For those of you whom I've known since the paleolithic era(that would be you,Herb),I've written on this subject on previous blogs,but thought I'd revisit it.Much is written about how much "poverty" we have here in America.Well,I'm calling bullshit on that one.As one who has traveled the world,curtousy of Uncle Sugar(you know-travel to far off exotic lands,meet interesting,intriguing people-and kill them
),I HAVE seen REAL poverty in other countries.I've seen gypies living in makeshift shelters under overpasses,cooking their meager food over open fires,I've seen eastern European refugees,who owned little more than the clothes on their backs,I've seen lots of real poverty ,in places from Iraq to Thailand,and when folks whine about the "poverty" here in the states,I want to choke them.Especially after having seen dirt poor Iraqi men trying to sell their daughters just for a little food and a bottle of water.
Our "poor",here in the land of round doorknobs,usually have 2 cars,3 TVs,a computer,MORE than adequate food and clothing,and all the labor saving household devices that were considered to be luxuries in my parents' and grandparents' time.Yet,liberal pundits constantly carp about it.
Having said all that,I'll recount a few anecdotes that I've had,with REAL poverty.In 2002,I deployed to Pattetya Beach,Thailand in support of Operation Cobra Gold,which is a nice tax payer subsidized shopping trip and pub crawling fest,thinly disguised as a military exercise,and spent 40 days there,alternating between Patteya Beach and Sattihip Royal Thai Naval Base,up the coast a ways.Now,Thailand is a relatively prosperous country,for the region(no thanks to George Soros)and I saw PLENTY of poverty there-the REAL McCoy-not some crap where junior could'nt get the latest version of playstation,or daddy could'nt get the latest model SUV he wanted.I'm talking about folks barely having the basic neccesities of life.Elderly women selling newspapers on the street,to help feed their families.LOTS of people sleeping on the beach,carrying all their worldly goods on their back.THATS poverty.We were working with a battalion of the Thai Marines,and they had a crusty old sergeant-major,who'd been serving since the viet nam era.Now an american sergeant-major,being the highest enlisted grade in the US military,has a reasonably comfortable income.even myself,as a staff sergeant,my paycheck is'nt bad-I've certainly had worse paying jobs.Not this guy.Thirty years serving his country,and he could still barely find two nickels to rub together.Well,when we were getting ready to re-deploy back to Fort Lewis,we had stuff to give away,and we had a cheap coffee maker we had picked up,for ten bucks,and we gave it the sergeant-major.Well,he was happier than the proverbial pig in fecal matter-over something most of us would'nt think twice about-a ten dollar coffeepot costs us a tiny portion of our weekly checks.It sure was nice to see him appreciate it.
We stayed in a 4 star hotel in Patteya beach,with excellent room service,and upon our departure,we all tipped the hotel staff for the service we had gotten.There was a particular maid,who had taken care of my room-well,I wanted her to have a nice tip.This gal always came to work barefoot-as she could'nt afford shoes-and always had a smile on her face for me,and with her limited english,tried to be as friendly as possible.Well,we had been advised not to OVER tip the staff,but I rounded up a bunch of Thai currency I had left over,and came up with 400 baht-around 10 bucks or so.Once again,nothing real major for americans.Can't even take the kids to Taco hell for that.Well,this maid was totally estatic over recieving this tip-as were the others,who were tipped by the other soldiers.We did'nt mind-they'd certainly EARNED their tips,and we were glad to help them out.
Fast forward to the spring of 2006.I'm in Taji,Iraq,wearing a couple different hats-executive officer of my unit,as well as official scrounger and dumpster diver.There was a building,next to our set of buildings,which had been occupied by an Oklahoma Guard unit,who departed shortly after our arrival.Well,I stripped it down,of everything we could use-except for the lumber.(and I'd STARTED stripping that out).Well,an american master sergeant who was liason to an Iraqi battalion asked me if his guys could come get some plywood and other lumber from the building-I told him,sure,come get all there is-I'd already salvaged everything I felt that my unit could use.Well,a few days later,the sergeant showed up with a couple trucks and a squad of Iraqi soldiers to get the wood.I got them some wrecking bars and claw hammers,to extract the wood,and boy,did these guys go to town on that building.Did'nt waste ANYTHING.(in contrast to american units)They salvaged everything they could-always asking me permission first.I told them to get what ever they needed.They then took a break,and I went and got a pot of coffee and a pack of smokes from my office,and shared it with them-you'd have thought I'd just handed them a winning lottery ticket or something.These guys were GRATEFUL!Lots of "shukran,shukran"-arabic for Thanks.We then went to the next building,where I maintained a shop-I had a room in there I called my "shit room"-where I stored stuff I'd scrounged up here and there.There were a few cases of Ivory soap,some broken down cots,some MREs,and various and sundry other things these guys were as happy as a kid in a candy store over.I told them to help themselves,and they were just all over it.Hey,the stuff was just laying around,and I was glad to be shut of it,but to these guys,it was a windfall.These guys HAVE known real poverty-in an oil rich nation,where the average citizen sees little or none of the wealth it produces.
These are just a few examples of real poverty I've seen first hand,around the world,but you can go to the majority of countries around the world and find plenty of it-then contrast it to what passes for poverty and deprivation here.sorry,but I just ain't buying it.
