I've written before that I hate charity, and yes I know how hypocritical that is being that I live on the kindness of internet strangers and their charitable acts. But this story may illustrate to you, my few dear readers, why charity is the worst way to solve society's problems.
My dear aunt lost her front tooth last week. We all suffer from abysmal teeth, likely to break if we even think of eating something as hard as a corn flake. Her front teeth were capped or crowned or something like that 30 years ago, and needed to be replaced 20 years ago. But she has no insurance or money, and there were always more important things like feeding children or paying utility bills that got in the way. So it wasn't a surprise when her front tooth broke off.
But it was painful, and even though we have been doing our best to reassure her that "it's not too noticeable" she is humiliated by the big hole where her tooth used to be and her new inability to pronounce f sounds like a grown up.
She goes to a free clinic to get medical care, and they gave her a prescription for antibiotics and set up an emergency appointment with a dentist who sometimes does work for the clinic for free.
She rushed off to the dentist with just a half an hour's notice. He could squeeze her in and she was so excited. She's been hiding her face behind her hand since the tooth broke. She was going to be fixed, or at least put on the path to being fixed, to being able to smile and talk and not hide.
4 hours later, she came home in tears, still gap toothed and humiliated, but now feeling much worse because the dentist's act of charity didn't come with human decency.
He didn't look at her medical history. He had assumed she was there so he could do a cheap and easy extraction with no plans to fix the problem. He jammed the needles in her mouth and cut up the roof of her mouth. When she complained that he was causing her pain he said "I don't have time to treat you like a human being".
I don't have time treat you like a human being.
That is what you get with charity sometimes, more often than sometimes even. You get half assed care that isn't what you actually need and you get treated like less than a human in the process. And you are supposed to be grateful for it, no complaining about rough treatment or unfairness. Just suck it up and be glad someone is willing to be in the same room with you. Your poverty makes you untouchable, and it is an act of charity just to tolerate your presence.
I have seen some amazing acts of kindness. I have had my ass saved by strangers and my kid fed by anonymous people in the ether of the internets. I have also seen some horrendous things done in the name of charity because the people on the receiving end are poor and desperate and not allowed to complain.
I would much rather live in a world where basic needs are not left to the whims of other people. You can still be kind, you can still be charitable, but no one's life or health should depend on whether someone has the "time to treat you like a human being".
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Not dead but the mother of a feral animal
Ah Republicans, can't live with them, can't shoot them in the head.
I see that the rethugs are back to comparing poor, hungry children to wild beasts. What they forget is that one of the most dangerous creatures in the wild is an angry mama. I guess I no longer need to fein politeness.
But it's not like Dems are any better cough*spendingfreeze*cough. (Somewhere Keyes and Gailbraith and Roosevelt are all turning over in their graves with shame) Since people like me, you know, the not wealthy white dudes of the world, are being treated so contemptibly by the powerful of society, I don't think we should be following any of societies rules. And shoplifters of the world unite has been stuck in my head for weeks.
So in this brave new world I say steal from the rich, the powerful, the corrupt. I say that if you need a home- go find a foreclosure and make it your own. When the politicians are no longer serving the needs of the people, perhaps it's time to sharpen the blades of the guillotines, or at least pick their deep pockets.
Revolution requires more than just some inspirational words on a blog or in a book. It requires action. We can think and talk all we want, but it doesn't change a damn thing. We can vote and volunteer, but as I heard it so aptly put once long ago- voting only rotates the elites, it doesn't actually change them.
Change requires action. Evolution requires action. We either change what we are doing to survive or we die. And make no mistake, those in power (both red and blue) are quite fine with seeing us wither away from starvation or die of exposure because we lack a home.
Wonder and I actually had a conversation about how you can get more freedom with a benevolent dictator than you can with our current form of oligarchy, I mean "democracy". How fucked up is that?
In the mean time- i still have neither my own computer or internet access. I've been making pretty art instead. Paper flower sculptures and cut paper things and even a painting for my aunts birthday. I'd show you all pictures, but that involves having access to a compy, camera and internet all at or near the same time. And i don't, but it's probably healthier for me than spending my time reading all the horrible ways the horrible people in the world are making life harder for the poor, the brown, the female. I've been avoiding the news because every time they show something about Haiti I start to cry. I do wonder what lovely disaster capitalism plans are going to forced on the suffering people of that country. I wonder why it is that we Americans are controlling Port Au Prince's airport, instead of say the UN.
But fuck it. Power corrupts and our powerful are all assholes.
Perhaps I should stick with the useless pretty art for a bit. I feel like I'm standing in front of a wildfire screaming out for a hose while no one listens, though Wonder said that when they do listen the hose they bring comes from the gas station. Yep- I'm bitter and angry and I can't see anyway out of this current horror of politics that doesn't involve something bloody. And my feral child who shouldn't be fed because he might breed is just close enough to adulthood to become someone's war fodder.
I see that the rethugs are back to comparing poor, hungry children to wild beasts. What they forget is that one of the most dangerous creatures in the wild is an angry mama. I guess I no longer need to fein politeness.
But it's not like Dems are any better cough*spendingfreeze*cough. (Somewhere Keyes and Gailbraith and Roosevelt are all turning over in their graves with shame) Since people like me, you know, the not wealthy white dudes of the world, are being treated so contemptibly by the powerful of society, I don't think we should be following any of societies rules. And shoplifters of the world unite has been stuck in my head for weeks.
So in this brave new world I say steal from the rich, the powerful, the corrupt. I say that if you need a home- go find a foreclosure and make it your own. When the politicians are no longer serving the needs of the people, perhaps it's time to sharpen the blades of the guillotines, or at least pick their deep pockets.
Revolution requires more than just some inspirational words on a blog or in a book. It requires action. We can think and talk all we want, but it doesn't change a damn thing. We can vote and volunteer, but as I heard it so aptly put once long ago- voting only rotates the elites, it doesn't actually change them.
Change requires action. Evolution requires action. We either change what we are doing to survive or we die. And make no mistake, those in power (both red and blue) are quite fine with seeing us wither away from starvation or die of exposure because we lack a home.
Wonder and I actually had a conversation about how you can get more freedom with a benevolent dictator than you can with our current form of oligarchy, I mean "democracy". How fucked up is that?
In the mean time- i still have neither my own computer or internet access. I've been making pretty art instead. Paper flower sculptures and cut paper things and even a painting for my aunts birthday. I'd show you all pictures, but that involves having access to a compy, camera and internet all at or near the same time. And i don't, but it's probably healthier for me than spending my time reading all the horrible ways the horrible people in the world are making life harder for the poor, the brown, the female. I've been avoiding the news because every time they show something about Haiti I start to cry. I do wonder what lovely disaster capitalism plans are going to forced on the suffering people of that country. I wonder why it is that we Americans are controlling Port Au Prince's airport, instead of say the UN.
But fuck it. Power corrupts and our powerful are all assholes.
Perhaps I should stick with the useless pretty art for a bit. I feel like I'm standing in front of a wildfire screaming out for a hose while no one listens, though Wonder said that when they do listen the hose they bring comes from the gas station. Yep- I'm bitter and angry and I can't see anyway out of this current horror of politics that doesn't involve something bloody. And my feral child who shouldn't be fed because he might breed is just close enough to adulthood to become someone's war fodder.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Micros and Macros
Well kids, here i am, hijacking free internet at the county hospital. It's been a week of crappy craptasticness full of actual, literal crap.
We all have developed some stomach thing that we think may be food poisoning. Other cousin is in the hospital. She's doing okay now, but....
In the midst of the nastiness that prolly came from giardia infected tomatoes (as diagnosed by us since the docs seem to think there is nothing weird in a family of 9 having 7 members come down with stomach yuckies and the only people who have escaped the yuckies didn't eat the pico de gallo I made. (Yes, there is no small amount guilt I am carrying because I just had to have roma tomatoes and not those sucky, watery beefstake kind) we also: had the cable disconnected (not a big deal for me, but sick people do like to lounge in front of the noise box) and then the water and then the the fridge died as sad death. Now the dogs (who ate our leftovers) are sick. And in all this vomity mess i didn't get the comment platform changed and I have no idea if we have comments or not.
But while all this is going on Haiti, a country that I have loved from afar for a long time because of the brashness of some slaves a few hundred years ago 1) was one of 3 and only 3 democratic revolutions to have happened in the late 18th early 19th centuries- see also French and American and 2) was the site of the only successful revolt of African slaves in the New(ly colonized) World, has a massive earthquake and tens of thousands are dead. the bodies are stacked in the street to protest the lack of assistance. Water is as hard to come by as gold and much more needed.
Someone said on the news "how much longer will Haiti be punished for having overthrown their oppressors 200 years ago?" And they are right, about the punishment. You only have to look at the different economics of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to see how poorly we treat those who manage to thrwart the kyriarchy for a while.
But like physics, oppression works in the small as well as the large. Haiti's punishment from wealthy white nations isn't much different from the scorn heaped on beaten women who finally kill their husbands. While we might cheer their successful escape initially, we don't want them to pass on the idea that violence works to end oppression. It's bad for business as usual. Wouldn't it be better if that woman went to the authorities instead of grabbing a gun? Wouldn't it be better if Haiti asked for another round of "free trade" assistance and the international military police force to enforce it?
I think of Haiti as the little country that could. I have sobbed my eyes out at the news reports coming from Port a Prince. I hope when all the bodies have been buried and the tears have run dry that Haiti gets a chance to rebuild itself. A real chance.
But I fear that this horrible tragedy will prove what we already know, that Obama is as Chicago school, disaster capitalist as Bush was and that Haiti will continue to be punished for the offense of seeking freedom on it's own terms.
And if you want to give money to help, I suggest giving to Partners in Health, whose staff is mostly native Haitian and whose goal is an indigenous reform of the country's health care infrastructure.
We all have developed some stomach thing that we think may be food poisoning. Other cousin is in the hospital. She's doing okay now, but....
In the midst of the nastiness that prolly came from giardia infected tomatoes (as diagnosed by us since the docs seem to think there is nothing weird in a family of 9 having 7 members come down with stomach yuckies and the only people who have escaped the yuckies didn't eat the pico de gallo I made. (Yes, there is no small amount guilt I am carrying because I just had to have roma tomatoes and not those sucky, watery beefstake kind) we also: had the cable disconnected (not a big deal for me, but sick people do like to lounge in front of the noise box) and then the water and then the the fridge died as sad death. Now the dogs (who ate our leftovers) are sick. And in all this vomity mess i didn't get the comment platform changed and I have no idea if we have comments or not.
But while all this is going on Haiti, a country that I have loved from afar for a long time because of the brashness of some slaves a few hundred years ago 1) was one of 3 and only 3 democratic revolutions to have happened in the late 18th early 19th centuries- see also French and American and 2) was the site of the only successful revolt of African slaves in the New(ly colonized) World, has a massive earthquake and tens of thousands are dead. the bodies are stacked in the street to protest the lack of assistance. Water is as hard to come by as gold and much more needed.
Someone said on the news "how much longer will Haiti be punished for having overthrown their oppressors 200 years ago?" And they are right, about the punishment. You only have to look at the different economics of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to see how poorly we treat those who manage to thrwart the kyriarchy for a while.
But like physics, oppression works in the small as well as the large. Haiti's punishment from wealthy white nations isn't much different from the scorn heaped on beaten women who finally kill their husbands. While we might cheer their successful escape initially, we don't want them to pass on the idea that violence works to end oppression. It's bad for business as usual. Wouldn't it be better if that woman went to the authorities instead of grabbing a gun? Wouldn't it be better if Haiti asked for another round of "free trade" assistance and the international military police force to enforce it?
I think of Haiti as the little country that could. I have sobbed my eyes out at the news reports coming from Port a Prince. I hope when all the bodies have been buried and the tears have run dry that Haiti gets a chance to rebuild itself. A real chance.
But I fear that this horrible tragedy will prove what we already know, that Obama is as Chicago school, disaster capitalist as Bush was and that Haiti will continue to be punished for the offense of seeking freedom on it's own terms.
And if you want to give money to help, I suggest giving to Partners in Health, whose staff is mostly native Haitian and whose goal is an indigenous reform of the country's health care infrastructure.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The mystery of the economics pie
The pie metaphor is a favorite with economists. "The pie is only so big" they say.
They mean there is only so much of a resource. We can't give away something that doesn't exist.
But that metaphor fails to answer some super key questions.
1) Who made the damn pie? Certainly it wasn't economists or bankers or rich folks or professors or politicians out there breaking their backs to harvest the wheat that made the crust or the fruit that makes the filing. They've never gotten their hands dirty making the actual fucking pie, now have they? Sure, they've pushed around papers. But that is the pie eating equivalent of tucking their napkin into their shirt, not making the pie.
2) Humans are remarkably good at making the pie bigger when they need to. In darwinian speak this is called adaptation. When we run out of one kind of pie, we make another kind. Oh look, it's winter and there are no fricken berries for a pie, I guess I'll make pumpkin instead. Adaptation is why we have things like clothing and houses and the internet and language after all. But we can't make pies that feed everyone? We deserve extinction if we really are that stupid.
3) Why does the pie get divided unevenly to begin with? Who fucking cuts a pie like that? It is easier and way more efficient to cut the pie into equal sized pieces than it is to cut out a tiny slice for the poor folks and hand the rest of the pie over to the rich.
4) What if you hate pie? I hate pie. I am on team cake. You know the thing about cake- you can make way bigger than you can pies. At least I think so.
This ridiculous little exercise has been meant to show you that 1) economists are mostly self righteous asswipes who don't understand the value of cake, 2) question everything, just because a bunch of douchenozzles has been saying the same thing for 300 years doesn't make them right, 3) the longer I am away from the internet the less respect I have for the learned class.
Next time you might get a super bitchy screed on how the "creative class" is made up of a bunch of fauxgressive fucksticks who wouldn't know how to creatively problem solve their way out of a paper bag.
They mean there is only so much of a resource. We can't give away something that doesn't exist.
But that metaphor fails to answer some super key questions.
1) Who made the damn pie? Certainly it wasn't economists or bankers or rich folks or professors or politicians out there breaking their backs to harvest the wheat that made the crust or the fruit that makes the filing. They've never gotten their hands dirty making the actual fucking pie, now have they? Sure, they've pushed around papers. But that is the pie eating equivalent of tucking their napkin into their shirt, not making the pie.
2) Humans are remarkably good at making the pie bigger when they need to. In darwinian speak this is called adaptation. When we run out of one kind of pie, we make another kind. Oh look, it's winter and there are no fricken berries for a pie, I guess I'll make pumpkin instead. Adaptation is why we have things like clothing and houses and the internet and language after all. But we can't make pies that feed everyone? We deserve extinction if we really are that stupid.
3) Why does the pie get divided unevenly to begin with? Who fucking cuts a pie like that? It is easier and way more efficient to cut the pie into equal sized pieces than it is to cut out a tiny slice for the poor folks and hand the rest of the pie over to the rich.
4) What if you hate pie? I hate pie. I am on team cake. You know the thing about cake- you can make way bigger than you can pies. At least I think so.
This ridiculous little exercise has been meant to show you that 1) economists are mostly self righteous asswipes who don't understand the value of cake, 2) question everything, just because a bunch of douchenozzles has been saying the same thing for 300 years doesn't make them right, 3) the longer I am away from the internet the less respect I have for the learned class.
Next time you might get a super bitchy screed on how the "creative class" is made up of a bunch of fauxgressive fucksticks who wouldn't know how to creatively problem solve their way out of a paper bag.
Shoplifters of the World
unite and take a bow.
In honor of this post at StumpLane I was going to post a video of the fabulous Smith's song.
But the fricken rural library thinks Youtube is the work of the devil and has blocked access. They also hate chat programs and small kittens, so I am told.
So here's a link instead. Go get the song stuck in your head and then head out to your nearest big box store and steal me something useful. Like internet access that doesn't suck or an easy to use commenting platform or a laptop that I don't have to liberate (i/e steal) from an equally poverty ridden relative. Or even just dinner. I am dying to make my world famous chicken wings, or tuna salad, or something.
In honor of this post at StumpLane I was going to post a video of the fabulous Smith's song.
But the fricken rural library thinks Youtube is the work of the devil and has blocked access. They also hate chat programs and small kittens, so I am told.
So here's a link instead. Go get the song stuck in your head and then head out to your nearest big box store and steal me something useful. Like internet access that doesn't suck or an easy to use commenting platform or a laptop that I don't have to liberate (i/e steal) from an equally poverty ridden relative. Or even just dinner. I am dying to make my world famous chicken wings, or tuna salad, or something.
While I was out....
We have always been at war with east no west no all of Asia. And now we are bombing Yemen and independent reports say that there is no way to get out of Afghanistan in 18 months.
A dude without a passport, whose own dad has warned the authorities that his son is a danger, tries to blow up a plane over Detroit (really- like the Motor city doesn't have enough problems)and only fails because of dumb fucking luck. Seriously folks?
I won't even get into the debacle that is health care reform, except to say that every word in "health care reform" is a misnomer.
I did read a really good mystery novel called "Origin". And I had a good dream last night for the first time in forever. Of course then I got up and trekked with Wonder to the Anti-social Insecurity office at the crack of ass after Other Cousin used ALL the fricken hot water for her shower. 80 gallon hot water tank, people, and I'm taking a cold shower.
So I stole Other Cousin's lappy and made for the free library wi-fi to figure out this
whole comment change over bruhahah. And fuckles my friends.
First- Echo won't even open comments on the library wifi. So I can't really go installing a platform that I- blog mistress extrodinaire, cannot use.
So maybe Disqus or IntenseDebate will work? But both require a serious commitment to internet time (like an entire days worth) and some code monkeying in order to import comments from haloscan.
And I have like 2 days to figure out wtf I am going to do now. Seriously- I need a code monkey. Usually I crunch through this shit on my own but I simply do not have the kind of computer access I need to be doing major blog overhauls at the moment. Help me code monkeys, you're my only hope?
Feckles.
So my little chicadees, what's news with you?
A dude without a passport, whose own dad has warned the authorities that his son is a danger, tries to blow up a plane over Detroit (really- like the Motor city doesn't have enough problems)and only fails because of dumb fucking luck. Seriously folks?
I won't even get into the debacle that is health care reform, except to say that every word in "health care reform" is a misnomer.
I did read a really good mystery novel called "Origin". And I had a good dream last night for the first time in forever. Of course then I got up and trekked with Wonder to the Anti-social Insecurity office at the crack of ass after Other Cousin used ALL the fricken hot water for her shower. 80 gallon hot water tank, people, and I'm taking a cold shower.
So I stole Other Cousin's lappy and made for the free library wi-fi to figure out this
whole comment change over bruhahah. And fuckles my friends.
First- Echo won't even open comments on the library wifi. So I can't really go installing a platform that I- blog mistress extrodinaire, cannot use.
So maybe Disqus or IntenseDebate will work? But both require a serious commitment to internet time (like an entire days worth) and some code monkeying in order to import comments from haloscan.
And I have like 2 days to figure out wtf I am going to do now. Seriously- I need a code monkey. Usually I crunch through this shit on my own but I simply do not have the kind of computer access I need to be doing major blog overhauls at the moment. Help me code monkeys, you're my only hope?
Feckles.
So my little chicadees, what's news with you?
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Talk Amongst Yourselves
So the compy that i have been boring from my so gracious relatives is blue screening. I've reinstalled and reinstalled and reinstalled the evil operating system that shall not be named. Still I am thwarted.
So here I am, on the PUBLIC library computer with a big scary countdown clock telling me I have only 43 minutes remaining of compy time. I cannot write like this.
If I had been able to lug ye olde laptop of doom into the free wifi space - you all would have gotten a bit of writing about the importance of action over ideas and how we will never get meaningful reform of anything without serious threat of revolution. It just never happens without the PTB having the shit scared out of them by the rioting pitchforkers.
But I am not Jack Bowers. I do not do my best work with a fricken clock counting down the minutes to certain destruction.
So enjoy the holidays. Maybe the terrifying god Santa and his vicious Claws will see fit to grant me the ability to install the drivers and applications that are missing on ye old laptop. Maybe Windows will suddenly become sentient and realize that for it to survive it must keep it's hosts (humans) from attacking it's habitat with an axe?
Maybe.
Or maybe I am going to decide that coconut rum and coke slushies (yes- slushies) are the only way to get through anything.
So here I am, on the PUBLIC library computer with a big scary countdown clock telling me I have only 43 minutes remaining of compy time. I cannot write like this.
If I had been able to lug ye olde laptop of doom into the free wifi space - you all would have gotten a bit of writing about the importance of action over ideas and how we will never get meaningful reform of anything without serious threat of revolution. It just never happens without the PTB having the shit scared out of them by the rioting pitchforkers.
But I am not Jack Bowers. I do not do my best work with a fricken clock counting down the minutes to certain destruction.
So enjoy the holidays. Maybe the terrifying god Santa and his vicious Claws will see fit to grant me the ability to install the drivers and applications that are missing on ye old laptop. Maybe Windows will suddenly become sentient and realize that for it to survive it must keep it's hosts (humans) from attacking it's habitat with an axe?
Maybe.
Or maybe I am going to decide that coconut rum and coke slushies (yes- slushies) are the only way to get through anything.
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