When I was young a conversation was more often than not something my mother had with her neighbour over the garden fence, that is an informal and casual exchange of news, ideas and opinions. A conversationalist was a person who excelled in conversations which was seen as a characteristic of a cultured and well-educated person. A conversation piece was something novel or strikingly intense that stimulated conversation. A subsidiary meaning of the word, conversation, as set out in my Merriam-Webster dictionary refers to an informal discussion of an issue by representatives of governments, institutions or groups. But although the words conversation and discussions could be seen by some as synonyms,…
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Facing budget shortfalls in the South African public health sector
In 2023 in my health blog I described the budget shortfalls facing most South African government departments. From my perspective the most pressing consequences of these shortfalls are those affecting provincial health departments. Recent developments including an open letter addressed to the Minister of Finance from health professionals in the Western Cape have again highlighted this issue. Many provincial health departments in South Africa have a history of what are euphemistically termed “accruals”, which stated otherwise is an inability to settle outstanding accounts within either the required 30 days or even a financial year. These departments have in the past been unable to remain within their approved budgets. An implication of “accruals” is…
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J Robert Oppenheimer, decisions and consequences with which we live!
I was reminded recently of my connections with Princeton and indirectly The Institute for Advanced Study when watching the 2023 film Oppenheimer, a cinematographic biography of J Robert Oppenheimer. I was born in October 1948, by chance in the United States when my parents were living in Princeton New Jersey and where my father, a mathematician, was a fellow for two years at The Institute for Advanced Study. J Robert Oppenheimer was the theoretical physicist who headed the Los Alamos Laboratory of the Manhattan Project that culminated in the detonation of the first atom bomb in 1945 in New Mexico and subsequently the atomic bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima…