Posted on 01/12/2014 5:42:02 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
He looked up at his mother and said, “Mom, here in America we are all rich.” He shook his head, looked down at the table and said, “I can’t believe people actually live like that today.”
The young man, 22 years old, was having his first conversation with his mother after having just returned from a trip to a South American country where he spent just more than two weeks. He showed his mother some pictures taken with his iPhone; they were of “homes” that he could see from the window of the home of the professional baseball player where he was staying. They looked worse than some chicken coops on farms in America.
He said, “I saw countless young kids without shoes, and some kids I estimated to be 12 to 14 years old running around stark naked. Those that were dressed had on T-shirts, or undershirts and shorts, and if they had on any shoes at all, they were flip-flops.” He compared that to kids here, even in the inner city, who walk around in the latest version of “Ms” (Michael Jordan’s new $199 sneakers) and diss those who don’t.
He continued, “Mom, I felt like I was on another planet. I saw people simply throwing trash into the streets, and I discovered that after using toilet paper, they would simply either put it in trash cans to throw it into the streets later or just throw it out first.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Ooooh...okra? lol
Is this a case of apples and oranges?
There will always be poor, but how that is dealt with it is what matters. In the US(S)A, throwing out more and more confiscated money is the supposed answer, but that solution clearly isn’t working.
Even as a young child, I saw how those who were given “free” housing treated their homes (neglected, trashed, and eventually various degrees of burned-out, abandoned and bulldozed), as opposed to those who were barely scraping by, but paying for their homes (maybe painted in “off” colors and with hand-me down and oft-repaired furnishings but there was pride and care evident).
History scares the hell out of me.
I remember taking a mission trip to Guatemala when I was 14. I was helping out in a charity clinic there. We treated kids for malnutrition, skin infections, parasites. We saw women who had walked for 6 hours to get there, with 2 kids in tow, a third on their back, and another on the way. What amazed me was that, even though they could barely afford to live, they were happy. The streets were full of garbage but the houses were clean inside. The last day there, the clinic staff all chipped in to get an ambulance for a 3 year old who needed to be hospitalized that day or he would die.
Then I got home, and first thing the next morning my grandmother was on the phone screaming that her computer wasn’t fast enough. I admit, I kind of lost it. I think I went on a 20 minute rant about all the things she had going for her, and yet all she ever did was complain. It was a good thing I wasn’t the one who answered the phone.
I’m of the opinion that every teenager should get the chance to go on a mission trip like that. It might change a few perspectives.
From 1957-60 my family lived in a small community called Alacala de Guadalquivir in southern Spain when my dad got stationed there in the Air Force.
We lived “on the economy” instead of in government housing on the AF base, which meant we lived among the Spaniards like they did in this little town. I was in 3rd grade when we moved there. That experience opened my eyes and my outlook on life, especially life in the US.
We shopped at the open air farmers-type market everyday because we didn’t have a refrigerator. Our home was heated with charcoal in the winter and we had no air conditioner in the summer. For almost 6 months every winter, the electricity was turned off for four hours a day, so the town could save power to run the lights and rides during their spring feria or carnival. The water had to be chlorinated daily to drink. The sanitation standards, garbage collection and general cleanliness of the town were very substandard compared the anywhere in the US. People who were poor, which was most of the population, were extremely poor compared to those in the US. Everything was old and new “things and stuff” were unheard of. Housing conditions were very marginal compared to the US.
We traveled throughout Europe and North Africa while there and were exposed to all kinds cultures and conditions. One thing my parents insisted on doing was car camping on these trips, instead of staying hotels. First, because we couldn’t afford it and two, it allowed us to meet people like they really were instead of from a tourist point of view. We even camped outside the Brussels World Fair in Belgium for a week so we could afford to go the the exhibition.
My family got used to this new normal for the three years we lived there. But when we transferred back to the States, I literally kissed the ground when we landed in New Jersey. Everything looked new, everywhere was clean and there were new cars and buildings all over the place. It looked 180 degrees different from Spain.
I was so thankful to be home in the United States and realized how lucky the people who live in America were, compared to those in other countries. From then on, I always thanked my lucky stars that I was born, raised and lived in America, the greatest country on earth. I think that more people in this country should travel overseas and expose themselves to people and conditions that others live in, because most people do not know how well we have it in this country. I count my blessings that I had that experience early in my life, to allow me to appreciate how good I had it here.
100%... America is the only country on the planet where the percentage of the poor ARE FATTER THAN THE RICH!!! until people see REAL poverty, they have no concept of being poor
Sometimes I think of living in the US from a reincarnation perspective. I must have been pretty good in the last life to wind up here. For all of its problems, there is no place like the USA.
As a black female, I could have been born to one of the tribes that does genital mutilation. I could belong to the ‘wrong tribe,’ and risk getting my arm chopped off by a machete or see my young son drafted to serve in a rebel army or have to send my 10 yr old daughter off to be a servant so that we won’t starve, or watch my mother go blind from cataracts because there is no medical care available, and I couldn’t afford it if it were. This would be after losing 2-3 kids to measles or diarrhea.
We are all blessed to be here. We just aren’t as grateful as we should be.
Right now I am studying the Revolutionary War period. Very fascinating. And very scary.
But after reading of the conditions in the 18th Century, one really appreciates the things we have that we take for granted. Things like shoes, food, coats, blue jeans, socks, toilets....
Bump to that, Chode.!
In HS, my family went to visit friends in El Salvador for 2 weeks.
If you were American, you were rich.
My guests couldn’t keep water in a small reflection pool in front, the poor people stole the water. All we saw were poor people walking cows to the main water fountain. The poor people lived in “quebradas” or earthquake faults in tin roofed shacks with a tv antenna.
One time a bunch of poor kids were playing soccer in the street out front. My little brother asked for something to yell at them in Spanish. We said, yell “soy el maje”. So he started yelling it and they all started laughing. It means “I’m a fool”. Boy did he get mad.
This was mid-70s.
oops, guests = hosts
(CONT’D)
Oh, our prized souvenirs were chrome machetes in elaborate tassled leather cases.
WE WORE THEM ON THE PLANE LIKE SWASHBUCKLERS ON THE WAY BACK!
Most of the people in this country, including the “poor”, are spoiled. We have it real good here and don’t even realize it. Instead of counting our blessings, we complain about all the things we don’t have.
yup, they simply have no idea...
It’s like I’m a prophet:
Could Shipping Containers Help End Homelessness?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/03/shipping-containers-homeless_n_4538174.html?ref=topbar
I too have traveled South America and our erstwhile neighbor Mexico.
I always wonder “Why, in the modern world, do people live like this”?
The so called poor in America have more than anyone.
They have automobiles, electricity, refrigerators, access to fresh and affordable food, flat screen TV’s, designer clothes, etc.
Heck, they have tattoos, which must cost a princely sum and will not go to bed hungry.
They have the Ipads and Iphones so they can Facebook and keep up on the latest Karadashian escapades, which they can share with the rest if tbeir loser friends.
Why? Why, in a country so rich do we allow a culture to exist of the professional poor and synthetic victims?
I went to get my blood work done for an operation I had a day ago.
I waited patiently while others were called in for their exams and blood work.
After noticing that several people had gone before me and had shown up after me I became irritated.
I went to the front desk and exclaimed “Hey! I have been waiting my turn and yet you keep calling people before me. I am paying with ‘worked for money’ not government money! I want my blood drawn and I won’t wait any longer!”
I said this loud enough that everyone probably heard me.
They took me right in.
The gal who took my blood laughed and said “Good for you. That’s nit right”.
I notice that people who aren’t even paying for a business service frequently act out their entitlement fairly agressively, with no conscience.
As I left the office most people had their head down but, one rather nicely dressed lady said “Good Job!”
She probably pays for her stuff like the rest of us and I felt a certain pride for her validation.
Annoying experience.
Thanks for the link. Very interesting. Also interesting, there’s a law against having any containers on any private properties in my sparsely populated county in the middle of nowhere.
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