Ordinary Gweilo

I don’t know whether to laugh or scream when reading the nonsense some people write in letter to the SCMP.  Cynthia Sze is one of the small group who are occupied on a full-time campaign to remind us of the horrors of Hong Kong’s colonial past.  This is ever so slightly undermined by the hysterical language they use.  Here is one of her recent efforts (the last letter, at the bottom, from today’s SCMP)

Hire nurses from the Philippines

Since the Philippines has not had the good fortune of being a former colony of Britain, or of Australia, should Hong Kong not consider hiring Filipino nurses because of their second-rate US-style medical training?

Roger Philips implies this and is entitled to his opinion (‘British degree is superior’, February 14) in reply to my letter (‘Hire Filipino nurses to cure shortage’, February 11).

My point is that there is a simple solution to the city’s perennial nursing shortage by hiring Filipino nurses, as has been done with domestic workers over the past few decades.

Isabel Escoda, Lantau

Nurses need professional dignity

I refer to the letters of Melody Wong Wing-fong (‘Shortage problem can be solved’, February 23) and Isabel Escoda (‘Hire nurses from the Philippines’, February 23).

Ms Wong rightly notes the importance of moral education in our nurses’ training.

To discharge their duties well, health care personnel need professional dignity and a socially relevant self-image.

Since Hong Kong’s reunion with China, we have been proudly committed to full decolonisation within the Basic Law’s 50-year term.

We don’t want Filipino nurses if they, like Ms Escoda, are besieged by a colonial malaise of self-doubt.

Instead of showing us why the professional quality of Filipino nurses is reliable, she diverts attention to her doubt about whether the Filipinos could have been better educated if their nation had been colonised by Britain and not the US. We mustn’t suffer such servitude in our health care professionals.

Cynthia Sze, Quarry Bay

Grateful to Filipinos who nursed dad

Isabel Escoda suggests that Hong Kong should recruit nurses from the Philippines (‘Hire nurses from the Philippines’, February 23).

In 2006, when my late father underwent serious surgery in Leeds General Infirmary in England, he was looked after by several nurses, some of whom were from the Philippines.

I remember with gratitude the deep care and affection shown to him by the Filipino intensive care nurse as he lay unconscious after his surgery.

His own observations were that the Filipino nurses were ‘lovely people’ who did a ‘great job’ and ‘they can’t half sing’.

If Britain’s National Health Service thinks nurses from the Philippines have what it takes, then surely they have what it takes to work in Hong Kong.

Mark Ranson, Sai Kung

No substitute for nurses’ compassion

I refer to the letter by Cynthia Sze (‘Nurses need professional dignity,’ March 3).

Irony is apparently lost on your correspondent since she misconstrued my suggestion that Hong Kong could do with Filipino nurses (‘Hire nurses from the Philippines’, February 23), despite their having what Roger Phillips declares is just second-rate US-style medical training (‘More depth to British first degrees,’ March 2).

More irony is reflected in a report about National Health Service staff in Essex being given courses in compassion. Compassion can’t be taught, but the TLC in Filipino nurses’ genes is reflected in Mark Ranson’s description of the tender loving care his late father received from his nurse (‘Grateful to Filipinos who nursed dad,’ March 3).

Isabel Escoda, Lantau

Genes claim has no basis in science

I read with interest Isabel Escoda’s allegation about TLC in "Filipino nurses’ genes" ("No substitute for nurses’ compassion", March 14).

What we, peoples of various races, all have in our genes is DNA. Genetic stereotyping based on anecdotes is anathema. Lieutenant William Calley’s premeditated murder of innocent Vietnamese villagers at My Lai is no more a proof of murderous genes in Americans than any allegation of a good Filipino nurse at a British hospital is proof of compassion in Filipino genes.

It makes no sense to generalise anecdotes. For every positive example, there is at least a counter-example.

Cynthia Sze, Quarry Bay