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Don't you worry Mark we'll come around...just as soon as we find a way to package our debt and losses into derivatives, obfuscate their true value and sell them abroad to the unwitting
Kidding of course. Great post thanks for sharing. For those who cannot view BBC feeds (you naughty Brits) here is a link to the story:
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"If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance." - Orville Wright
What impact on those needing podiatry care and can't afford the insurance .....?
Mark:
It's really terrible out here in California and the United States of America, home of "depravation", at least in some people's eyes.
Even though it is still winter, it's sunny, a very pleasant 55 degrees F and I am having a very pleasant afternoon off of work today here in Sacramento. In my 55 years of living, I have discovered that if you go looking for it, you will always be able to find problems with any country, any city, any community and any person. Instead, I try to focus on the positives in my life, and have pity for the less fortunate.
Of course, I'm sure your country, and all other countries of this world, have no "depravation". It's only the USA that has such conditions?
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Sincerely,
Kevin
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Kevin A. Kirby, DPM
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Applied Biomechanics
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College
It's really terrible out here in California and the United States of America, home of "depravation", at least in some people's eyes.
Even though it is still winter, it's sunny, a very pleasant 55 degrees F and I am having a very pleasant afternoon off of work today here in Sacramento. In my 55 years of living, I have discovered that if you go looking for it, you will always be able to find problems with any country, any city, any community and any person. Instead, I try to focus on the positives in my life, and have pity for the less fortunate.
Of course, I'm sure your country, and all other countries of this world, have no "depravation". It's only the USA that has such conditions?
No of course not Kevin; people in other countries have been living in much worse conditions all their lives and have little or no hope of any improvements in their living conditions. What is different is the America that is often portrayed as the hub of civilisation is a mere facade of something much more nefarious and unpleasant and has a significant underbelly of citizens whose future is far from certain. I remember visiting Sacremento in 1989 and noting that my hosts - who had recently moved into a "gated community" - considerd living within the high barbed-wire fence an acceptable and desirable facet of modern American living. "Keeps the scum on the outside" as he so eloquently put it. I guess where you have great extremes in wealth in any society you will end up with the sort of problems you face today.
No of course not Kevin; people in other countries have been living in much worse conditions all their lives and have little or no hope of any improvements in their living conditions. What is different is the America that is often portrayed as the hub of civilisation is a mere facade of something much more nefarious and unpleasant and has a significant underbelly of citizens whose future is far from certain. I remember visiting Sacremento in 1989 and noting that my hosts - who had recently moved into a "gated community" - considerd living within the high barbed-wire fence an acceptable and desirable facet of modern American living. "Keeps the scum on the outside" as he so eloquently put it. I guess where you have great extremes in wealth in any society you will end up with the sort of problems you face today.
Mark:
I doubt your hosts lived in a community with a "barbed wire fence" around it. Please let's not be so ridiculous, unless the gated community you are speaking of is Folsom Prison.
Doesn't Buckingham Palace have a fairly tall gate around it to also? How long has Buckingham Palace's gate been around for? Or is it just royalty that is allowed to have a gate around their house?
By the way, I don't live in a gated community. And in Sacramento, probably only about 1% of the population does live in a gated community. What about the other 99%?
Every country has its problems, Mark. And I don't know where you get the idea that America is portrayed as being the "hub of civilization". All you need to do is listen to the 6:00 news on TV and read the daily newspaper headlines that we have plenty of problems of our own. Maybe you need to actually spend some more time here to get a sense of what it is really like instead of forming opinions based on what the news media likes to report on American life.
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Sincerely,
Kevin
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Kevin A. Kirby, DPM
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Applied Biomechanics
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College
For the record, I've visited the USA six times now and I love it more on every visit. If I could get work out there as a podiatrist / lecturer / lab tech etc, I'd be happy to relocate with my family tomorrow. Love the place and the people.
No, it certainly wasn't Folsom Prison - but the analogy fits! And yes there are big fences and gates around Buckingham Palace, but I always thought they were there to protect the public from the residents - not the other way around.
I spent an enjoyable few years in the USA, Kevin, and just like anywhere else there are examples of good and bad living. I was based near Brockton just a few miles south of leafy Boston - yet it was far removed from the New England most people think of. Interestingly, many of the commentators and writers that I was lucky to have met during my time in the States have become staunch critics of the Federal Government and its institutions and are aghast at the turn of events during the past decade in both domestic and foreign arenas. I guess we all try and see the best of things most of the time - after all, we don't have to look very far to see the other side of humanity irrespective of where we live. But as the Japanese proverb says "mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru"! I listened to Kevin Philips last week who surprised even me with his call-to-arms for every "true American Citizen". It's always good to be positive, but only when your eyes are wide open.
No, it certainly wasn't Folsom Prison - but the analogy fits! And yes there are big fences and gates around Buckingham Palace, but I always thought they were there to protect the public from the residents - not the other way around.
I spent an enjoyable few years in the USA, Kevin and just like anywhere else there are examples of good and bad living. I was based near Brockton just a few miles south of leafy Boston - yet it was far removed from the New England most people think of. Interestingly, many of the commentators and writers that I was lucky to have met during my time in the States have become staunch critics of the Federal Government and its institutions and are aghast at the turn of events during the past decade in both domestic and foreign arenas. I guess we all try and see the best of things most of the time - after all, we don't have to look very far to see the other side of humanity irrespective of where we live. But as the Japanese proverb says "mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru"! I listened to Kevin Philips last week who surprised even me with his call-to-arms for every "true American Citizen". It's always good to be positive, but only when your eyes are wide open.
All the best
Mark:
Fortunately, I am an student of American history, and to a much lesser extent a student of European history. As such, we, as a country, have always faced adversity and have seemed to come out of our problems just as solid of a country, if not more solid, than before. My parents both lived through the Great Depression. My father was a radio man on the USS Pennsylvania during the attack on Pearl Harbor and saw, first hand, from a vantage point that few had that morning at the top of the battleship, the death and destruction that occurred that day. Somehow, however, we made it through these much more difficult times than we have today as a country, and, probably became stronger than ever.
Therefore, even though I understand your concerns about our country, also understand that the popular news media never reports on all the good things that happen in America. The popular news media never reports on all the good people, all the children who aren't abducted going to school every day, all the people who aren't kidnapped, aren't murdered, aren't raped, aren't bitten by sharks, aren't struck by lightning, aren't killed while flying in an airplane/jet, aren't involved in a motor vehicle accident and all the people who live happy, healthy and relatively uneventful lives.
As such, I would tend to doubt that all the 313,000,000 people that currently live in America are subjected to a significant amount of "depravation".
__________________
Sincerely,
Kevin
**************************************************
Kevin A. Kirby, DPM
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Applied Biomechanics
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College
For the record, I've visited the USA six times now and I love it more on every visit. If I could get work out there as a podiatrist / lecturer / lab tech etc, I'd be happy to relocate with my family tomorrow. Love the place and the people.
Thankfully we share and rejoice in more than we disagree, Kevin - and in more important aspects of our cultures than politics and economics. The world may be ill-divided but it's reassuring and comforting to know that allegiances run deeper than the superficialities portrayed in the popular media. Where would we be without our music?
Did we also get this famous scene from our friends across the Atlantic?
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Sincerely,
Kevin
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Kevin A. Kirby, DPM
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Applied Biomechanics
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College
I am currently in the Japan attending the local Pedorthic / orthopaedic footwear congress. I visited the USA and many other countries attending Pedorthic / orthopaedic congresses. I found mostly good people in most places. My recent visit to the USA was to attend the PFA congress in New Mexico November 2011, very nice, very safe and I plan to visit the USA again. I wish to meet more people from the US at those international events in different countries.
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Karl -Heinz Schott
Certified Pedorthist C Ped CM (Australia)
Orthopaedic Shoemaker Meister, Podologe (Germany)
Adjunct Professional Fellow in the School of Health and Human Sciences Southern Cross University
Dee Why NSW 2099
Phone 02 9972 4488
For those with a love of american sport and good drama catch friday night lights great show about a high school football team (Tues 8pm sky atlantic in uk)
Tim
End of Empire - America's terminal decline.
Linear Mode
