riotheclown

A sort of friend, a client I didn't find annoying really, posted on his FB page: "sometimes when it feels like things are falling apart it's just things falling into place". It brought to mind the Monty Python skit of "Catch that prize!" where if you can catch say a refrigerator dropped from a four story window you can keep it.

I went to a lecture titled, "Is poverty a disease? Could treating poverty work like medicine?" He was a doctor, a nice young white doctor who works out of a hospital in T.O. in an area with a lot of homeless people using the ER. Now, I am biased but at the same time, three times around the big C has introduced me to lots of doctors, I have found many doctors, young white males in particular to possess large egos if not pugnacious attitudes of entitlement. I have read a bit about what internships are like, so I add exhaustion as an excuse for some of them, and then there are the ones who really want to do good...

There aren't a lot of them. This guy is one of them. But he is still coming from a culture (medical professionals) that looks at everyone as a set of symptoms. So of course treating poverty like a disease just falls into this.

I got to at the very end say my two cents which was to address the initial cause of so much homelessness in Toronto: The Harris government, 25 years ago in Ontario targeting single mothers, reducing their family benefits by 1/3 OVER NIGHT and then standing back with all the tax payers who could accept the cost of constant road repairs before they accept the cost of social repairs to watch the results. If the bodies of welfare mom's had caused a bumpy ride to work would... Anyway, there were actual things that were done twenty-five years ago to cause a large number of women and children to fall through the cracks. I ended my diatribe with "Poverty is not a disease, it is a crime." and I got applause. ( Read more... )

So after I waited with a bunch of other old ladies to talk to the doctor. He looked scared of me. I said I appreciated what he was doing on the ground but then pointed out the problem of calling it a disease. "Isn't disease an excuse to segregate members of the population? Is there a list of flags for the carriers of poverty? And if you are looking for cost reduction, isn't there a final solution?"

There is a danger of just making yourself feel good with phrasing things in a way that isn't so scary. Sometimes being scared is a good indication that you need to grab hold of what is important and get out of the crazy ass fray talking shit. However quietly, you need to speak the truth, even if it is only to your children.

A human being is only poor when she/he can no longer contribute something for the betterment of others...That means even if you are in possession of the most marvelous things, but have nothing worthwhile to offer as a human being, you will suffer from poverty, and regardless of how much you have you will never have enough. You can TAKE EVERYTHING and NEVER BE FREE OF POVERTY. But if you look to see who needs something, and you EVEN THROUGH SOCIAL POLICY are willing to share, you and your society will grow in wealth and well being.

My children grew up hearing this. They differ in their finances but not one of them is poor.