Poor women have been exploited at their most vulnerable time by a hospital that charged them $5 every time they screamed during child birth.

At the hospital in Zimbabwe, one of the poorest countries in the world, the fine was said to be for ‘raising a false alarm’, according to Transparency International.

Women who were unable to pay the fine were allegedly kept in the hospital until their families could pay. Interest was also added to the fines, according to the Washington Post.
The findings, based on surveys with 100,000 people in more than 100 countries, found that the police and court systems were the most prone to bribery, according to Slate.

Link to the full story is at the end of this blog.

This story however brings to mind the University system through which I bagged a “Bachelor of Science Degree” I studied in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife Nigeria popularly known as Oba Awon University (King of Universities). I studied hard and suffered hard, 5 years of hard labour through the cold nights spent in Awo reading room and the drowsy walks from Academics area to the student hostel after my regular all-night readings.

Many tell of the Fall of University of Ife (OAU) but I only see a fallen Educational system, warped by the wicked exploitative tendencies of moral men like me. We spent years moralising why students should not litter the school or take a dump in the bushes, why the school should ensure that electricity is stable for a good academic experience and why we should not have to pay higher fees for the schools funded by our parent’s taxes that are never paid. We charge ourselves for screaming in Labour. We often forget that nothing good comes easy, and the decadence in quality of education cum infrastructure is not only a sore in OAU but a Sore in the whole of Nigeria.

We have continuously rendered injustice to our own selves and shown our children how to wallow in disgusting mud, what do we say of an educational system that has nothing to offer than it offered last year, yet wants more money or students who want VICTORIAN Toiletries at the same rates as PIT LATRINES.

Its self deceit, we are only charging ourselves for screaming when that’s just normal. I will always remain an idiot so long as the conditions that foster idiosy remain prevalent.

Full story of Zimbabwe Charging for Labour screams

Exploitation: Hospital in Zimbabwe where women are charged $5 every time they scream during childbirth