Tuesday, January 25, 2011

When Carer's stop caring

Like any other working class patron of our fine upstanding country we all have to change employers at least once in our lives. In the "Care" industry you would hope that even whilst you are about to leave one job and enter into another you would continue to serve out your role to it's full potential, this is unfortunately not always the case.

I have seen it happen on numerous occasions where an employee in the Care profession has gained a new position with a different company, they just don't seem to really care anymore about the job at hand and think that because they will be leaving soon enough that it isn't their responsibility anymore.

What scares me about this is not only the patient neglect but also that this industry has such a high turn over of staff it makes me wonder how often this happens and is there a cause for alarm bells because if it's happening in front of my eyes surely it's happening in front of others.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

In the Congo

Another of my Colleagues who is from International waters has 7 children and has come to Australia to "escape" the certain perils of living in Africa, this is her story.


For privacy reasons I will call my colleague Ms. Congo; Ms. Congo is originally from the country of Congo which is located in Central Africa, northeast of Angola she was once married to a man affiliated with the Tutsi and Hutu Tribes (Please read below for background information on Tutsi and Hutu Tribes)

"In Burundi, a campaign of genocide was conducted against Hutu population in 1972,[12][13][14][15][16] and an estimated 100,000 Hutus died.[17][17] In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president and also a Hutu, Melchior Ndadaye, was assassinated by Tutsi officers, as was the person constitutionally entitled to succeed him.[18] This sparked a period of civil strife between Hutu political structures and the Tutsi military, in which an estimated 500,000 Burundians have died.[citation needed] There were indiscriminate mass killings first of Tutsis, then of Hutus; of these, the former have been described as genocide by the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi.[19]

While Tutsi remained in control of Burundi, the conflict resulted in genocide in Rwanda as well.[20] A Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, started a civil war against Rwanda's Hutu government in 1990. A peace agreement was signed, but violence erupted again, culminating in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, when Hutu extremists killed[21] an estimated 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsis.[22] About 30% of the Twa population of Rwanda also died in the fighting.[23] At the same time, the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of the country and is still the ruling party as of 2008. Burundi is also currently governed by a former rebel group, the Hutu CNDD-FDD.

As of 2006, violence between the Hutu and Tutsi has subsided, but the situation in both Rwanda and Burundi is still tense, and tens of thousands of Rwandans are still living outside the country (see Great Lakes refugee crisis).[1]"

Excerpt taken from - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutu

In 1994 Ms. Congo was subjected to seeing a deceased mother holding her child who was still breastfeeding, the child was still alive "I will never get this image out of my head, you don't know how horrible it was to see something like that" she said as she told me of her experience.

Ms. Congo being the lady of the household at the time was singled out, knowing that the Hutu Army would come for her as they had for her fellow friends and neighbours she had to sell herself as a sexual object "I put on the smallest shorts I could find as the lady of the house would usually be covered up and have to wear colourful extravagant clothing, then I asked if they would like a drink of something alcoholic, the men put down their guns and started to dance and sing, this is when I could make my escape"

Ms. Congo fled (with her 5 children) to South Africa where conditions of things weren't much better. Staying in a cramped hot hotel room where the reception told her "Do not under any circumstances answer the door to anybody unless they tell you it is Hotel Reception" unbeknown to Ms. Congo wearing large amounts of jewellery was a big no, no she walked to the local store to buy some items and was followed back to her hotel room where she had to lock her door quickly once inside, she heard knocking and men’s voices telling her to "open your door" she knew that these men were here to kill her if she didn't give them her Jewellery.

After 3 days of barricading herself in her hotel room with her 5 children she finally opened her door to hotel reception.

Ms Congo now currently resides in Australia, hearing what this woman has seen and gone through really makes me appreciate the lifestyle and freedom we have in this country.

I believe that there are many other women out there that would have been through similar experiences from countries such as Africa, if you should ever get the chance to befriend someone such as Ms Congo she will put your life into perspective so far she is one of the most admirable human beings I have ever met.