Usa Thread

[Coss]

In NZ social welfare can keep people in houses and fed, not much more than that, and it is difficult to manage. But poverty in NZ is relative.

 

Poverty in Laos, or even parts of Thailand is real, in NZ I term them 'less well off".

 

If kids are not eating well in NZ, the family needs help to manage, it's not because they can't do it, it's generally because they are unable for some other reason. Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco/Stupidity/Unfortunate choices - there are a myriad of things.

 

But it is very common for a 'poor' person in NZ to have a mobile phone, a tv, expensive shoes (Nike etc) and no food for the kids.

 

The poverty line seems to be, unable to afford Sky TV, expensive shoes (Nike etc), take out food, a vehicle, tobacco etc etc

 

If I generalise then so be it.

 

But when I see Lao kids with no shoes, rags for clothes and a stub of a pencil with an old raggy exercise book, going to school with light in their eyes, I see poverty.

 

From your link - "defined as being in a household earning less than 60 percent of the median income after housing costs" That's a median of NZ$45,000 p.a. or 91,350 bht per month. How much is the median income in Thailand I wonder.

[Mekong]

How much is the median income in Thailand I wonder.

 

Based on annual tax returns about 1,000 THB / Month

[radioman]

And the definition of 'poverty' is?

[Flashermac]

I worked for a short time with a young Indian woman who had studied for her MA in Indiana. It was only a short time because her mother-in-law gave her hell every day for "insulting" her engineer husband and his family by working. (Yes, it was an arranged wedding.) The gal resigned in tears after about a month, maybe to keep from being cremated alive. Anyway, she told me she had never seen anything that looked like poverty to her in the US. Those who were considered poor still had houses or apartments, a car (though old), a TV, enough to eat, good clothes to wear, sent their children to school every day etc. She said poor people in India lived in cardboard boxes on the street, dressed in rags, and didn't even know when their next meal is coming. Khun Pratheep, the famous Bangkok "slum angel", said the same thing when she went to the US. Poverty is relative.

[Mekong]

And the definition of 'poverty' is?

 

There are 2 Definitions of Poverty Absolute and Relative

 

Absolute poverty is is synonymous with destitution and occurs when people cannot obtain adequate resources (measured in terms of calories or nutrition) to support a minimum level of physical health. Absolute poverty means about the same everywhere, and can be eradicated as demonstrated by some countries.

 

Relative poverty occurs when people do not enjoy a certain minimum level of living standards as determined by a government (and enjoyed by the bulk of the population) that vary from country to country, sometimes within the same country.

[Coss]

I'm poor, because my lifestyle does not extend to, travelling to southern Iraq, to exercise my falcons.

[Flashermac]

Bye bye Kuwait Airways ...

 

 

Kuwait hates Jews so much that its national airline has ditched a popular and lucrative New York-to-London flight rather than allow Israelis on its planes, authorities said Thursday.

 

Kuwait Airways killed the flight to spite American officials, who threatened to pull the airline’s permit to fly to the United States if they continued discriminating against Israeli passengers.

 

The airline says they cannot allow Israelis on the planes because the Middle Eastern kingdom prohibits it citizens from doing business with citizens of the Jewish state.

 

“On December 15th, Kuwait Airways informed the United States Department of Transportation that they will be eliminating service between JFK and London Heathrow,†said a department spokesperson.

 

The airline has at least twice refused to let customers with Israeli passports buy tickets on flights from New York to London because of the Islamic state’s ban on trade with Israel.

 

It did not say when its last flight on that route would be.

 

Politicians who had pushed for the feds to nix the airline’s permit say they are glad the company decided to end the flight.

 

“If you’re so anti-Semitic that you would rather cancel a flight than provide service to Israeli passport holders, then good riddance,†said Councilman Rory Lancman.

 

Lancman said it was unconscionable that Kuwait, who the United States helped liberate in the early 1990s with the help of Jewish soldiers, would continue to discriminate against Israelis.

 

“They should show some gratitude that they even have their dictatorial little half-assed country,†said Lancman

 

The airline will still run its New York-to-Kuwait flight from JFK, but since Israelis are not allowed in the country, the feds cannot require them to allow Israelis on that flight.

 

The lawyer for Eldad Gatt, the Israeli citizen who tried to buy a ticket on the New York to London flight in the fall of 2013 and was denied, said he does not plan to drop his suit against the airline and that he would like a formal ruling that the airline is discriminating against Israelis.

 

Kuwait Airways officials did not return calls for comment.

 

 

 

http://nypost.com/20...eli-passengers/

 

 

 

 

 

[dean]

There weren't many Jews fighting for Kuwait freedom from Iraq.

http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2011/12/01/jews-are-underrepresented-in-the-u-s-military-and-its-leadership/

[Flashermac]

Not many Kuwaitis either.

[dean]

That goes without saying