Maldivian Ministry of Health & Family (MOHF, Maldives) wants to model itself on middle east countries.

Folks, there is news for all who have somehow got interested in Maldives as a destination for getting jobs in health sector.

Not only doctors but Nurses also keep landing up here (and all of them are sometimes paying up to $ 4000/- to get the Working Visa in MOHF Maldives. Specially Nurses who mostly belong from South India are really paying this much to get this job.) and now a days these Maldivians are asking them to clear IELTS with a minimum score in the band of 5.5.

Imagine, these fellows who have not much of knowledge of English (they study it in school where they almost don’t study at all. Only a few of them are interested in studies or else others are more busy in having sex here and there or sniffing drugs.) asking others to clear IELTS to get a job here!

Actually when anyone of you come here (Let God save you from it at the first place!!!) you will find out that even the young generation is not able to make a workable conversation with you in English. Only a few people who have gone through specialized training to work in resorts etc have a knowledge of English and that’s it. In Male’ you may be getting taxi drivers who can at least understand your English, but on inhabited islands as soon as you try to start a conversation in English, they’ll run away.  They are not shy. They are hooligans actually (2 days back I came to know by one of the nurses who are employed here that someone tried to cut the net cover over her room’s ventilators to take a look inside at night when she was sleeping there. Now you can imagine what would have she felt like. She quickly switched the night lamp off as she was not properly dressed in her bed and till date she is still waiting for some kinda MMS or picture of hers to appear in local public showing all her beauty to all. It is pathetic. Don’t even think about why the hell she didn’t shout and all. Who will come to help? No one. And they will even tell that she must have invited the youth herself to have sex and all. These fellows are like that only. Any two or even 3 or 4 male and females are sitting together talking and for them they are secretly having sex. That’s the way their mind works. ). But they will not be able to talk to you.

Anyway, we are deviating from the topic. MOHF here is going to give administration of 7 – 9 zones, which they have made in Maldives, to their zonal headquarters and they are gonna call it corporations (??? Why corporation in particular and not anything else, you please don’t ask me. These duffers somehow come to know about a few fancy words and start using it to it’s fullest). Now these corporations are supposed to be trying to minimize the cost of providing health services, making it payable for all (until recently it was free for all locals and only payable to foreigners to get medical help) and make the health system smoother (they are using this word. In which sense it’s still not exactly clear). In the regimen of this bloody corporation thing, working hours are going to increase and overtime payment is going to get a kick (kicked out). Plus this demand of IELTS from Nurses. Tomorrow they can say this very thing to the doctors also. Or even better, they may ask them to learn their strange language (in which they pronounce every word so harshly that you may want to die after talking with one patient).

Anyway, these changes are saying one thing, these poor tribal people are trying to model themselves on the middle east countries in terms of demands from us is concerned. From their own people they can not take any kinda work anyway. Local staff works less. In wards local nurses are only sitting and they provide information to the management which nurse could put IV Cannula in one attempt and which one could not. Or which doctor is treating people with respect and which one does not. Things like that. They are basically spies only. Work you ask and then you see their attitude. They will instantly start calling the foreigner nurses to come and do this or that.

Usual story of local staff is: they will come to the Medical Officer for a Medical Certificate of this many days (usually 3 – 4) saying that sir, I did not attend my duties since last few days and now I need this M C to cover the attendance. You don’t even think of scolding or not giving this MC. You have to give. Yes if you or another foreign staff is even if having fever, that means they have to take only one day’s rest. That’s quite enough for them to recover.  You can try to get 2 day’s rest but in that case get ready to attend their calls because your contract says you are always on call. There is no mention of no calling in sickness times. For you their patience is lost in may be 6 hours. Only Maldivians are so feeble that they need rest of 3 days for cough. For loose motions they will not attend duties for a week.

Earlier they were providing us with a rented accommodation which was being rented buy them and for us was free. But now they have started giving a paltry kind of living allowance to us which is not even half of what we need to hire a room somewhere. Mostly because they don’t want to give us rooms for a reasonable amount of money. Their logic: You are earning quite much here, give it back to us in form of rent or other  things. If someone is growing banana in his house, he will not eat it. Rather he will come to us and try to sell it for as much money as he can. Even if we pay $ 5 for 10 banana, which if considered in Maldivian market can be called cheap, they will tell this story to their people that how he trick fully deprived me of my $ 5 and got it back. This is the generalized feeling of a common Maldivian.

Now a days, the management  people (those very 8^th or 10^th pass duffers about whom I have described in earlier blogs) are coming to me, saying that “I will go for a trenning porogaramm for masters in public helth so that I could become a manager here”. Now think people……who has heard getting a masters degree without having a bachelor’s one?? But here they can call whichever certificate a master’s program or may be even PhD in a few days.

VISUALIZING…………DR. So & So, a Maldivian with actual education of up to 8^th grade after which he could not clear Maths, English and general science (considering they have only 4 normal subjects in their school  namely maths, English, general sciences and life sciences. The other 4 subjects are Dhivehi, Islam, Fishery Science etc) is now the Director General of Health or some other Services after getting his double PhD in Human Resources and may be in Fish catching techniques etc etc.

This is the Maldivian punch which will be available for everyone very soon. Maybe in December 2010 itself. So, get ready. Want to come here? Start gathering up qualifications. Because this country of uneducated is becoming a very demanding one.