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Think Horses Not Zebras

@horsesnotzebras

Post-Apartheid Folk Tales Of South African Medicine. Set in a slightly alternate South Africa one year ago. As told by a fag with an immune deficiency. Powered by BACTRIM. https://bit.ly/m/thinkhorsesnotzebras

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I wonder whether Prof Mbewu and Dr Stikstof ever met at a conference. Two winds colliding. Sipping luke-warm tea from the same urn.

I wonder whether Prof Mbewu and Dr Stikstof ever met at a conference. Two winds colliding. Sipping luke-warm tea from the same urn.

In 1904, the disgraced general, Leander Starr Jameson, returned from prison as Cape Colony Prime Minister. The greatest, but not the last, upward-failure in the history of the Cape Colony. “Dr Jim” was instrumental in the expansion of the college into a university, starting with the founding of the medical school. You can tell a lot about alumni nowadays by whether they shorten the name of their alma mater to Jameson, LSJ, or Sara Baartman. In 2014, the campus was rocked by protests regarding two colossal granite statues of Queen Victoria. One oversaw her rugby players and the other surveilled her cricket pitch. The movement was called #VictoriaMustFall. Just Victoria, not Queen Victoria, mind you: “We don’t put a crown on killers!”

In 1904, the disgraced general, Leander Starr Jameson, returned from prison as Cape Colony Prime Minister. The greatest, but not the last, upward-failure in the history of the Cape Colony. “Dr Jim” was instrumental in the expansion of the college into a university, starting with the founding of the medical school. You can tell a lot about alumni nowadays by whether they shorten the name of their alma mater to Jameson, LSJ, or Sara Baartman. In 2014, the campus was rocked by protests regarding two colossal granite statues of Queen Victoria. One oversaw her rugby players and the other surveilled her cricket pitch. The movement was called #VictoriaMustFall. Just Victoria, not Queen Victoria, mind you: “We don’t put a crown on killers!”

In 1949, the Broederbond founder Coetzee François Naudé died after a battle with early-onset dementia and progressive paralysis. Newly elected Prime Minister DF Malan quickly pushed through a plan to have the university named after him. This became a national embarrassment 15 years later when Coetzee’s son, Maritz Naudé, became an anti-Apartheid activist — and furthermore, made salacious suggestions about the true cause of the elder Dominee’s illness. There were no calls for a post-Democracy renaming of Naudé Universiteit. Born-frees just assumed it was named for the younger, cooler Naudé of the struggle, and considered it good enough. But every morning, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Of Transformation, Aisha Patricia Hendricks, held her breath. She would open the Daily Maverick Digest in her inbox and scroll carefully to the bottom of the page. Finally, on one day — a Valentine’s day — she sighed.

In 1949, the Broederbond founder Coetzee François Naudé died after a battle with early-onset dementia and progressive paralysis. Newly elected Prime Minister DF Malan quickly pushed through a plan to have the university named after him. This became a national embarrassment 15 years later when Coetzee’s son, Maritz Naudé, became an anti-Apartheid activist — and furthermore, made salacious suggestions about the true cause of the elder Dominee’s illness. There were no calls for a post-Democracy renaming of Naudé Universiteit. Born-frees just assumed it was named for the younger, cooler Naudé of the struggle, and considered it good enough. But every morning, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Of Transformation, Aisha Patricia Hendricks, held her breath. She would open the Daily Maverick Digest in her inbox and scroll carefully to the bottom of the page. Finally, on one day — a Valentine’s day — she sighed.

I've rewritten this satirical fiction about 10 times. It's about two well-known and polar-opposite SA doctors who shared a specialty -- and what made them. Now it references @dailymaverick.co.za

The Cape Doctor
(The Whited Sepulchres : A Genealogy of Institution and Archetype)

bit.ly/4io1sZY

26.11.2025 11:57 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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open.substack.com/pub/thinkhor...

#PublicHealth #Healthcare #Decolonize #HIV #AIDS #CVID #ChronicIllness #ImmuneDeficiency #SouthAfrica #Health #Medicine #Patient #Diagnosis #Leftist #Politics #RareDisease #Disability #SocialJustice #ThinkHorsesNotZebras #PrimaryImmuneDeficiency

15.08.2025 23:27 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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A new post

open.substack.com/pub/thinkhor...

#PublicHealth #Healthcare #Decolonize #HIV #AIDS #CVID #ChronicIllness #ImmuneDeficiency #SouthAfrica #Health #Medicine #Patient #Diagnosis #Leftist #Politics #RareDisease #Disability #SocialJustice #ThinkHorsesNotZebras #PrimaryImmuneDeficiency

06.08.2025 23:08 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Automaton(tik) Automaton(tik) by Rory Du Plessis reconstructs the lives of 19-20th century asylum patients from sparse medical records, in order to re-humanise and dignify them. The patients were both individuals and in community. For example, the scholars Frederick and Gerhardus. Or the low-key trade unionists Timothy and James. Maybe they would have been my kind of people. Automaton(tik) reminds me of work I did for the pandemic response team until 2022. Ensuring accurate death statistics meant we combed through the lives and medical journeys of many individual patients. For example: - Female; - Born 2001; - Phillipi East, Delft or Hanover Park. I don’t quite remember. Or maybe I do but won’t say; - Antenatal Clinic visits in 2017 and 2020; - Chronic dispensing of TLD and fluoxetine; - Last viral load < 50; - Suppressed and adherent; - A young mother doing her best. No ICD10 code for that. Maybe Z65.9 other psychosocial?; - 2021 hospital admission with J18.9 pneumonia unspecified organism; - NHLS PCR positive for that virus; - Death I46.9 cardiac arrest; - No other cause specified; - A four year old and a one year old left behind. Who will care for them?; - Two different folder numbers with the same name, same address, same dates, same story. Told twice. Collapsed into one line for the report. Our only job is to record her as one death, not two, for the NICD. I bore witness alone in my kitchen. No time or permission to tell her story. She is protected by POPIA. Maybe even I saw too much. I did tell my pet rodents.

Automaton(tik) Automaton(tik) by Rory Du Plessis reconstructs the lives of 19-20th century asylum patients from sparse medical records, in order to re-humanise and dignify them. The patients were both individuals and in community. For example, the scholars Frederick and Gerhardus. Or the low-key trade unionists Timothy and James. Maybe they would have been my kind of people. Automaton(tik) reminds me of work I did for the pandemic response team until 2022. Ensuring accurate death statistics meant we combed through the lives and medical journeys of many individual patients. For example: - Female; - Born 2001; - Phillipi East, Delft or Hanover Park. I don’t quite remember. Or maybe I do but won’t say; - Antenatal Clinic visits in 2017 and 2020; - Chronic dispensing of TLD and fluoxetine; - Last viral load < 50; - Suppressed and adherent; - A young mother doing her best. No ICD10 code for that. Maybe Z65.9 other psychosocial?; - 2021 hospital admission with J18.9 pneumonia unspecified organism; - NHLS PCR positive for that virus; - Death I46.9 cardiac arrest; - No other cause specified; - A four year old and a one year old left behind. Who will care for them?; - Two different folder numbers with the same name, same address, same dates, same story. Told twice. Collapsed into one line for the report. Our only job is to record her as one death, not two, for the NICD. I bore witness alone in my kitchen. No time or permission to tell her story. She is protected by POPIA. Maybe even I saw too much. I did tell my pet rodents.

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Pandemic memory reading automaton(tik) by @roryduplessis.bsky.social

#PublicHealth #Healthcare #Decolonize #HIV #CVID #ChronicIllness #Autoimmune #ImmuneDeficiency #SouthAfrica #Health #Medicine #Patient #Leftist #Politics #RareDisease #Disability #SocialJustice #Zebra #ThinkHorsesNotZebras

04.08.2025 09:16 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

#publichealth #southafrica #medicine #politics #healthcare #quaker #leftist #leftism #sociology #history

31.07.2025 15:56 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Introduction To all my Friends:

Introductory post explaining why I started the blog, and soliciting your medical stories.

open.substack.com/pub/thinkhor...

31.07.2025 13:58 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0