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30.11.2011 Opinion

The 'Asiatic' dames for the World?

By Ghanaian Chronicle
Dr. BeekoDr. Beeko
30.11.2011 LISTEN

Just after having assisted a senior colleague in the Department to carry out an operation early in the hours one summer day in 1974, the phone at the doctors' dressing room belled loud, and by chance, it happened to be mine. The boss's secretary was on the line, and she informed me there was a document to sign. 'I should be right there.'

I responded. It wasn't long thereafter, and I was truly at her desk. But, as I entered the larger-than-usual waiting room of our boss, what caught my attention was not just the secretary with 'her document', but the presence of about two dozen young ladies of 'Asiatic configuration.' Before I could ask any questions, the secretary, mostly jovial with most of the 32 young doctors employed in the Neuroscience Unit, giggled to me, 'You are taken by surprise, aren't you, something different, right?' I was handed the document to sign, and following that there was no space to stay on to nurture anymore inquisitiveness. I left outright, pre-occupied with seeking an answer to any questions I might have had, concerning the 'Asiatic damsels'. It was later at the cafeteria of the three-thousand-bed University Teaching Hospital, where I would encounter yet a bigger number of the 'then strange ladies in Europe.'

Soon to be unraveled to me was that our institution, among the first of several dozen German hospitals to initiate the action, had started recruiting nurses from the Far East. First, from the Philippines and Korea (S. Korea), later from Thailand and Taiwan to help man the big hospitals as nurses. There simply were not enough German girls any longer interested in nursing as a career, following the 2 nd World War (WWII).  The Teaching Hospital of the John-Gutenberg University of Mainz had, all of a sudden, taken in three hundred nurses to begin with – One hundred and fifty from S. Korea, and the same number from The Philippines. There were more to come. That explained the surprise at my boss's office, not quite an hour previously. Before long, one would meet them in dozens, no matter in which department one might find oneself. Soon, word would go round, 'they were gentler with the hypodermic needle, they smiled wider, they were neat, and even though German was a problem to begin with, they 'put a lot on the table to compensate'.' The background was this: Following WWII, the nurse had become a rare commodity all of a sudden, especially, in Germany, but Western Europe in general. The problem was of such magnitude that a 'regimen' was instituted by name of 'der Kranken-Pflege-Dienst.' All that long German word, broken with hyphens to make comprehension easier for the non-Germans, simply meant 'Health-Care-Nursing-Service.' Under the regime, young men and women who would be admitted into medical schools in Germany had to perform an eight-week nursing service, before one would qualify for entry therein. This service was done gratis, for 'the Germany, whose health delivery had been so impoverished by war, when talking of personnel.'

Everybody did it, smiling! For German young ladies, however, there were jobs which attracted them better. You learned to speak and write English, and then add typing or stenography to it, and all of a sudden, you would find out you were 'bi-lingual.' At that stage, not even the skies were any longer the limit – 'Jobs galore!' To hell with nursing where half the month you missed your warm bed at night, because you were on duty at the hospital. 'Bring the nurses from Asia, I beg your pardon!' That was the motto. This was a Germany which had 475,000 American troops, who had come to keep the peace by occupying Germany, since Adolf Hitler (the Axis) had lost the six-year campaign on May, 8 th 1945. So, the calculation was simple. American troops hadn't forgotten their encounter with 'petit Asiatic ladies' from the Pacific encounter, just one generation previously. The US General McCarthy, commanding the Pacific troops, had promised, 'I shall return' in 1942, when it seemed he had succumbed to the Japanese. He did indeed, return to liberate the Philippines. Filipinos refer to America as to 'The Mainland.' The recipe in Germany couldn't be any better for the Americans, cum Filipinos. But, then the Germans would soon realise they were losing something! Losing what? Exactly, the nurses they so badly needed in German hospitals soon got into marrying 'American Servicemen' in droves, and leaving with their spouses to America! If the Jumbo-jet flew in 350 nurses in July of one year, more than half of them would be married and getting ready to fly away from Germany by Christmas the same year. What to do? The hospitals thought of a policy, a strategy, a solution to the problem. The nurses were made to sign bonds to serve the institutions that fetched them from Manila, or Seoul, for at least three years. In lieu of that, the contracted would pay the Germans the equivalent of US$3,000. This, at the time, was equivalent to some 14,000 West German Marks. An unskilled worker in Germany at the time took home monthly 800 West German Marks.  It was only with that as a kind of Damocles' Sword, that seemingly insoluble problem would ease, imagined Germans. The Asiatic lady had found a home and a comfortable one for that matter, in Europe as well. In the population, Europeans, much as they had become friendly and at ease with foreigners, slowly began to dread the Asiatic women, in whom they saw a danger – someone snatching away your spouse. The Asian Exodus was not only to America, but from the hospital dormitories to German homes – 'Wed-locks in grave danger!'

The stories got told on commuter-trains, buses, and wherever people gathered to while away their time. One day, Urike, who was my junior in the Hierarchy of the Department, but a very good friend of mine, strolled into my office in the afternoon just for a chat. I had just assisted her remove a brain tumor, which came in as an emergency. Seemingly relaxed, she told me how Germans had begun to accept that Germany had changed, and forever.  Nobody desired reversing into the generation they had just left behind. For the very first time, she said, Germany had become part of the world the way she (Germany) had not been, from the Weimar Republic, through the Third Reich, Germany had become a proud partner of the world. German goods (not only the Mercedes Benz), but textile items too, were in demand world-wide, tagged 'made in Germany!' I had to agree. She then went on; 'Asiatic women who have gotten married to Germans are now part of Germany.' They never would go back. They are welcome.  I then jocularly threw in, 'and how about Asiatic men, marrying German ladies?'  Giggling, and taking a sip of Coca Cola first, she answered, in a question, [do you see any difference?]' Of course, I didn't. Ulrike then went deeper into the topic, and narrated that 'it seemed the Germans who married Asiatic women, loved the way these exotic ladies did not seek a stance, a stand, if you would, 'of equality' with their men. She, who as a German female doctor and had been twice divorced, with four children, one of them adopted, felt she saw very little positivity in'women's-lib!' Neck-to-neck for what? Without laying it bare, it was obvious she had seen some way in which she might have erred in her two previous affairs (marriages, to be exact).  When asked what piece of advice she would give her 12 year old son, where to choose a wife from when the time was correct, she did not 'affirm' from Asia, but you could observe how the left edge of her mouth betrayed her, 'maybe from Asia'. So, what's so special about Asia, or the Asian woman, if for nothing else at all, the food? Yes, the food!  In Germany, as of today, the most widespread restaurant chains are 'The Chinese.' And this has been all since 1945. A good thing in the inferno has been that, 'the European', not only the German, but perhaps, truly the German, saw that for six years (1939 till 1945), the man behind his sand bags in the Pacific was  not necessarily bad at all. And it hasn't been only Chinese rice. The 'Pansiit', the Filipino rice noodles keep sending you back, wherever you might have first tasted a plate. And just before you might think it was all over, how about the Korean hot crab/lobster soup? There should be a lot more to remember. There should be even a lot more unmentionable, right?!

Kofi Dankyi Beeko, MD.
e-mail: [email protected]

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