A letter in Gulf News today:
To the people of UAE …
I am a resident of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where we got the full force of Hurricane Katrina.
I am a heart patient who receives treatment at a small local clinic for people without insurance.
At my last visit, I was handed a pamphlet that told me my visit was being paid for by a gift from your nation.
Thank you.
Your gift reminded me that in spite of our differences, we are one people on this planet.
From Mr Gregory Grant
Mississippi, US
Just spend a moment thinking about the implications of those few words.
The USA is by far the world's richest country, yet it has around 50 million of its citizens with no health insurance.
Plaudits to the UAE for sending aid to those people - but how the hell have successive American governments allowed this situation to continue?
It's yet another example of the need to look very seriously at the standards of their own society rather than believe that they should impose it on the rest of the world.
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3 comments:
What an amazing story - and kudos to Gregory Grant for taking the time to write to the paper.
It's a crime when you see the conditions that some poor americans have to live in.
We've travelled by train a few times between Massachusetts, NY, Maryland and Washington DC.
The rail tracks run through some of the poorest neighbourhoods that you have ever seen - ghettos is too good a word for them.
It really boils my blood to see US citizens living like this when their own government is wasting billions on stupid wars, and countries like the UAE (and Mexico after Katrina) give aid to them.
Nice blog, Dubai is so lovely :)
DUBAI WONDERS
There was much poverty in the USA in the 1940s and of course ongoing serious human rights violations inflicted on fellow American citizens in the American south. It really makes my blood boil to think that the US governments of that decade could and should have been dealing with those injustices instead of wasting billions to invade sovereign nations overseas!
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