Happy V-Day, everyone!

From sfgate.com: Lesbian couple wedded at SF City Hall / Women had been together for five decades. Aw - and it's such a beautiful picture, too. This is making me all sniffly.

I was reading in "Ms" magazine today about fistula, a condition that occurs during obstructed childbirth and the resulting prolonged labour, usually while delivering a stillborn child. It doesn't happen in the U.S and other developed countries anymore because of the advances of medicine and technology, but in third-world countries like Ethiopia it is common and, beyond the pain of losing a child and experiencing physical pain and complications from an untreated wound, the woman suffers harsh social repercussions like being abandoned by her family (as the urinary or fecal incontinence - or both - renders her "unclean" in her culture).

I had never heard of this before and it shocked me... you become so comfortable living in a "developed" culture, or caught up in the day-to-day of your own woes that you forget a whole world exists around you. This is a generalised you, and I don't point fingers. We all do this... it's sad but a fact of being human, that we are often preoccupied with things internal. I wish often for instant wealth and sometimes I think of the things I could do with it, like getting out of debt and being comfortable. I hope that should I ever be fortunate enough to be blessed with wealth that I will remember these things and give, give, give to these worthwhile organisations. Women suffering from things I've never even heard of. It's insane.

Yet for living in a "developed" culture, there's a lot to be left desired medically here, too. Health insurance is expensive but necessary because there isn't any government help for medical expenses except for the very poor. The rich don't need the help, and the poor get the help, but for everyone in the middle it is sink or swim. Doctors prescribe expensive medications even without knowing very much about your medical history (I had a doctor foisting a prescription for mood stabilisers on me when I went in for stomach trouble; later she organised a cat scan, and I still owe money on it, which is putting me further in trouble in terms of our credit report). Simple procedures cost a bundle. Some people have longterm or permanent medical issues and are unable to get insurance because they are a risk, or it isn't financially viable from the perspective of the insurance company. Some people go into debt because of life-threatening disease. And still more people are spending tens of thousands on cosmetic surgeries to conform to an ideal that doesn't exist in nature (or to interfere with their insides so they can lose weight). It is messed up. Every day I wish there was equality across the board for everybody. In Australia I took the medical help available to me for granted because in my lifetime, it had always been that way. Everybody has a Medicare card and you can buy cheap ambulance insurance every year. My mother has had countless surgeries, including an amputation, and if we had been living in the U.S we'd all be living in a cardboard box underneath an overpass or something. Even education opportunities here are severely limited - student loans aren't a given, and if you are eligible, you have to start paying them back immediately after deferring, graduating, or dropping out (whereas in Australia you don't pay back your financial help - something you don't even apply for - until you reach a certain earning threshold).

The whole world is messed up. I know that, as revelations go, this is somewhat of a "duh". It seems we know it on the inside but sometimes never think about it. It's so hard - there's so much to fix and no real place to start.