I think it is time to explain my title. I made it up when I was feeling very bitter. I had been working in the UK health system for about 5 years at that point, I agree it was not for charity and I did get trained during this time, but still things were happening that made me feel very bitter and cynical about the state of 'foreign' (read non-european, may be even non-caucasian) doctors in the UK. All the details are available to anyone interested for as long as Google is still around, so I am not going to bother with explanations.
Suffice to say that I felt very bitter about the attitude of the health service employers and the UK government towards 'overseas' (see above for definitions) doctors.
I guess it was all a result of the political upheaval in the UK
Asian terrorists...
Asian suspects...
Asian vs white riots...
In short Asians were the new bad guys (by the way, what does Asian mean? there is no ethnic group called Asian! This is a 'can't be bothered to know more, but gotta be politically correct' way of saying 'brown folks').
I had so much anger in me - directed at the terrorists who made my life unbearable when I was working in London. As an Indian (Asian to some), travelling on the tube was an ordeal, you are scared of all the other Asians around you, everyone else is scared of you - the potential terrorist and you cannot decide whether it would look less threatening to:
1. look at the floor all the time
2. look at other people
3. look out of the window
4. all of the above
or
5. none of the above.
I even thought of getting a T-shirt that said in loud lettering splashed across the front: NON-TERRORIST ASIAN, GOVERNMENT APPROVED but gave it up as a bad joke(?)
As these things were happening around me, I noticed one paradox - if you are a terrorist or even just a regular bad guy, you suddenly have a lot of human rights and people debate endlessly on whether you should be subjected to interrogation which may involve intimidation (leave alone torture). Also, the terrorist/bad guy gets away without paying tax/contributing to the economy/being useful etc. However, when it comes to someone who is working hard, earning a living, contributing to the economy, paying tax like any UK citizen, paying the home office all their exhorbitant visa fees and generally living a law abiding life, the system prefers to skewer him on a kebab stick, deep fry him and watch the fun.
Almost as if the official stand point is: we cannot find/punish/hold to account all the bad foreigners as they always slip through our net, so let us nail down the ones we know. So what if they are not the bad guys, someone has to pay for all the damage, right?
This attitude was reflected in the health service, where about a third of the junior doctor workforce are 'Asian' (i.e., Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Srilankan etc, but essentially non-white, non-black)
It was as if, overnight, the powers that be decided that they are not answerable to the thousands of such doctors left stranded by sneaky new employment/immigration laws - as if all the foreign doctors were expendable commodities like matchsticks or toilet paper. It was as if there was a drive to create a new and improved, well defined official pecking order, starting from the Alpha Plus White Male to the Delta - no - Epsilon Minus 'Asian'.
Well, that's me folks, an Epsilon minus in the UK, in limbo - trying hard to fit in to the society here and at the same time wondering whether I would fit in back home if (when) I am eventually kicked out.
I must admit though... all this bitterness tastes so sweet
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