the great men left us behind.

There's an article in today's Star which talks about all the doctors that are fleeing from Iraq to neighboring Arab countries such as Jordan, and many to North America. since 2003 around 70% of Iraqi doctors have left their local practice and fled to a safer haven. One of the doctors mentioned a traumatic incident that had put him and his family in danger, and he came here to provide protection for his family. He now works at St. Michael's in Toronto. He now provides for us.

If there wasn't already enough fuckage up in Iraq, now the already insufficient health care system has and will continue to deteriorate. Who is to blame. Certainly not the doctors who put their families first. In a country where only rarely is any individual responsibility demonstrated, why should anyone own up. Come to think of it, why, in any circumstance should someone put their loved ones in potential danger for the greater good of strangers.

Come to think of it, my parents did the same thing. Except I don't think their decision was as crucial, because Pakistan's crises aren't as imminently dangerous. And I know for them it was an impossibly hard decision, because it meant that they had to sacrifice their love of practicing medicine. But even in Pakistan for some reason doctors have always been the target of political upheavals. And more than once my dad's clinic had been raided by men with guns. And in general my parents thought it wasn't a safe enough place for us to grow up in. So that's why I am here. Here in Canada, and here writing this blog.

So, should they teach you how to deal with this dilemma in medical school, because someone should stay behind and take the blows for the greater good of the war torn country, no?

refer to: Fleeing doctors threaten Iraq's health