Menace of Brain Drain

Brain drain is a hard nut to crack for the developing countries because it generates intellectual dearth by depriving the country of its brilliant people. These geniuses use their energies and talents to serve the interests of the country where they immigrate to satisfy their personal ambitions and life long aspirations. The loaded industrialized countries have more job opportunities than the cash-strapped unindustrialized ones that entice their pitiable dwellers to leave their motherland with a ray of hope for a bright future. The well-fixed states accommodate these intellectuals to suck the talent of the budding nations that are already facing numerous complex predicaments. The urbanized countries in the past plundered the wealth of the frail nations under the guise of monstrous colonialism and now they have framed WTO to pillage their resources in an elegant way. But more important than economic exploitation and political marginalization is the continuous denuding of these unfortunate countries from the asset of their gifted inhabitants through tinselly and rolled-gold Machiavellian techniques. This one way flow of prowess has nurtured the fat countries by making the intellectual field of the emergent nations bleak and barren. It is crystal clear that only shining lights and salts of the earth can unfetter their native lands from the quagmire of twiddly national issues to make jogging strides.

              Unending ambitions and unemployment compel the people to leave their motherland to settle where they can get jobs and well-blubbered salaries. Volatile law and order situation also results in exodus of the well-read people. Authoritarian regimes that cramp freedom of expression and suppress internal liberties to firmly grab the bridles of power are also a leading cause of brainpower sap. Favoritism, nepotism and sleaze shatter the confidence of the people in the institutions. These malpractices generate frustration in the proficient community members by trampling meritocracy. A country where merit is thrown to the sharks to nurture dishonesty cannot make any headway in the welter of the contemporary melting pot. These unfair practices push the endowed natives to try their fate somewhere else where they see a glimmer of anticipation for due esteem and outstanding career.

                Thousands of doctors, engineers, charted accountants, teachers and other dexterous members of the developing countries work like a beaver to appear in the professional entry examinations of America, Canada, Australia, New Zeeland and the European countries. These well-lined countries select the luminous candidates and push the rest of them to their native countries as the sugarcane juice machine throws the trash away after squeezing the juice. The people on whom opportunities smile spare no effort to permanently settle in the well-heeled states. Some of them are left with no other option but to arrange a genuine or counterfeit paper marriage to get nationality. Scores of them use unfair means to acquire fake documents to escape from the clutches of law enforcement agencies. Thus the scrawny countries from where these connoisseurs get education are left high and dry that continuously adds to the melancholies of their citizens resulting from the vicious cycle of brain drain. The nation-states where they immigrate wring their every grain of energy to pay them dazzling dollars, pounds and euros. Thus the shine and warmth of the glittering coins ensnare the overambitious individuals of the fleeced countries permanently. They never slither out of the cocoon of this illusory trap that did not permit them to think about the miseries and agonies of their countrymen scrapping the bottom of the barrel. The illustrious poet Allama Iqbal fittingly attributed:

Nazar  ko  kheera karti hai chamak tehzib hazir ki

Ye  sannai  magar  jhoote  nigoon  ki reza kari hai.      

(The flamboyance of the contemporary civilization appeals the eyes, this artisanship is but the decoration of counterfeit pearls.)

                   In all the developed countries the social status of the specialists is very high. They are called men of brain and the governments give them due respect and bulky salaries so that these geniuses can devotedly serve the interests of their country by putting their foot down. But in most of the developing countries the social status of the bureaucrats, politicians and brass hats is tremendously up-scale. Several professionals sacrifice their line of work by joining authority related jobs or migrating to affluent countries triggering an unbridled ferocious phase of intelligence consumption. It is the power based social structures that compel the people to change their vocation. Some of the newly recruited officials start calculating the money they can churn out through dishonest means even before joining the post. Due to this grim scenario the development in these countries is still in the doldrums.

               Pays of the civil servants who serve their vested interests more than the public are not different from the other government officials of the same rank.  But every regime takes it for granted that they would compensate through jobbery and embezzlement because they have huge public funds at their disposal. Graft of the government officials in Pakistan is as common as water in the Amazon. The perks and privileges enjoyed by the civil and military bureaucracy cannot be even dreamt of by any other profession in the country. As most of the bureaucrats marry in well-to-do families therefore they need enormous amount of money to maintain their social status and their pay is just the tip of the iceberg of their massive expenditures. Therefore, they are left with no other option but to grease their palms.

                  Lack of self-reliance is the key factor for the perpetual miserable condition of the developing countries. They have shoddily botched to harness the talent of their masses that is mandatory to develop political and economic sovereignty. Therefore, they have been economically browbeaten and politically sidelined in the constellation of the nations by the giant nations. The colossal nations practice democracy within their borders but outside their boundaries they preach egalitarianism but carry out rigorous feudalism to calculatedly keep the Third World countries in a state of torpor so that they cannot challenge their writ and thwart hegemonic designs in the global affairs. They have deliberately fashioned a global economic system based on interest and exploitation that does not permit the growing countries to become self-sufficient. Majority of the hard up states are ruled by despotic rulers pampered by the alligators of the potent states. Only the brilliant persons engrossed in patriotism can change the destiny of a sloth-rumpled and sleep-crumpled nation by guiding them to become independent by smashing up the begging bowl. The inhabitants of the budding nations should hammer into their minds these radiant words:

When beggars extend their bowl they don’t feel shy,

But the pleasures of independence they never enjoy;

They   degrade   themselves    for   a   square  meal,                       

Physically    they   live    but    morally    they    die;

True     spirits     of     life    are     in    self-reliance,

Because   remedies   in    ourselves   often    do   lie.

             There is gross institutional decay in the developing countries. This miserable state of affairs is most suitable for cultivation of deceitfulness, duplicity and double standards in the scam-spattered society. Dynamism of institutions is obligatory to build the trust of the public in the state functionaries. But in the dictatorial states their despotic rulers ruin the institutions to toughen their steely grip on the bristles of authority. These totalitarian potentates are not accountable to anyone. They squash the nations for their luxurious activities. The teeming millions of these unfortunate countries hope against hope for a final reprieve. Thus autocratic regimes cancel out the chances of success for the competent people that compel them to settle in a country where their talent and flair would be appreciated. The countries where personalities and pressure groups are more powerful than the institutions cannot compete with the nations where the circumstances are entirely round the clock.

                 The emigrating of highbrow persons perpetually generates intellectual deficit in the emerging states that thrust them further backward. Only the geniuses can liberate the nations from the intricate dilemmas. Therefore, in order to bulwark the menace of brain drain there is screeching need to bring forward the men of brain rather than empowering men of brawn that can only worsen the already grim picture. If the dwellers of weedy states want to make any headway in the present whirlpool then they should provide due respect, perks and privileges to the genuine intellectuals so that they gird up their loins to devotedly serve their indigent nations. In this way the peril of continuous talent loss can be averted because it is rightly said that brains like hearts go where they are appreciated. It is mandatory for the progressing nations to overhaul all institutions of their states. While appointing heads of various institutions meritocracy should be the supreme criterion instead of approach and corruption because an honest chief can inject vibrancy in the organization by curtailing the peril of rampant sleaze. A bolt upright official at the helm of affairs can plug loopholes in the institution through candid pragmatic steps. A country dangerously suffers where unbridled bribery is socially acceptable because it wears down the moral fabric of the nation. William Shakespeare (1564–1616), English poet and playwright, precisely said in his Sonnet 94 (1609):

“For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds:
  Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”

 

 

WRITTEN BY

 

Dr Tanvir Hussain Bhatti

Columnist, Poet and Author of the Book “What Plagues Pakistan?”

HOUSE NO.53, GHAZALI FLATS, GOR-IV, N-BLOCK, MODEL TOWN EXTENSION, LAHORE. (Pakistan)

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