Communication- September -- October 2009

Communication

Contributions from readers who didn't object to having their email published in Vagabond Pages.

Flow of Souvenirs ..., Reflections on Afghanistan ..., US Health Care Reform and Canada ...

Sometimes I don't receive an answer to my request to publish a letter and I don't know how to interpret it. So I've decided to simplify things and not oblige readers to answer. The most recent letters are at the top of the page.
If you have written to Vagabond and were not published or acknowledged, be informed that we are experiencing some email difficulties. Please try again at our Vagabond Pages address or at our hotmail address WM

Flow of Souvenirs

Dear William,
Thanks for publishing my last communication and I think I can count on you to publish this one. By writing now I feel that I free myself and I don't mind if I provoke sleepless nights for others. Here comes my story from the Plaszow concentration camp not far away from Cracow. I remember seeing, from a distance, the SS amusing themselves at a banquet one night, there were shining lights and an orchestra. I saw clearly enough the faces of the orchestra who were Jewish prisoners all dressed in appropriate elegant black costume and they played continuously while the banqueters chatted animatedly. The musicians' faces drew my attention; it was all like one face that we may find today in horror movies, frozen in immobile despair. They probably expected their death at the end of the banquet. Who knows? I remember the contrast between the obviously jolly ambiance of the evening and the horror on the musicians' faces, accentuated by their black costumes. One more thing I remember: Somehow I didn't like the music. Was it because they had no time to practice? Or they just couldn't help but reflect how they felt?

BWS

Reflections on Afghanistan

William - The invasion of Afghanistan seems to me to have a rationale based on the following:-

1. A long term strategic need of America/the Western alliance to have/invent an enemy to justify arms production and sales.
2. A politically related component to 1 above, in that a general increase in the "fear factor" among the Western populace serves well the necessary political support for sustaining war economies.
3. An energy factor in running an oil pipeline across Afghanistan.
4. A geo-political component of ensuring that Russia does not have geo-political advantage over the US.

Add all of this together and you get an already devastated country, post-Soviet invasion, being yet further carpet bombed by the Americans, and being used as a pariah state to rationalise why its O.K. to bomb "non-humans" in their villages and send many young soldiers to a death that they hardly ever comprehend in terms of 1 to 4 above. Add to all this the factor of religion when:-

A. Pre the Soviet invasion the concept of Islam being the enemy and Muslims being all potential terrorists was not entrenched in the Western mind.
B. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan there was strong CIA support for bin Laden and the Mujahidin. In effect the Americans created the very creature they are fighting today in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan.
C. What is quite telling is the eradication of the heroine trade during the Taliban rule, for its religious reasons, and today the quite staggering supplies coming out of Afghanistan under US occupation for US economic and un-Islamic reasons.

And even with a secular analysis, one can readily comprehend why believers in Islam can see Satan in the West and its plots and global intrigues.
Add all of this together, sprinkle some historical recollection about British defeat in Afghanistan, and one simply might just let the grand master, time, lead the Americans to defeat in Afghanistan, a war they cannot and will not win!

Courtenay Barnett

US Health Care Reform and Canada

With the flurry around the proposed changes in U.S. Health Care, many Americans are using the Canadian system as an argument for and against a change in their system. A TV advertisement featured a woman who claimed that she had to travel to the U.S. to get treatment for her brain tumour. I’m sure that Canadian TV could find many many Americans who feel they were badly treated by their system. So I would like to put in my two cents.

I am satisfied with my health care here. I, myself, don't have an extra insurance policy and rely completely on the universal program. People here only buy supplementary insurance to get the extra comfort of a private room and extra drug coverage, etc. It's nice to be in a semi private or private room but I doubt that I'll get one if I am in the hospital. A friend of mine, when her cancer was terminal, was moved into a private room for 6 weeks though she didn't have extra coverage. Years ago, while recovering from surgery, I spent some time in a sanatorium and was given a private room because they didn't have any semi private available. It was a wonderful period if you can believe it. I wasn't very sick, just needed to be observed. The chef was Macedonian and the food was tasty! I had a tiny balcony. There was a library and a garden. Wow! This isn't standard care but you can get "lucky" under our 'socialized' medicine system. I can choose my doctor and see her at any time. I have never paid for any lab test. Yes, there is a shortage of doctors here – is there a shortage in the U.S.?

What I see in the U.S. is the Democrats taking hold of health care reform and the Republicans and some of the Democrats objecting on false premises. Why didn't the Republicans work on this all these years? Why are they passive until something gets started? They are all -- all the government people -- too fat. I would say let the Senators and the Representatives live for one year on a plan that any other American would pay for at a low level and see how they like it. I'm not talking about the unemployed, I'm talking about people who can only afford a minimal policy. The majority of Canadians -- the GREAT majority of Canadians -- would not trade their health care for American health care. But don't model yourselves on Canada -- pick any European country that would fit your way of life and then fight for change instead of letting the politicians get away with all this false rhetoric. The figures about outcomes in US treatment are played with -- there are some outcomes that are better here than in the US, some that are better in France than anywhere. That is all smoke to avoid careful thought about the real problem.

Nikole J

Back to the index of the Vagabond

William Markiewicz