On
the front page the New York Times on March
15, 2010, we read about Flint, Michigan, USA, and about how
doctors are no longer accepting Medicaid patients. It means that
tens of thousands of poor people in America will no longer be able
to go to the doctor. The official unemployment
rate in Flint is 27 percent. The unofficial rate is 40 percent �
coming to half the population! See what is happening
in America! It is reaching the rate of Kerala, India
which has an official unemployment rate of 42 percent. Then
in that situation, how do those 42 or 47 percent pay medical bills
or for that matter purchase a kilo of rice or a loaf of bread to
eat?
I
can only say, and I think millions would say with me, that to prohibit
doctors from accepting Medicaid patients with vision, hearing, foot
or tooth problems is inhuman. These are the poorest of the poor
people whom we are talking about. People with these problems are
primarily the elderly. So do they just want to kill off the elderly
faster?
In
addition, Michael Moore, in his latest article �The
Green They Steal, The Greed They Wear ...a St. Patrick's Day
Lament ,�says that women on Medicaid will not be allowed to give
birth in any hospital in that area northwest of Flint. Here are
the concrete facts and signs indicating America's collapse into
third world nation status. It is painful to read about. It is even
more painful to watch. It is very painful to come out of the train
at New York Penn Station and pass by a man lying down face down
on the concrete with head in his hands, as if in desperation at
where to go or how to live any longer.
I
am protesting here at the state of America and the state of the
world. These are all signs of man's inhumanity to his fellow man.
There is no call, no excuse, to leave a man lying on the concrete
by the train tracks in sub-freezing temperatures. Why should any
man feel that desperate?
When
an economic system, such as capitalism, causes thousands to commit
suicide, when an economic system, such as capitalism, causes millions
to die a slow, painful death from starvation, when an economic system,
such as capitalism, allows our political leaders to ignore the sufferings
of the toiling, labouring masses, whom we can call wage slaves,
then what are we to do? We need to think about annihilating that
economic system called capitalism, which wreaks havoc around the
world and now here in America. We need to think about replacing
that killer of human beings called capitalism with something that
works.
In
my humble opinion, an economic system that works might be Prout.
We do not have to be preoccupied with the word Prout. But, we should
examine its tenets. Its practical step-by-step principles. Prout
says, decentralize the economy. Give economic power to the local
people. Create a country wherein every community, every hamlet,
every village, every town, controls its own economic destiny. Prout
says, set up every business as a cooperative. Business cooperatives
cause members to think not for themselves but for the entire collective.
It compels people in a sweet manner to think and work collectively
rather than individually. Is it not a good thing? We do not see
that in capitalism, do we?
Prout
says, grow local, buy local. Produce local, buy local. This keeps
money rolling. This keep people employed. Isn't it? How happy we
will feel to see that every man and woman in our community who wants
a job, has a job. How happy we will feel to live in a community
or town where no one has fear of being laid off, no one has to go
through the humiliation of being unemployed and unable to put food
on the table.
Prout
says, control our own health care system locally. Produce our own
medicines, leaning heavily on ayurvedic, homeopathic and unani medical
systems. Then we will not see any more iatrogenic illnesses. The
thousands of iatrogenic fatalities occurring annually in America
and other countries will come to a screeching halt, isn't it?
Prout
says, implement the barefoot doctor system. Let the medical students
and volunteers visit every home in the world to inquire if the residents
are okay,
if their health is okay, if they need anything, any medicine, any
hygiene supplies, any physiotherapy, or if they need simple human
companionship.
Prout
says, no outsiders coming into a community to plunder its resources,
its coal, timber, limestone and other minerals resting quietly under
the ground. No more outsiders! They are called capitalists! No more
capitalist outsiders allowed into our communities to plunder and
exploit the sweet, simple humanity!
These
are simple tenets, are they not? Tenets that hold the key to economic
freedom for the toiling masses. This is Prout - in a nutshell. Other
tenets are there. But how much to write here?
Here
is another tenet. There must be a ceiling placed on the maximum
amount of income anyone can accumulate. That ceiling should be determined
by the people themselves, not by any government. We know that if
one man has billions, he is taking billions out of the mouths of
the hungry and starving, right? Because when capitalists turn profit
into their God, they become ruthless beyond measure. All sorts of
beautiful social service programs for the elderly, the disabled,
the weak and infirm, the single mothers, the orphans - all those
service programs are obliterated by a few strokes on the keyboard
in the name of the God called profit. Witness the policies of IMF,
World Bank and other so-called benevolent institutions created and
controlled by capitalist elites.
Prout
says, bring every possible service project into the community. Take
care of every single person in that community, regardless of whether
the person is 100 days old or 100 years old. There is to be no distinction.
Have maximum, compassion and softness for the helpless persons who
depend upon us to have that compassion and softness. Isn't it? W
need to convert our inhuman world into a human world. And then we
need to go one step further and convert that human world into a
neohumanist world, where every created being, every living entity,
including the plants and animals, will be nurtured and cared for
with softness and mercifulness.
This
is Prout. Prout is all these things, and much, much more. So let
us think collectively how we can manifest some of these ideas, some
of these tenets, these principles, of Prout. If you do not want
to use that word, 'Prout', it is okay. But see the rationality,
the compassion, of Prout's principles. See the deep love for suffering
humanity embedded in those principles. Then please help me to build
that kind of society, to build that new economic structure. The
goal, the goal of all of us, must be to end human suffering. We
want to see everyone smiling and laughing. We want to create a cooperative
utopia on this earth. There is no reason why we cannot do this.
Let�s together study these principles, these tenets, of Prout. Then
let us use those compassionate principles to build a new world.
In doing so, we will usher a new dawn, a golden era on our planet. Millions
are weeping and waiting for us to remove their suffering. So let
us start this work today itself.
BlackCommentator.com Guest
Commentator Garda Ghista is a freelance journalist, author of The
Gujarat Genocide: A Case Study in Fundamentalist Cleansing; Wife
Abuse: Breaking It Down and Breaking Out, and founding president
of the World
Prout Assembly, and Hearts Healing Hunger, both with global
headquarters in Colorado, USA. Click here
to contact Ms. Ghista. |