Seven ‘valid’ reasons to have a complete meltdown . . . , according to my almost two-year-old:
1. I was taken out of my sleep sack (baby sleeping bag) before I was ready. Proceeded to follow mom around wailing and shaking said sleep sack until it was put back on.
2. Mom offered me half a donut but I wanted her coffee (the dog was given the offending donut in a moment of mad fury, later regretted).
3. Mom refused to cook dinner while holding me (so I gripped her around the knees, wailing at full tilt, to prevent her from walking around the kitchen).
4. Mom would not pick me up/ put me down.
5. My brother took my stick and it was the only stick in the entire garden worth having.
6. Hey! I was playing with those scissors/ razor/ pill bottle/ Sudocream/ mom’s glasses /toothpaste /lipstick.
7. Mom wants me to wear a bib during meals (this is a surprise. . . every day).
You are probably starting to think that Ruben is a complete monster, but in fact he is the sweetest child. Almost two is just a tough age. Emotions are overwhelming and he is still learning to talk so trying to explain himself to a dense adult (me) can be exhausting.
I believe there is a Jekyll and Hyde inside everyone – toddlers just have not learnt how to keep the monster under control.
You just have to watch professional tennis to known that grown-ups are just as capable of toddler sized tantrums as the little people (only there’s nothing cute about it on live TV).
But there are some valid reasons to get upset as an adult.
Certainly health minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s proposed National Health Insurance is cause for major concern.
Mainly because how this will be done and how it will affect all South Africans in the long run are about as clear as mud.
Many questions remain – is NHI just another tax to burden the already battered and bruised SA tax payer, will it lead to a mass exodus of sorely needed healthcare professionals from SA, will it reduce the level of care for everyone rather than lift it and will the bad track record of public servants dealing with vast sums of public money continue leading to more opportunity for corruption and self enrichment for those in power?
If NHI could truly turn around South Africa’s ailing public health care system then I would back it.
Walking through our public hospitals and seeing the state of misery and neglect in many of them makes me truly angry as the right to dignity and adequate healthcare is being denied to the majority of our citizens.
But seeing what a terrible job government is doing with managing the public healthcare system as it is, how could they possibly cope with more?
While there are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding NHI, I for one am not going to lose hope and start talking about packing my bags just yet.
My fervent hope is that private health care and ordinary South Africans will come to the party in the search for solutions.
If there are workable ways of salvaging healthcare for the poor, without losing the excellent professionals and hospitals that we already have, let us find them.
More and more I am realising that government cannot be expected to do it all alone.
As much as business needs a healthy economy to grow, government needs the business brains and academic minds to join them in finding real solutions.
I only hope they will be willing to work together.
So as tempting as a temper tantrum would be, let us use this as an opportunity to face head-on the real crisis that is public healthcare.
It is not going to go away on its own.
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“The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. And the first to forget is the happiest.” Anonymous.
