Instead, we had people declare victory for the free market in the 1980s and again in the 1990s—while never looking at the facts on the ground.
Now in 2008 America has a chance to do better. America needs to move beyond reticence and take the bull-by the horn.
The wealthier halves of society in the U.S.A. also need to do what is needed of Kuwaiti’s today: a little self-denial of one’s own wealth and standing in society in order to see and get to know the poor around us and to do something about it.
It is the poorer non-Kuwait who is being more hurt by inflation and bad government spending than is the average Kuwaiti national.
EPILOGUE: WIZARD OF OZ & KUWAIT and HOMELANDS
On the front page of the 25 February 2008 (i.e. Kuwait’s National Day) the ARAB TIMES daily printed a remarkable piece by Reverend Andy Thompson of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Ahmadi, Kuwait.
The short article was simply entitled “Wizard of Oz” and at first glance seemed to be a cultural piece on the musicals, “Wizard of Oz” and the “Dream Dealer”, the reverend had seen performed the previous week.
However, the good reverend took his journalistic opportunity to ponder what the hidden meanings of these musical dramas were for the many residents of Kuwait.
Thompson writes, “At one point in the show when the principal characters had arrived at the fantastic land of Oz, we were serenaded by a clown, jumping African dancers, a Korean dance troupe, a group of multi-ethnic ballet dancers, disco dancing jitterbugs, a large choir and a marching brass band.”
For this viewer, “Surely the land of Oz represents Kuwait with her multitude of talented and skilled workers from all over the globe. The principle characters represent us. We are a motley crew of travelers arriving in Kuwait to seek security and fulfillment of dreams.”
Thompson adds that there are numerous possible candidates for the Wicked Witch of the West, but his preferred interpretation is “simply all those who seek to use terror and force to intimidate others.”
Suddenly, the reverend turns his writing sword on those so-called benefactors in Kuwait who capture their labor in Kuwait and don’t allow them to return home and/or without their full-pay and earnings in any timely manner.
The reverend emphasizes, “These include several hundred people who are held at the overcrowded detention center.”
Thompson then thanked one of the few active agencies for relief of poverty in Kuwait: “Social Work Society of Kuwait.” He indicated that the society has in the past enabled various workers to return home from Kuwait’s Oz of multiculturalism (and segregation in mind and poverty) to their homeland.
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