What is a Old Lang up to? A live report from Heathrow
Well, I got caught…
Not really caught just picked up in a security sweep.
It was around 10:45pm when it happened. I was sitting in the infamous quiet seating area tucking myself in and taking in a movie. They told me I couldn’t be there because it closed. Brian as I found out later was unlucky enough to have to take us (the herd) down and then up to the check in area. First there were the formalities of arriving. They marched me down to the passport section along with a bunch of (4) what might have been Ghanaian workers. They were all headed to the USA and me? I’m going to Beirut.
Out pops the English accent, the fact that I am “one of theirs” as the immigration guard put it, and your intrepid author finds himself in the lap of an empty First Class Check-In lounge; while others are stuck dealing with the rock hard seating in the “commoners section.”
This reminds me… After getting my eyes checked and finding out that I had no retinopathy mum looked over and smiled. It was a wonderful smile. The sort of smile you see a 4 year old, thoroughly convinced that life is a beautiful thing, smile. She then said “God Loves You.” I didn’t even think at the time that God might not love me, but then I recalled how many scrapes I have gotten out of. I panicked at how much more was left.
The next idea that shot into my head after such a memory compounded with dealing mentally with my present surroundings is another parental quote. There were not many from this trip that I will share with you readers but the few you get are gems.
Dad… “It is the system… the strong sap from the weak.” The streamlining of the species ensures that only those that are connected (strength) survive. The rest are fodder. I saw it over and over again as I watched the BBC news discuss development, the marginalization of the poor, and the lack of health in such populations.
The question I have for my professors, rattle out like bullets at the muzzle end of a machine gun.
Can it be wiped out, this health gap?
Who is to say that a certain number of individuals that do not get help is “acceptable”?
Why is there this drive to stand on the heads of others?
Is it integral to the human condition?
Why do we human beings CRUSH one another?
He who can do it for cheaper by skinning the lowest income brackets is he who becomes the wealthiest.
So here it comes… Otter’s discussion of money….
Money is Death…
or at least someone else’s.
Death makes the value that is money. Death removes product from the market. It increases demand while decreasing the quantity of loans outstanding and reduces the need to print money.
Inflation I have become convinced is the soundest way to oppress the poor. The wealthy who merely adjust prices to account for it destroy the poor in that the poor are not as mobile in regulating their income. They must subsist upon the dictated prices producing only the same amount of product. The more “product” they make the cheaper it becomes and it devalues the money they possess in a more graphic sense. When one earns little and what little they earn has no value it cannot be said recovery is even a road on the horizon.
The poor are hit from both sides. Nowhere is this more apparent than health.
So after getting woken up at 6:00 to get the hell out of the rarified air of the First Class Check-In area, I headed to security. Now I'm headed for my 14 hour layover.
I haven't gotten much sleep...Hopefully I can on the plane.
Not really caught just picked up in a security sweep.
It was around 10:45pm when it happened. I was sitting in the infamous quiet seating area tucking myself in and taking in a movie. They told me I couldn’t be there because it closed. Brian as I found out later was unlucky enough to have to take us (the herd) down and then up to the check in area. First there were the formalities of arriving. They marched me down to the passport section along with a bunch of (4) what might have been Ghanaian workers. They were all headed to the USA and me? I’m going to Beirut.
Out pops the English accent, the fact that I am “one of theirs” as the immigration guard put it, and your intrepid author finds himself in the lap of an empty First Class Check-In lounge; while others are stuck dealing with the rock hard seating in the “commoners section.”
This reminds me… After getting my eyes checked and finding out that I had no retinopathy mum looked over and smiled. It was a wonderful smile. The sort of smile you see a 4 year old, thoroughly convinced that life is a beautiful thing, smile. She then said “God Loves You.” I didn’t even think at the time that God might not love me, but then I recalled how many scrapes I have gotten out of. I panicked at how much more was left.
The next idea that shot into my head after such a memory compounded with dealing mentally with my present surroundings is another parental quote. There were not many from this trip that I will share with you readers but the few you get are gems.
Dad… “It is the system… the strong sap from the weak.” The streamlining of the species ensures that only those that are connected (strength) survive. The rest are fodder. I saw it over and over again as I watched the BBC news discuss development, the marginalization of the poor, and the lack of health in such populations.
The question I have for my professors, rattle out like bullets at the muzzle end of a machine gun.
Can it be wiped out, this health gap?
Who is to say that a certain number of individuals that do not get help is “acceptable”?
Why is there this drive to stand on the heads of others?
Is it integral to the human condition?
Why do we human beings CRUSH one another?
He who can do it for cheaper by skinning the lowest income brackets is he who becomes the wealthiest.
So here it comes… Otter’s discussion of money….
Money is Death…
or at least someone else’s.
Death makes the value that is money. Death removes product from the market. It increases demand while decreasing the quantity of loans outstanding and reduces the need to print money.
Inflation I have become convinced is the soundest way to oppress the poor. The wealthy who merely adjust prices to account for it destroy the poor in that the poor are not as mobile in regulating their income. They must subsist upon the dictated prices producing only the same amount of product. The more “product” they make the cheaper it becomes and it devalues the money they possess in a more graphic sense. When one earns little and what little they earn has no value it cannot be said recovery is even a road on the horizon.
The poor are hit from both sides. Nowhere is this more apparent than health.
So after getting woken up at 6:00 to get the hell out of the rarified air of the First Class Check-In area, I headed to security. Now I'm headed for my 14 hour layover.
I haven't gotten much sleep...Hopefully I can on the plane.
posted by otterinaround at 8:25 AM
1 Comments:
What a way to spend the new year's eve! So where are you right now? In which airport are you stuck? :P
Anyway, see you in the FHS.
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