My wife was talking with a co-worker the other day about the Haitian situation and their conversation steered to Katrina. She and the co-worker spent a good portion of their lives living in or around New Orleans. My wife is a graduate from Tulane and lived a good portion of her childhood in Baton Rouge. I love visiting every so often because the food is spectacular and the people are always very nice. However, those of us in Houston got our own dose of New Orleans when a good portion of the city evacuated here.
This discussion all began when the Belgium medical division not only pulled out of their planning trip to Haiti, but also pulled their supplies. The supplies are important enough if you saw the 60 Minutes coverage last Sunday where they were using household ban saws to saw off limbs that were damaged in the Earthquake. It's funny how the Europeans are usually conspicuously absent in events like this. The only comments following Katrina were "do a better job building your levies." Heck, tsunami stricken Sri Lanka was more generous than western Europe.
It occurred to my wife and I that the folks from western Europe are afraid of poor people. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Since most of those nations employ some kind of hybrid socialistic system you would have to surmise that they have no poor people. At least they don't in the sense that we would think of them. No one can get into the mind or heart of George W. Bush during Katrina. Some accused him of being racist against black people. Others say he didn't care. I'm not sure either of those apply. However, I do know that we in America have no fear of the poor. Our emotion translates closer to contempt.
An average citizen was commenting on a show that he thought the Haitian situation had "played itself out." The response of the host was subdued, but on the point. He said, "I'm sure the Haitians wish it were played out." Our collective attention span for suffering seems to be shorter when it happens to those of us that are poor. Many of today's modern day conservatives live in an Old Testament world. The poor are poor of their own making and are being punished by God. They should pick themselves up by their bootstraps and carry themselves out of poverty.
Make no mistake, what the Belgium government did was despicable. They said they would not land because no one would guarantee their safety. It's as if Haitians that desperately needed medical care would harm those that could provide it. However, this lack of understanding is understandable from those that don't deal with the poor on a regular basis. We see the poor everyday and many of us pass judgement. I do it on occasion with those I work with. I suppose it is only human.
Yet, I can't seem to understand the desire to deprive those of need of things like health care insurance, a good education, basic necessities, and a decent retirement. Those that continually oppose these basic things deprive it because they perceive them as unworthy. They should earn it. While I may not be a great student of recent history in Western Europe, I can't help but think that there were those folks there when these programs first went into effect. Both political parties have proven that fiscal responsibility is low on the totem pole. So, it's all about priorities.
For me, I know that dealing with the working and non-working poor can be frustrating at times. We can't understand why they would feign indifference to things like their child's education. Well, when one must worry about paying the light bill, putting dinner on the table, and how that latest medical bill will be paid, then nobler pursuits take a backseat. Sometimes, someone in such a situation is willing to lie, cheat, or steal enough to meet the latest necessity. Crime in western Europe is way down. Murder is nearly unheard of. I suppose that anti-gun folks would say our love of guns play a role, but I think it is lack of poverty (on their part) and strife on ours. If we can get past the whole, "they don't deserve it" argument then we could have a safer and happier society too. Maybe we could drive through downtown without locking our doors. Maybe we could go through life without humming "In the Ghetto".
I can't get away without one more admonishment of the Belgium medical team. Shame on you for being petty. If you didn't feel safe the least you could have done is let your medical supplies stay. All that being said, we envy your life when encountering a poor person is so rare as to invoke that much fear.
Piling on the Belgians:
Last year at a gallery opening I spoke with a retired State Department accountant. He was taking temporary assignments with State and was delighted to be working in different countries in Africa.
When it came to colonizers, he said, he'd decided that the Belgians were the worst. He said they allowed no education for the colonized; even the job of taxi driver was off-limits to them. The consequences of those policies are felt today.
Consequently, he said, you can travel from one former-colonized country to another and see widely disparate economic opportunities in countries that are in most other ways very similar. He blamed the policies of former colonizers and he especialy blamed Belgium.
On the other hand, when my sister and I took a biking vacation in France, we met a friendly Belgian who was delighted to be alive, delighted to have been invited to some special vineyard event in the region. And he didn't care that we were Americans.:-)
Actually the "Belgies" pretty much dislike everybody because they are so vastly outnumbered over there. Conquering Belgium would require only a couple of Boy Scout troops equipped with .22 rifles and a couple dozen smoke bombs. They pretty much keep to themselves. When, other than THIS instance, did you recall Belgium contributing to or participating in anything other than the Olympics.
OTOH, they're country is extremely clean. No trash any where. In fact, they don't even HAVE a word for litter. I guess everybody shouold be good at something.
you'll like this then...
The one guy I met from Belgium hated the Dutch and actually took my side in some friendly jibing from a south african...hmmm. I liked the dude, reminded me of Inspector Clousseau, quite intelligent, though.
If you have ever met someone from Belgium, you would know they are exactly like the conservative good ole boys who live here in Texas. Out of the few I have met i came away thinking to myself "god, what an asshole..."
I understood, I understood...
That's why I never lock my car door or any door for that matter. When I succumb to relegating the poor or even the thief to the status of a lesser being then I have lost my soul.
That is until I had my car burglarized and lost a wallet full of money, credit cards, driver license, an ipod and a gps system (not to mention someone put a match to it). I no longer leave valuables overnight in my car on Halloween nights but I still don't lock it many times.
I figure I'm good for life, now.
As I wrote that I realized people would not understand what I meant. The fact that they take care of their poor is a good thing. It means that for the most part they have no poor like we have poor. Do they have unemployed? Yes. Do they have underemployed? Yes. But because of the significant safety net they don't end up like our poor or the Haitian poor.
You wrote:
"Since most of those nations employ some kind of hybrid socialistic system you would have to surmise that they have no poor people"
I would surmise they treat their poor as equals and see that they're cared for humanely and as equal as those that are rich. It's more than we do for our working class here in America.
What they did by pulling their supplies was despicable.
True, I think we have more contempt for the poor than fear. I think fear is there though, but I guess there is a difference with the fear that comes from experience and fear that is irrational.
Scott, I think you're generalizing on this. We have poor people in Europe too and deal with our own problems related to poverty. We too have generations of families that are un/underemployed and have become institutionalized in their reliance on the state.
The Belgians should be criticized for their actions, but we shouldn't the great work being done by many other European nations.
As a Brit living here in Houston, what I cannot believe is the sheer number of people who profess to be Christian yet would leave their fellow man without access to healthcare, proper education and basic human needs. In these aspects, there's a lot of people here who could learn from Europe,even from the Belgians.
My comments aren't made to attempt to excuse the actions of the Belgians. With the large numbers of the 82nd Airborne in Haiti, their excuse made no sense. Yes, they should have let the medical supplies stay. The real humanitarians could have used them, as could the Haitian peoples. That said, aren't a lot of people truly afraid of the poor ? A lot of us confuse or equate poor with lawlessness and go out of our way to stay out of neighborhoods we look at as "dangerous". I used to live close to Chicago and there were neighborhoods I tried to stay out of, only going there when I had to, like when I went to the U. of Chicago medical center, whose campus is located on the fringe of one of the worst areas in Chicago. I don't think this fear is confined to Western Europe, its right under our noses here in the states as well.