Chickens Coming Home To Roost
By Emil van der Poorten -June 15, 2014
Emil van der Poorten
Those of us who grew up in other times need to be forgiven for falling back on aphorisms from those times!
One of those sayings was that which is the title of this contribution and has its more modern version that goes, “What goes around, comes around” which, in turn, can be viewed in the same light as Newton’s Third Law which goes, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
The incompetence that flows from the corruption in administration of public institutions was brought home to us a few days ago when one of our employees had to continue his sojourn in his home village, originally required by the death and funeral of his father, when his teenage son came down with severe abdominal pain. The young man was “warded” in the local hospital and was being treated for what was diagnosed as either gallstones or kidney stones. This appeared to be a rather unusual malady for a youngster of that age and the boy’s father, after initial acceptance of the diagnosis, began to express his doubts and, acting on “gut instinct,” insisted on the boy being discharged from the rural hospital. He then “channeled” a specialist in the Hill Capital who wanted the youth admitted immediately to the provincial hospital where he underwent urgent surgery for removal of the obstruction. That there was an element of urgency in the need for surgery for the young man was most evident by the fact that he was admitted to a surgical ward which was, by all accounts, grossly over-crowded with patients sharing beds, some under the beds and some beside them! He was discharged after the removal of the kidney or gall stones the very next day which did sound rather odd given the fact that he would be returning to his home village, several hours away from treatment in the hospital at which he was operated if such emergency care was needed. Not a great fate for anyone in a country which used to have free health care not so long ago and where life and death appears to now be dependent on the spin of a wheel of chance!
By Emil van der Poorten -June 15, 2014
Emil van der Poorten
Those of us who grew up in other times need to be forgiven for falling back on aphorisms from those times!
One of those sayings was that which is the title of this contribution and has its more modern version that goes, “What goes around, comes around” which, in turn, can be viewed in the same light as Newton’s Third Law which goes, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
The incompetence that flows from the corruption in administration of public institutions was brought home to us a few days ago when one of our employees had to continue his sojourn in his home village, originally required by the death and funeral of his father, when his teenage son came down with severe abdominal pain. The young man was “warded” in the local hospital and was being treated for what was diagnosed as either gallstones or kidney stones. This appeared to be a rather unusual malady for a youngster of that age and the boy’s father, after initial acceptance of the diagnosis, began to express his doubts and, acting on “gut instinct,” insisted on the boy being discharged from the rural hospital. He then “channeled” a specialist in the Hill Capital who wanted the youth admitted immediately to the provincial hospital where he underwent urgent surgery for removal of the obstruction. That there was an element of urgency in the need for surgery for the young man was most evident by the fact that he was admitted to a surgical ward which was, by all accounts, grossly over-crowded with patients sharing beds, some under the beds and some beside them! He was discharged after the removal of the kidney or gall stones the very next day which did sound rather odd given the fact that he would be returning to his home village, several hours away from treatment in the hospital at which he was operated if such emergency care was needed. Not a great fate for anyone in a country which used to have free health care not so long ago and where life and death appears to now be dependent on the spin of a wheel of chance!
