My Soap Box Time

I've got several things on my mind that concern Libya and the US . Every now and then the Peoples Congress /the Libyan government says that they will stop all subsidizing of food stuffs , medicines , medical care , and education . That the basic pay will be raised and the people will have to pay for these things out of pocket , instead of relying on government help as they do now . Everyone gets all het up , excited with much complaining and usually nothing happens . Some years it might be announced that all grammar schools will be closed and the smaller children will be home schooled . Now that one always causes a lot of controversy .

This year , well actually the other night , on the Libyan TV it was announced that all medical care , medicines , hospitals, clinics, and university's would no longer be free . People will pay fees for these things , in addition to that , the government subsidizing of food stuffs will no longer be available .

My ears have been ringing with all sorts of comments on this new development by Libyans of all walks of life . This will be very hard for the larger families . It will be hard for all Libyans but especially for them . The pay package is to be increased to 5000 LD a month from a very basic 300 for most people . This will be wonderful but with the fundamentals of living increasing in accordance to this pay raise , the results will be the same , no money and now people will go with out any help with food , medical care ,or education in this oil rich nation that donates billions to poorer African nations to the south of Libya .

There are still gaps in health care . People with HIV/AIDS have no treatment centers readily availability to them for medical care or meds . Tuberculosis is rampant . The treatment center for tuberculosis was built by the Italians I think and is so awful that people in the West would never even put their dogs in it for care . There isn't any drug /alcohol treatment here either because there are NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL in Libya . Oh , sorry there is a treatment center for drugs ... in the crazy hospital . They test you for HIV/AIDS, any hepatitis's, and tuberculosis ( A,B,C, with D,E,F being ignored ) , give you some tranquilizers and that's it . You stay for two weeks if you are clean of any of the above diseases, and then sent back out into the world . No counciling , no help of any sort for the patient or the families of patients either .You are considered cured .

People that can afford to , go outside the country for treatment , especially if it involves any sort of cutting , as for surgeries . I know people here that will go to Tunis to have their teeth pulled rather than risk cross infection due to lack of prpoper sterilization techniques here in Libya . The public hospitals will not treat , or if they do treat , rather reluctantly , anyone with a infectus disease for this reasin . No pravite hospital will treat you if you have something infectus , not for love or money ! So , if you get something , oh say like AIDS , that's you death warrent in more ways than one .

Cancer treatment is from the dark ages . The cutting edge stuff from the West is unknown here and God help you if you have a rare cancer because there will be no medicines or a doctor that will know how to treat you . Here again counciling is unheard of as well . Nor will the government pay to send you out to get treatment that is not offered here in Libya . They say they will, but the red tape to even be considered for this benefit is never ending , even if you know someone that can pull strings for you!

As a matter of fact getting just your basic medicine that most people need for day to day living is expensive and many times difficult to find . And NOW they want to cut out what little help there is for free ? UNBELIEBABLE ! In this oil rich nation ... where will all that money be going to now, if not to the people ?

Schools ... not enough desks , chairs , books , poor teachers pay . You would think that the school supplies would be free wouldn't you when Western Oil Company's are paying literally billions in dollars to renew their drilling contracts with the Libyan government . No new schools being built . No public school transportation available . Many times the schools have no lights in the classrooms and definitly no heat in the winter , which believe it or not , it does get cold here in the winter . No AC or fans in the hot months and forget about school lunches .

Now for the USA ... does anyone remember the Weimar Republic ( look under the Econmics section for hyper-inflation ) or the 1930's Great Depression ? This could be happening all over again if people don't take a deep breath and think things through because it doesn't look like a lot of thought has gone into cause and affect in this present situation .

Could some one please explain to me how ... if I did a terrible job for the company I worked for , ran up debts in it's name , lied , cheated it's stock holders , it's employees , AND caused it to go bankrupt , I could expect them to let me retire , not be fired or imprisoned but retire , AND still be given $24, 000,000 ? Or WHY that would happen IF the American tax payer is footing the bill ? The American people would be paying me for a job done terribly wrong .This is just what might happen in the Wall Street / Banks bail out if the US Congress agrees to President Bushes plan .

In the meantime people who didn't do a bad job , who actually did their job well and correctly are losing their homes because of those same banks. The same banks those bad people worked for and want to "retire " from , having managed to dupe the home owner into thinking that their mortgage loans were issued at a stable rate of interest , instead of the sliding inflated rate they were saddled with .

These are the same American people that will have to pay for the bail out with higher taxes ... when they will be most likely homless and most probably jobless because they can no longer make their moragae payment due to higher interst rates .. from those same banks . These same people will most likely be unable to find a new job since many smaller companies NOT being helped by the US government will go under as thier financing dries up . This is a very scary situtation and has far reaching repercussions all around the world .

Things are most definetly NOT getting better in the world . I worry for my children and grandchildren . War is raging in some form or another on almost every continet of the world . Who is paying for them ? You are . Who are the solders fighting in them ? Your children . The question is why ? Are the Arabbs being made into this centurys scapegoat the way the Jews were in the 1930's Germany by Hitler ? Is OIL the real reason ? Ask yourself who is the silent , invisible fore here ? What is their real agenda?