Striking workers have become somewhat of a necessity in any news bulletin in South Africa in 2010.
If it isn’t the motor industry, it are teachers or public servants.
I sometimes think the unions simply sit back, and whenever they get bored, or feel that the country is in some way or another, running as smoothly as it can, at this point in time, they decide to initiate a strike in one of the many industries to satisfy their own self importance and need for attention.
My concern is not with the strike itself - as I am also of the belief that maybe teachers and nurses and many other public servants (other than traffic cops, as they are useless beyond words) deserve a pay increase.
I am simply disgusted to the core at the lengths some of these “educated” individuals will go to, to make a point and get their message across and earn more money!
An extract from the Hippocratic oath reads as follows:
“I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God”
How much of a contradiction is this - to the shocking reports we heard of some callous, selfish and heartless strikers, many of whom were doctors and nurses, storming into hospitals in our country and disrupting the dedicated workers who actually took the oath seriously, above all else, and forcefully, and without regard for any other human life other then their own and their back pocket, removed nurses and doctors from the hospital who were caring for individuals who desperately needed their help as well as life saving medication.
The worst of which - which personally made my blood boil - was hearing how these money hungry “thugs“, as that is all they deserve to be called, interrupted vital, life or death surgeries in hospital theatres and pulled doctors and nurses, midway through surgery, out of the theatre, immediately placing the patient’s life in the balance.
Is this what our health system has come to? Striking no matter what, no matter what the harm is to patients, as long as we get an extra Rand of two at the end of the month! What happened to ethics, respect, loyalty and service above self? Are these a thing of the past?
Are our health workers more concerned about money then our health and the care they are trained to give? If so, why not go work in a bank!
Sadly, this loss of purpose does not only extend to health workers, but to our very own educators. The people we rely on to teach our children, our future.
These teachers who embarked on their studies in order to change the lives of young children, young South Africans and future world leaders, or is this concept or idea nothing more than a farce or urban legend? Are these individuals in the profession for love of teaching, for love of changing a life, for love of moulding a future, or simply for a pay cheque?
Recent events suggest the latter, as if these so called teachers and educators will stop at nothing, and jeopardise matric scholars futures, by postponing trial exams and possibly the final matric exams, for a few extra rand, it is despicable and a disgrace to the teaching profession as a whole!
I am a proud South African, and what I have witnessed in recent weeks by striking workers has made me embarrassed and ashamed as well as petrified for our youth and fellow citizens who require medical treatment and for the future of our great country.
Have we lost all respect and honour in our chosen professions and society that we will neglect things like, dignity, morality and common decency, that we will readily place our own interests, as trivial as they may be, above the interests of a person who relies on our skills in order to live and in order to have a future which is a bright not bleak one!
Maybe striking workers do need to be paid more but if I was the person who had to make that decision, after all that has transpired and taking into account the manner in which these “thugs” have conducted themselves in such a undignified, disrespectful and disgraceful manner, I would reduced salaries rather than increase them, for if you behave like an immature child, you should be paid as such!
- Denver Burns is the current Mr South Africa