And Canada thought it had a brain drain？ Eight of every 10 Haitians and Jamaicans with college or university degrees live outside the country of their birth， the World Bank says in a new report. In five African countries， more than 50 per cent of skilled workers have left. （The figures aren't precise； they include those who emigrated as children and went on to university in their new homeland.） Now that's a brain drain.

    加拿大从来就认为自己有人才流失问题？世界银行一份最新报告指出，每10名接受过大专或大学教育的海地和牙买加人中就有8人不在自己的祖国居住。在五个非洲国家中，超过50%的技术工人离开自己国家。（这些数字并不精确；这些人包括了那些早年移民国外的儿童并在所移民的国家继续大学教育的人）。这才叫真正的人才流失。

    Canada has no overall brain drain. Its net gain of those with postsecondary education was 2.25 million people in 2000， up from 1.5 million 10 years earlier， the World Bank says. The bank says Canada and the West are draining poor countries of their best minds. By giving hope and opportunity to individuals， this country and other rich countries deprive entire nations of those qualities. Countries fail when their institutions are weak； strong institutions need smart， trained people. "When a Humpty Dumpty falls and cracks， just who is going to put it together？" ask John McHale， a Queen's University economist， and Devesh Kapur， a development expert at the University of Texas， in their recent book Give Us Your Best and Brightest.

    总体来说，加拿大并没有人才流失。世界银行称，加国2000年接受高等教育的净人数从十年前的150万增加到225万。世界银行还指出，是加拿大和西方国家将贫穷国家最优秀的人才给挖走了。通过向个人提供希望和机会，加拿大和其他富裕国家使所有贫困国家完全丧失了那些人才。当一个国家的政府和企业机构不能起作用时，这个国家就没有希望；强有力的政府和企业机构需要聪明、训练有素的人才。加拿大皇后大学的经济学家John McHale和美国德克萨斯大学的经济发展专家Devesh Kapur在他们新近出版的《Give Us Your Best and Brightest》一书中就问到：“当一个懦夫跌倒和摔伤，靠谁去帮助他？”

    The question is what， if anything， rich countries should do about it. One answer， say Professors McHale and Kapur， is not to recruit doctors and nurses from poor African countries where those people are desperately needed for the fight against AIDS. That seems reasonable enough.

    现在的问题是，富裕国家应该为贫穷国家做些什么？McHale教授和Kapur教授对这样的问题的回答是，不要从贫困的非洲国家招募医生和护士，因为那里的人们迫切需要他们的帮助去与艾滋病作斗争。这个回答看上去非常合理。

    Other options are to bar educated people from leaving， impose exit taxes on them， make them pay taxes to their homeland once they begin earning money in their new country， and have their new country set aside a share of immigrant taxes to compensate their countries of origin. These suggestions range from the impractical to the offensive. The right to leave one's homeland is basic； the world needs no more Berlin Walls， whether of bricks or exit taxes. The idea that a Canadian citizen such as Ottawa software engineer Maher Arar would need to pay his birthplace of Syria a portion of his income earned in this country （or that Canada would have to pay part of its take from him） seems bizarre. Freedom of movement implies the right to shed obligations to the nation in which， through no fault of the migrant， he was born.

    两位教授建议的其他防止人才外流的方法包括：向那些外流的人征收出国税，一但他们在新的国度里挣钱，迫使他们向自己的祖国交税，同时让接纳他们的国家拿出一部分税收来补偿培养他们的祖国。以上这些建议既不切实际，亦没有道理。选择离开自己的祖国是每个人的基本权利；不管出境的关卡是用砖砌的，还是用收税的方式建立的，当今的世界不再需要柏林墙。如果按照这种建议，渥太华软件工程师Maher Arar这样的加拿大公民就需要将他在这里所得的收入的一部分支付给他的祖国叙利亚（或者加拿大必须向叙利亚支付部分他交纳的移民税）。我们实在看不出这样的做法有何意义。行动自由意味着移民有权摆脱对祖国的义务。毕竟，出生在哪个国家不是他们自己的选择。