Aint this ring a bell of truth?

Filipino Nurses — Brain Drain or Fair Game? Reason Magazine's Kerry Howley responds to a New York Times article on concerns that the Senate immigration bill would effectively steal nurses from the Philippines to work in the U.S.:

The government of the Philippines clearly thinks it gains something when America "leeches" off its investment. The government has consistently lobbied for more, not fewer, nursing visas in the United States and United Kingdom, with an eye on the massive remittances nurses send back to families still at home. The Philippines is heavily dependent on money sent from abroad; the government is famous for encouraging its citizens to leave, and eight percent of its population resides abroad as domestic workers in Malaysia, English teachers in China, and nurses all over the developed world. According to the Philippines Central Bank, large scale labor migration brought home remittances totaling $9.7 billion last year, and nurses have historically been among the most stable earners.

If the United States agreed to take in fewer nurses, would Filipino hospitals suddenly be flush with staff? Not likely. According to a 2005 report by the International Council of Nurses, new Filipino graduates "report that they can't find jobs in nursing." It's true that the Philippines suffers from a nursing shortage, but it doesn't suffer from a lack of trained nurses. Its hospitals are simply too poor to employ adequate numbers of them. That's a tragedy, but it won't be solved by slamming the gates at the U.S. border.



Aint this just the bitter reality here in our country? Maybe if the government provides adequate budget to its health sector, then maybe Filipino nurses need not have take the desperate move in working abroad for work.

I feel guilty of the fact that I was a "Iskolar ng bayan" and here I am trying to flee the country that provided for my education. But what the heck, I've been serving this government for almost four years now and ended up with crushed idealism. I have two options: a) stick it out here and end up like most of the people in the government service (forced to adhere to graft and corruption) and retire poor still, or b) go abroad and fulfill my dreams and go back and help other people. Obviously, I have chosen the latter.

Who knows, the politicians and people in the government will be struck by a lightning and see the 'light' of wisdom and change their wicked ways and make this country a good place to live and die on...then maybe I'll need not have to go abroad, except of course to tour and travel. :-)

Until then, this shall be my prayer.