replied to the circular on the care of the elderly, and the need for 
cooperation between member organisations in the Region was 
again stressed.

The meeting reiterated the opinion that physiotherapy educa­
tion in Africa should be based upon a four-year university course, 
and again expressed its concern over the escalating brain drain. 
The onus rests upon the respective governments to provide better 
incentives to retain professional physiotherapists in their own

countries.
Despite problems experienced, interest in Regional interaction 

is high and the Region is running well.
Fliers have been received publicising the second WCPT-Africa 

Congress, to be held in Harare from 18-25 September 1996. The 
proposed conference topics are quality assurance, the brain drain, 
community based rehabilitation, stroke management, acupunc­
ture, orthopaedic manipulative therapy and sport.*!*

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Those of us privileged to attend and contribute to the tremen­

dously exciting 12th International Congress of the World Confed­
eration for Physical Therapy "Dimensions of Excellence" discov­
ered first hand that the New South Africa is indeed re-integrated 
in the world body again.

What was unmistakable is that we all share the same challenges
-  diminishing resources, too few therapists and an ever increasing 
challenge to work together to devise means both of meeting the 
growing needs especially of the previously underserved members 
of the population and of promoting our profession pro-actively. 
Furthermore, all of the countries who most need to develop 
innovative approaches, are all losing members of the profession 
to the countries who can afford to offer them more money and 
better service conditions.

I have three reasons for writing this letter.
First, I would like to offer a vote of thanks to our WCPT 

representatives, Sheena Irwin-Carruthers (and Molly Levy before 
her) who managed to motivate our continuous inclusion in the 
WCPT through the years, in spite of the fact that many countries 
wanted us excluded. Much work went into maintaining member­
ship and they and the other physiotherapists who managed this 
feat deserve our congratulations and thanks.

Secondly, I would like to propose aji enormous collective vote 
of thanks to all the therapists from around the world who visited 
us during the time that contact with South Africa was discour­
aged. They helped us develop a fund of knowledge, expertise and 
skills which we are now translating into ways of meeting the 
needs of the people of South Africa. It will come as no surprise to 
discover that those that visited us and became our role models 
and mentors are in fact among the true leaders of the world body
-  people who evaluate for themselves what is important, act on 
their beliefs and support and encourage the efforts of others.

Finally I would like to offer a verbatim transcription of outgo­
ing WCPT President A J Fernando's brief farewell speech for your 
enjoyment and in response to Muriel Goodman's guest editorial 
of the May edition of your Journal which she calls "Challenges 
Facing the New South Africa".

Few people express their ideas so accurately, succinctly and 
with such warmth and humour as does President Fernando. This 
brief address was presented at the initial plenary session before 
Dr Hellen Hislop's inspirational keynote address "In Common 
Cause" which deals most excellently with the challenges facing 
our profession. President A J Fernando said:

"Let me start by quoting Thoreau who said 'Some things are 
obvious.... like a trout in your milk.'

"W hat is obvious is that as a profession today we are facing 
governments progressively intolerant of professional arrogance, 
societies intolerant of professional elitism. What is obvious, is that 
as a profession in strangulating health care economies, we are not 
looking at bad times that will go away, we can not afford to wait 
for the good times -  they are never coming back.

"To the profession, I would say, the only challenge we face is 
credibility, and where do you look for that credibility? I don't 
think it is in educational elitism or in credential arrogance. I don't 
think it's in technology. I think it will start at home - whether it is 
in Lahore of Balarat, Des Moines or in Winnipeg. Each and every 
one of us will have to start and rethink credibility for ourselves so 
that at the end of the next day's work we can sit back and say: 
That was good, that was a credible thing I did today. I profess to 
serve. I profess to care. I did that -  and my patient was the source 
of my credibility. I knew when I went in there that I could explain 
to my patient what I anticipated as the outcome of whatever 
intervention that we had discussed. I feel good. It's credible 
because I can account for the outcome. I can measure it.

"That is the starting point of rethinking. If you take the obvious 
step further, I would like to suggest to you that it's time we said 
that credibility has to be in a valid context. It has to be in the 
context of the society I live in, the economics of my society and 
the cultural influences that guide my society. Then the next ques­
tion becomes that the education you want should be the education 
you need to do the job in your society, in your economy. When 
you can answer that, you have credibility within that context.

"It's time, I think, that we re-focused. There are many influ­
ences as work, that are leading us astray, tempting us, seducing 
us, like technology that would have us believe that our skilled 
hands guided by intelligent reasoning minds (which we have 
always had) are suddenly not enough and that technology is more 
than tools. I don't think so. Within our profession there are people 
who would have us believe that before long neither you nor I 
would be permitted to move a patients arm in a particular direc­
tion unless we had paid a few hundred dollars and taken a course 
with a name that has now been patented.

We constantly have to be vigilant that we ourselves are not the 
enemy. That within the profession we are not creating problems 
because there is enough trouble out there. So I would say to you, 
let's rethink, let's look for the obvious, and the obvious is what is 
staring you in the face. Forget the trout in the milk, and the next 
time you hear the sound of galloping hooves, at least promise me 
you'll think horses first, before antelopes".

■  Pamela K Hansford, Physiotherapist4*

SA J o u rn a l P h y s io th e ra p y , V o l 51 N o  4 N o v e m b e r  1995 P a g e  6 9

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