And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 09:11:21 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: 45 South African physicians in "rural" Manitoba
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MANITOBA RECRUITS 45 SOUTH AFRICAN PHYSICIANS
The Canadian Press August 8, 1999
Tuesday, August 10, 1999
Brandon Manitoba: The South African medical invasion seems to have eased
the doctor shortage in rural Manitoba. After recruiting 45 South African
physicians since April 1998 rural health authorities now have just 27
vacancies. "Needless to say I've got a grin on my face," said Dr. Ken
Collier, medical vicepresident for the region
[Morden and Winkler]. Winkler Clinic administrator Scott Fraser said some
regions got into trouble when regional health authorities were created 2
years ago BECAUSE NO ONE KNEW WHO WAS IN CHARGE OF RECRUITMENT. Recruiting
had been the responsibility of hospital boards. ... The city of Brandon is
also taking advantage of South African family physicians who want to
relocate to the larger centre after practising in a small town. Of 156
DOCTORS TRAINED IN SOUTH AFRICA WHO MOVED TO MANITOBA SINCE 1995 more than
80% are still in the province, according to Roberta Vyse, director of
specialty care for Manitoba Health. ... Last week's announcement of a $33.5
million raise for fee-for-service physicians will have little impact on new
recruits in rural areas since most are on contract, receiving $150,000 less
office expenses. Compensation for on-call services has yet to be
negotiated. ... The SUPPLY OF SOUTH AFRICAN DOCTORS IS EXPECTED TO DRY UP
AS TRAINING STANDARDS IN THAT COUNTRY CHANGE.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who's African, who isn't in the new South Africa
Racial debate continues: President berates whites for failure to
learn languages
Corinna Schuler National Post
JOHANNESBURG - Who is an African? Five years after apartheid's demise, this question
is provoking heated debate that reminds some South Africans of the bad old days when
race was all that counted. Even Thabo Mbeki, the newly minted president, has stepped
into the fray, delivering a finger-wagging speech to whites that suggested it's high
time they learn one of the 10 African languages spoken by blacks. The spitting match
began six weeks ago, when a veteran journalist, Max du Preez, wrote a column in The
Star, a Johannesburg daily, declaring he is an African -- and also an Afrikaner.
"Stop using the term 'African' to mean exclusively black," he pleaded, complaining
that both Nelson Mandela, the former president, and Mr. Mbeki used "hurtful racial
labels during the recent election campaign." That implies "absolutely that whites,
coloureds and Indians can't be Africans. Why . . . define African in such a way that a
little detail such as my lack of pigmentation excludes me?" The column provoked some
snickers -- after all, skin "pigmentation" has always been more than mere detail in
South Africa.
But Thobeka Mda, a university professor and a member of a think-tank called the
African Renaissance Working Group, became enraged. Whites cannot be Africans, she spat
in a responding column that slammed Mr. du Preez as "arrogant, presumptuous and
ridiculous. "They [white people] can be that presumptuous because in fact they are
Europeans, not Africans. "Europeans called us kaffirs, then Natives, then
non-Europeans, then bantus . . . They are not insisting on being Africans to claim a
closeness or nationality with us. They are saying so to claim a piece of land in this
country." Ever since, letters have been pouring on to editorial pages and callers are
jamming lines to talk-radio shows as the argument about racial definitions rages.
"Uncle Madiba has hardly gone into retirement and you're starting to shout at each
other and throw your toys around all over again," the Mail and Guardian chided
recently, in reference to Mr. Mandela, the great racial reconciler.
"It's a highly sensitive subject," explained Yvette Geyer at the Centre for the Study
of Violence and Reconciliation. "It touches to the heart of who belongs and who
doesn't, of what defines a 'new' South African. In the process of building
reconciliation in societies that are historically divided, these identity issues are
always fraught and contested." For those who need a short lesson in South Africa's
racial lingo: "Africans" are black. But "blacks" include blacks, Indians and
coloureds. "Indians" are actually what the rest of the world now calls Asians and
"coloureds" are what most would call people of mixed-race. "European" means white. But
there are whites of British descent (the English) and whites of Dutch descent (the
Afrikaners) -- and there has been as much tribal warfare between those two groups as
any other in this country.
The most emotional response in this debate has come from Afrikaners, who emphasize
that their forefathers arrived in 1652 and "built and educated" while journeying north
from the Cape of Good Hope to settle the land. Many consider themselves the white
tribe of Africa.
"No other group has in fact identified more with Africa than Afrikaners," an Afrikaans
newspaper, Die Burger, wrote in an editorial. "Afrikaners regard themselves as the
first freedom fighters." For his part, Mr. du Preez accused his critic of practising
racism. Prof. Mda's sister, the young black journalist Lizeka Mda, fired off an even
more vitriolic retort in the newspaper, telling the "melanin-deprived" Mr. du Preez to
"mind your own baas business."
(Baas means boss, the word deferential blacks were formerly forced to use in all
dealings with white men.)
"Galls you, doesn't it, that there can be Africans who, despite the best efforts of
your ancestors, can think for themselves, who do not prostrate themselves in the face
of the oh-so-full-of-himself white male?" One letter on the editorial page said Prof.
Mda's argument was "fatuous and inane." The writer insisted Afrikaans is just as
African a language as Xhosa or Zulu. A black journalist, John Matshikiza, broke ranks
and pointed out that African intellectuals don't really have a culture or religion
that distinguishes them from whites. "Most black South Africans I know, the African
ones, that is, live in European-style houses, drive Japanese or German-style cars,
wear American-style clothes from top to toe and pray in European-style churches."
A South African-born writer of Chinese descent, Darryl Accone, pointed out he was
classified "non-white" in the old South Africa, but is not considered "previously
disadvantaged" in the new. He has a Sicilian surname and a Prussian grandmother. "Does
that diminish my claims to be African?" he asked mischievously.
Even the staid Business Day newspaper could not help but laugh, with columnist Ken
Owen declaring: "Who cares whether Max du Preez is an African or a Patagonian goose?"
But then the debate was extended further to include impassioned discourse over which
South African accents are superior -- African ones or English ones. One letter-writer
complained that the accent of a black radio presenter "drives me nuts" -- prompting a
renewed flurry of attacks on whites who cannot pronounce African names.
"Some whites still think that their language is superior to the other 10 languages in
this country," wrote Siphiwe Mokwena. The president couldn't take any more. Mr. Mbeki
attempted to settle the argument once and for all last week. "Afrikaners are
Africans," he proclaimed, much to the delight of his all-white audience at the
Afrikaner Bond, a fraternity striving to protect the status of white
Afrikaans-speakers. In a speech peppered with Afrikaans poetry, Mr. Mbeki even added
that "some of our best" scientists, thinkers, businessmen, police and poets are
Afrikaners. But, along with the flattery came the finger-wagging that was sure to
please his black majority.
It was time Afrikaner children learned to speak black languages at school, he said.
Under apartheid, blacks had for too long been the only ones forced to learn the
language of their compatriots. "The time must surely have come in our schools when an
Afrikaans-speaking child from Belville should also learn Xhosa, when a Sotho-speaking
child in Soshanguve should learn Afrikaans, and when an English-speaking child in
Durban should learn Zulu."
But the fight is not likely to end there. And that suits Mr. du Preez just fine. "This
being sweet to each other, the time for that is over," he said. "We need to get this
stuff out now . . . We need to redefine ourselves as a nation."
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
