Monday, March 03, 2008

REMOTE AREA MEDICAL



This is the most heartbreaking video I have seen in a long, long time. I cried and cried.

I come from a country which honours its citizens' health and welfare. A country whose greatest Canadian, as voted for by its citizens, is the late Tommy Douglas, the founder of Canadian universal health care.

Remote Area Medical, a wonderful volunteer organization, were medically helping people in the remote corners of the Third World but decided that the citizens of the U.S.A. desperately needed its medical care not only for the millions and millions of people without health care but also for those WITH healthcare who cannot afford the deductible or have been denied coverage on the flimsiest of excuses.

I weep because in most countries in the world we take our free medical care for granted and don't realize that in the huge U.S.A. thousands of people are bankrupting and dying and in pain every single day for the lack of it.

For shame!

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for sight of the video WWW.

    The situation is shocking - I found it difficult to believe the extent of the problem when I first came here. Like you, I am used to socialised medicine. The UK's National Health Service had looked after me very well for over 60 years. I've heard stories here in the USA which are truly heartbreaking. I don't think people outside of the USA had any idea about the situation until the last year or two, but it must have been going on for decades.

    What an amazing and wonderful man, Stan Brock! I've been looking around for his date of birth but can't find it.
    I'd love to have done a blog about him and his astrology..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, T, he truly is a walking saint. I checked also for his DOB and the most I found was he is 71, which is an incredible fact by itself as he lives in an abandoned school, until recently without running water.
    I'm still haunted by this video, in the light of the 3 trillion and climbing spent on the invasion (I refuse to call it a 'war') which could have paid for health care ten times over for every man, woman and child in the U.S.
    Truly, truly unconscionable.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a fabulous, enlightening video. Thank you for the link.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've tried the link a couple of times but all I get is adverts and CBS News. Must be a technical problem somewhere. Is this the same bunch who were featured in Sicko running free medical centres in poor areas of the States? if so, it's an absolute disgrace they should have to do that. There's more and more coverage now of the scandalous state of health care in the States. Whether the incoming president will make any radical changes is debatable I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rhea, Welcome!
    yes Stan Brock and RAM are truly special to bring such desperately needed healthcare to the U.S.
    Bless them and those like them!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Nick:
    As it is commercial TV you have to listen to the ads first :>(
    then it gets into the special news item which is Stan Brock and RAM. Stan is from England, I don't remember him in Sicko, he was probably too busy in the third world but now has decided his services are needed in the US who are more desperate.
    I agree the treatment of its own citizens in the US by its draconian government is nothing short of barbaric.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  7. Once again, I'm behind with all my favorite blogs and struggling to catch up, hence my tardiness in reading the post and viewing this video.

    I'm so glad I did. It takes a lot to make me cry these days, but this managed it. I've taken the liberty of linking to it on Sparrow Chat. The more people who see this, the more chance one day there may be change.

    ReplyDelete
  8. RJA:
    So glad you posted this on your blog, the more the merrier. Your post, as always, so much slicker than mine. I've tried to post videos directly but the skill eludes me!
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  9. free medical care?

    those words just don't go together in my world.....

    ReplyDelete
  10. Laurie:
    And it should be, like water, education, police and fire services.
    It should be soooo taken for granted....
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wisewebwoman,

    While things like this are going on (and being allowed to, with actual blessings from some), things don't look like getting any better.

    CAYMAN ISLANDS -

    Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven.


    Read the rest here. I's downright criminal.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for the link - this is sickening, in more senses than one.
    There is no end to the foxes running the henhouses, Richard.
    And so many thousands dying every day for the lack of accountability (and taxes).
    Let's hope that "time for change" is not just a mantra.
    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome. Anonymous comments will be deleted unread.

Email me at wisewebwomanatgmaildotcom if you're having trouble.