endemic Aids which started in the United States ended up becoming the major health problem of Africans. Pls also recall, after the European colonizers occupied the Americas they exterminated the native Indians by distributing to them blankets infested with small pox and T.B.)
10. Advocate multi party system in Africa. The intension here is not to promote democracy but to put in power a party that is subservient to the West. The puppet party shall be given political and money support. Allow personal gifts to party leader(s) and for the seemingly bright ones provide a scholarship in one of the prestigious universities of the West. Encourage the employment of dissidents in international organizations, preferable in humanitarian and main steam medias.
11. Incite racial hatred by pitting one against the other. Keep the continent in perpetual conflict with itself. So that Africa will remain a store house of rich natural resources waiting to be explored by the neo-colonialist, a cheap labor source for their mechanized plantations and mineral fields. (Pls note. This is the 21st century they don’t have to chain Africans slaves and forcefully transport them. We pay our own hard earned money for the plane ticket that will take us to Western cities).
Africa Wake up. Stop the infighting. Solve all you internal problem by dialogue and by your own traditional means. Don’t look to the West for arbitration lest you would fail in their snare. Africa needs more than ever the coming together of its sons and daughters irrespective of religion, and ethnicity, towards creating a continent that is free of poverty and equal opportunity for its citizens.
This is my observation which I dare to put it in the form of conspiracy theory. Most of us are victims of the Western machination. I wish I am wrong.
Seyoum Wubshet, Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Why do you have to use the picture of a patriotic physician working in a remote hospital when the topic you’re trying to explain is the opposite ???