I was reading this blog
http://stilettosinthesand.blogspot.com/ yesterday.
It's written by an American woman who's had the misfortune of living in KSA for the past 7 years. She's just "escaped" and made it back to America. In her blog she mentioned this 2005 article regarding child marriage.
http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=66983&d=15&m=7&y=2005
Now, when I say child I mean CHILD.
After doing the complicated math it turns out this baby was married off by her sperm donor (there is no way I'm calling this freak her father) for the first time at the age of FIVE.
Yep that's right FIVE.
Some perverted 50 year old man married this little FIVE year old girl.
I cannot tell you how angry this makes me. But wait...it gets better...
Her Grandmother sued and was granted a divorce for the child, but when she went to go collect her she was no where to be found.
Why you ask?
Because her sperm donor
sold married her off again at the ripe old age of TEN.
Now it doesn't say what the Grandmother was going to do now that the child was married again. Hopefully they didn't have to go through another divorce, but could just pick her up and take her home.
Yeah right, like that happened!
She's in a country where a FIVE year old can be married off legally. I bet the poor thing is still "married" to the pedophile - and at 15 she's probably considered "used" up and he (the "husband') is most likely looking for another TEN year old "wife".
Here's another article regarding a TEN year old Yemeni girl who was raped and beaten by her 30 something year old "husband".
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/11/world/fg-childbride11
She actually took matters into her own hands and went to the courts by herself to get a divorce.
This kills me - no one helped her but her Aunt and she only provided bus fare.
ARGH!!!
Here's an article about an EIGHT year old who was granted an annulment. Her 20 something year old "husband" told the court that he had "consummated" the marriage but didn't beat her.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7351336.stm
Well that was mighty nice of him wasn't it?!
Yes, your Honor, I raped the small child
BUT I DID NOT beat her.
WTF people?!
In other news...
Apparently our communist president hired this idiot - Dr. Donald Berwick - to oversee Medicare and Medicaid.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/66920
This guy thinks the UK NHS system is the bomb.
Obviously he's never had to rely on it.
Clearly he's never looked deeply enough into it to realize that the government has made healthcare in the UK a nightmare.
He says "“The NHS is a bridge – a towering bridge – between the rhetoric of justice and the fact of justice.”
It's a bridge alright, a bridge to an early grave.
You have to wait a minimum of NINE MONTHS before you can get any surgery. ANY surgery that isn't an emergency. That was the wait time when I left the country in 2007. It could be longer now - I'm not sure.
And I'm not sure what the NHS considers an emergency since I worked with a gentleman who needed heart valve repair surgery, his heart stopped about 6 times while he was waiting for his surgery.
SIX TIMES PEOPLE.
And it didn't bump him up in the line any quicker.
And it takes about 6 weeks to get an appointment unless you pay extra and become a "private" patient. But you still get the same crappy doctors.
My own personal experience with the UK healthcare system was pretty impressive. As some of you know I had a stroke back in 2001.
Guess what?
It happened in America so I was seen immediately and hospitalized for tests
the same day (turns out my neurologist thinks the stroke was courtesy of Vioxx).
Anyway, fast forward to 2006, we're living in London - Wimbledon no less. Suppose to be a posh area (looks like the slums in America) and you would think there would be decent doctors there.
Because your doctor is determined by your address. Yep - you don't get a choice of doctors in the NHS you are assigned one based on your home address. So if you want to see one near work you are S.O.L. unless you want to pay out of pocket as a "private" patient.
Something else we get to look forward to I'm sure if dipshit Dr. Donald Berwick has his way.
So anyway it's 2006, I'm having chest pains - which really concerns me because hey I've already had a stroke - and I go to the doctor.
I tell him my history.
And he says to me, without taking my blood pressure, temperature, or even listening to my heart - you may have gall bladder problems. If it's still bothering you in a week come back in and we'll have a look at it.
I look at him and say seriously?! What if it's a heart attack? He just says you're too young, if you're still feeling bad in a week come back in.
The whole thing took about 10 minutes.
And since I'm still alive it wasn't a heart attack - but if it had been I'd be dead because the doctor was an incompetent shit.
This is the same one that saw my hubby and diagnosed his ear infection as cotton stuck in his ear - come back in a week if it still bothers you. His eardrum burst and he now sports a scar on his eardrum.
Here is an earlier post about the
UK healthcare system and
here is another one and below are more articles.
"Around 10,000 people die in England each year after their cancer is diagnosed late, and the UK has one of the poorest records in Europe for spotting the disease at an early stage."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/nhs-early-cancer-diagnosis
"It comes as an alarming report reveals that British women are more likely to die from cancer than those in most other European countries. Death rates here are worse than in Croatia, Russia, Bulgaria and Lithuania."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1231940/Britains-shame-cancer-toll-women--nearly-worst-Europe.html
Oh yeah - this is just what we need...
Or we can be like the Canadians...
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/6607/obamacare-a-canadian-wait-time-preview/
They seem to have a healthcare system that is about as good as the NHS is.
OH MY GOSH!!!! I can hardly wait to be treated like Shit when I get sick so I can die faster and in a more painful way.
Aren't you excited too!?
