The brain drain, curse for the third world<\/p>\n
By Michael Kibaara Muchiri.<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): The developed world has systematically
\ncannibalized anything good from the Third World. With the
\ncapability to buy anything from well-trained but poorly
\nremunerated human resources to offering enticing green cards and
\ncitizenship to the best brains from the poorer countries, the
\nFirst World has not only abused this might but also used it to
\nmaintain a climate of backwardness in the poorer nations. The
\nmost affected continents include Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n
At last month's conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the
\nUnited Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) warned that
\nthe African continent had to act quickly to reverse the brain
\ndrain of 20,000 skilled professionals a year who emigrate to
\nEurope or the United States.<\/p>\n
Emigration by skilled workers trained in Africa is associated
\nwith African economic hardship, political volatility and the
\ncontinent's poor record on human rights.<\/p>\n
Organizers said Africa had lost 60,000 scientists, doctors,
\nengineers and technology specialists between 1985 and 1990! A
\n1993 report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
\nestimated that more than 21,000 Nigerian doctors had resettled in
\nthe United States.<\/p>\n
Again, 60 percent of Ghana's locally trained doctors quit the
\ncountry during the 1980s. The effects of brain drain in Zimbabwe
\nwere highlighted by statistics that revealed an average of 300
\nZimbabweans -- unskilled as well as professional -- emigrate each
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
The paradox is that 100,000 foreign professionals work in
\nAfrica while 100,000 Africans trained in their native country
\nhave been lured to Europe or the United States.<\/p>\n
The brain drain is a serious threat to all poor continents.
\nFor Africa, this does not augur too well. Africa has been conned
\nby the wealthier nations. They give Africa educational aid with
\none hand and entice its experts with the other.<\/p>\n
It is a calculated cyclic kind of circus, affecting poorer
\nnations and deliberately inculcating a marginalized atmosphere.
\nWhen the best brains leave for U.S. and Europe, who will kick
\nstart development?<\/p>\n
As Africa braces for another miserable century, recovery is
\nnot only entirely dependent on the turncoat-trained human
\nresources catching flights in droves out of Africa, but it is
\nalso as mind-boggling as any fairy tale.<\/p>\n
Faced by a myriad of problems ranging from wars, economic
\nmeltdowns to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the
\ncontinent is at a crossroads; it is unsure whether it can catch
\nup with the rest of the pack which are signing a free market
\nagreement, or whether it should give up the race.<\/p>\n
The brain drain could not come at a worse time. Not only has
\nAfrica lost most of its skilled professionals to Europe and the
\nUnited States through the brain drain, but it is simultaneously
\nlosing most of its workforce to AIDS.<\/p>\n
Brain drain turns back the hands of time. If it continues,
\nall the years of strenuous gains made on the education front and
\nin all development sectors will be annulled. While other
\ncontinents are making technological leaps, Africa will be chained
\nto a poignant "decivilization".<\/p>\n
Considering that attention to Africa's maladies has taken a
\nbackseat to other continents, someone other than the Africans in
\nAfrica need to do something. Considering that talk at Kofi
\nAnnan's United Nations is treated as much ado about nothing, the
\nAfricans in the Diaspora should stand up and be counted for their
\ncontinent.<\/p>\n
They could play a central role to a war ravaged, poorly
\nportrayed continent. While immigrant Latinos, Asians and Jews
\nhave played central roles in enhancing the images and economies
\nof their respective places of origin, there is no hard evidence
\nthat Africans in the Diaspora can provide.<\/p>\n
They apparently have abandoned ship, too. With such talent in
\nall fields, it is a shame that a continent should continue to
\nswelter under such crisis. Don't they have a conscience? It is a
\nshame that it was Bono -- an Irish musician, and not Michael
\nJackson or Jordan, who is arguing for Mozambique's foreign debt
\ncancellation.<\/p>\n
While the late princess of Wales, Diana, was crisscrossing the
\nminefields of Angola, no African American took pride in much
\nhumanitarian efforts for this beleaguered continent.<\/p>\n
Africans in the Diaspora can set up a fund or trust for
\nAfrica. The fund could be a permanent one to provide funds and
\nPan-African education to Africans lured to the West for better
\npay, so that their attitudes to Africa could change from hate to
\npatriotism.<\/p>\n
A respectable and charismatic African like Nelson Mandela
\ncould run the trust. With money from the fund, most professionals
\ncould get respectable pay while working in the comfort and
\ndiscomfort of their home; East or West, home is best. This way a
\ncontinent would still maintain some working government structure.<\/p>\n
The Africans in the Diaspora should make the African problem
\nas one of their own. A stable African continent could be a
\nconstant father or mother figure on whom to lean on.<\/p>\n
It would mean that those African soccer players who are a
\nconstant target for racial remarks in Italian Serie A, or those
\nAfricans who are rained on with 41 bullets, as what happened to
\nAhmadou Diallo in New York, would have this figure to fall back
\non so that the dignity of the black race is restored -- with
\neconomic and war muscle if need be.<\/p>\n
Currently, Africans, whether at home or in the Diaspora,
\ncommand little respect from other continents because yellow
\njournalism has only focused on the negative side, driving tourism
\naway, and hardly finding anything worth covering except for
\nwildlife and refugees.<\/p>\n
South African leadership should lead the way for Africa if it
\nis going to move out from the quagmire that it perpetually finds
\nitself in. With its relatively stable economy and visionary
\nleadership of its first two presidents, South Africa can engineer
\nan African renaissance.<\/p>\n
This was more so evident during Mozambique's flooding which
\nleft hundreds dead and thousands homeless. Not to be dragged into
\nthe delay by aid agencies and other continents' indecision to act
\non the crisis, South Africa's swift action helped save victims.
\nThis leadership assumption by an African nation to another Third
\nWorld should serve as an example to other poor continents.<\/p>\n
Some African leaders are world class -- charismatic and very
\ninspiring. Take former South African president Mandela. A true
\nAfrican son, he is trying to gather support for a solution to the
\nGreat Lakes-Burundi war. He is exemplifying what African leaders
\nshould be doing -- solving their continental problems as well as
\ninvolving world-class leaders like Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n
True, Africa, like the rest of the Third World, has bountiful
\nprospects for recovery. It only requires a push in the other
\ndirection -- like having the Africans in the Diaspora play a more
\npivotal role and by putting an end to the African brain drain.
\nThis way the Third World can effectively keep the tempo on
\ndevelopment up and running.<\/p>\n
The writer, studying for his masters in psychology at the
\nGadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, works for the Ministry of
\nEducation, Nairobi in Kenya.<\/p>",
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