....Emad Barsoum writes: Temporarily closed for

In 2019 Egyptian minister of transportation resigned after a deadly train crash that killed 25 and left 50 injured. South Korea Prime Minister resigned in 2014 over a ferry sinking that left 300 dead, and there are much more stories about officials who resign and offer public apologies when their offices failed to carry on their duties righteously and morally toward the citizens, who trusted their governments with their life and wellbeing. 

Among the repeated fiascos by many offices in our government, and during the last Civic holiday, was the most unbelievable and obscure fiasco, when some hospitals declared that their Intensive Care Units are going to be shut down during the long weekend!!

This is not a joke, and it is not a scene in a farce movie, but it is an unprecedented incident in the history of the most advanced civilized nations, where the value of humans and their well-being are the prime concern. An incident when the ICU in a hospital that is meant to save lives and keep critical medical cases under extreme supervision is taking a holiday.

When the news was out last week that those hospitals are closing the ICU, I imagined my 87 years old wonderful neighbor whom we know for so many years, and who worked hard for her society and country, took care of our children while growing up, the amazing lady that now every grown-up child in the neighborhood who is a parent now would take their babies to meet her and receive a very warm caring hug from her, I imagined that if during that time of closure she felt unwell and needed to be rushed to the ICU, and when she arrived there is a sign on the door of the ICU saying “TEMPORARILY CLOSED”. 

I tried to wipe away further bad ideas that jumped to my head; what if different ICUs are closed as well within the same vicinity, then the only place which will not carry a closed sign would be the funeral home.

The major issue here is how our governments whether Federal or Provincial reached that limit of ridiculing the lives of its people, once a Blackout of one of the major communications companies made the number 911 useless. The current situation of the most important airport in the country and how the delays are wasting people’s money, time, and even well-being, yet the minister of transportation did not say a word about it and whether there are any solutions shortly, but he is still in his position. 

Now the climax is reached when the ICUs are shut down, but still, the minister of health or the Premier showed no intention to avoid such incidents in the future. Obviously, the excessively long waiting time for patients to be attended by a doctor in the emergency room, to see a specialist, or even to have a diagnostic procedure, is not enough! But now they are rubbing salt into the patients’ wounds.

It is obvious that although our country is the most attractive one for immigrants worldwide, which is supposed to make it greater and stronger, nevertheless, the country still does not want to benefit from all skills that it receives every year, but instead is carefully following all the negative reasons that immigrants have left their countries for.

The next piece of news I imagined in front of my eyes was that the Police stations are temporarily closed for renovations, the firefighting temporarily closed because they went fishing, and the government is temporarily closed until they find another one.