THE overwhelming support that Haiti has received these past couple of weeks has really shown the humility that still exists among the human race across borders. Many countries have contributed significantly, from monetary aid, to personnel, to medical and food supplies. If one should stop for a moment, sit back and take in all this ‘giving’, the whole business of ‘recession’â becomes even less and less apparent.

But then, could it really be that some countries have stretched themselves beyond the call of duty, or better yet beyond their expandability?

One such country in question is Jamaica. As youths, especially considering the economic and social crisis that we face prior to this Haitian catastrophe, we are alarmed about the well-being of our nation for the sake of another.

Jamaica has been designated as the centre for the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom’s) relief intervention for earthquake-hit Haiti. Through this operation Caricom hopes to focus on medicine and medical personnel for Haiti.

Thus far, contacts have been made with Minister of Information, Telecommunications and Special Projects Daryl Vaz and the Ministry of Health so that the three main hospitals in the country’s capital can accommodate critically injured UN personnel from Haiti. Along with this, Prime Minister Bruce Golding speaks of camps being set up to provide medical attention, food and clothing for Haitians expected to arrive in the island shortly. The Jamaica Medical Doctors Association has also volunteered a contingent of the island’s doctors to go to Haiti, and still seeks to receive even more doctors to volunteer their services to the ailing Haitians.

But let’s back-track to April 1, 2008, as the newly elected Jamaican Government commenced free public health care for all Jamaicans in keeping with their election campaign promises. Sadly enough, this Government has not been in the financial position to fulfil such promises and furthermore, the policy strained an already overburdened health care system.

As such, patients and their relatives have had to seek basic necessities such as medication and surgical sundries, even bed linen and meals as the hospital resources are beyond exhausted.

On top of this, the doctor-to-patient ratio is highly preposterous. It is estimated that on a daily basis a single doctor at a public hospital in Jamaica is faced with 40-60 patients in a four-hour clinic/outpatient setting. Based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, the recommended limit for a single doctor is 25-30 patients per eight-hour shift, which means that Jamaican doctors have to cope with unreasonable pressure in our hospitals. It can then be concluded that Jamaica has an inadequate number of medical staff to facilitate the well-being of our people.

In light of this, is it a practical move by the Jamaican Government to have committed to such a cause abroad when the need is also great at home?

If one should consider the words spoken by Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran — “Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do” — then Jamaica could be considered as a rather generous nation for sending doctors to care for the thousands or even millions of victims in dire need in Haiti.

On the other hand, the Jamaican Government must be in and over their heads for sending a contingent of doctors to Haiti at the expense of the Jamaican people.

It could be argued also that at present, the Haitians are destitute and are experiencing some severely inhumane conditions that even the poorest of Jamaicans has never had to contend with.

The health care situation is so deplorable that these earthquake victims are dying from injuries that a simple antibiotic could remedy, which they don’t have. With the risk of being infected by water-borne and other diseases being heightened by the contamination of water supplies and insanitary living conditions, the Haitians are in fact desperate for medical attention. Though this is the reality of the Haitians, is it fair for tax-paying Jamaicans to be deprived of a service, rightfully theirs, that is already lacking. For when our Government chooses to dance abroad, what happens ‘a yaad’?

So whose needs are greater? While you weigh the issue to come to a decision, TEENage would like to leave you with these words:

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibres, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” — Herman Melville