The other day I had a new patient come in. He asked where I served my mission to which I replied. Spain, Bilbao mission. He said, "oh Spain.... that is a poor country." I am really an agreeable person.but I could not help myself. I had to disagree with him even at the risk of poor business practice. "Actually it's not," I said. He told me that I must have been in the wrong places.... I interrupted him asking him if he had ever been to Spain. "No, but my brother was there for three months. He just got back. "
"Spain is not a poor country. It is kinda 3rd-world-Europe, I told him. But everyone has running water and electricity. A stark contrast with this village high up in the Andes mountains of Peru.
It was pretty bad in the 60's 70's and even into the 80's, but they are in the EU and they don't have a dictator anymore."
I told him about my friend Blanca who was having trouble getting pregnant and underwent in vitro, TWICE before successfully giving birth to a beautiful little girl, then found out seven months later that she has breast cancer. She had double radical mastectomy, chemo, had the cancer go into remission. Now she has had reconstructive surgery. FREE. $0 out of pocket. All paid for, didn't cost her a dime. Socialized health care. I don't know how a poor country can afford that.
Towards the end of all of my debating points he said, well, they aren't the big empire that they were in the 19th century. Hmmmm. YA THINK? I gave him that but he still insisted that Spain is a poor country. I had to leave the room or I was going to sock him.
I lived in Spain for 2 years and had just been back a couple months ago to see friends. You won't really find unpaved roads or mass transit via golf carts like you would in San Pedro, Belize. You could probably get some people, happy to save a few Euros, lined up for free dental care. Good luck getting permission from the Spanish government to enter the country for such a purpose. Spain has a high standard of living and they take care of their own fairly well.
Many immigrants literally from around the world immigrate to Spain. Europe, Asia, Africa, South America. I met immigrants from Nigeria who made enough money to cook me up a good meal of Pounded Yam and soup.
Do you think, the eating conditions would be that good in Benin City, Nigeria? (I'll let you know after I've been there. btw, You don't see any forks because with this typical Nigerian dish you dip the Yam's into the goat soup with your fingers.)
Spaniards are for the most part extremely well dressed. They even have shoes!
I went into some very poor neighborhoods and still the standard of living was much greater than what is found in poor countries. Running water, electricity, shelter, food, clothing. Basic necessities were met. The only beggars were Gypsies and drunks. I have been lucky enough to be in Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Belize. On a Rich-Poor spectrum these lean much more towards poor on the spectrum then Spain. Spain really cannot even be compared with them except in a futbol match or historical perspective. You could always recount Spain's King Juan Carlos urging Venezuela's rambling president (read: dictator),
"¿Por que no te callas?" (Why don't you shut up!).
Other than diplomatic political meetings Spain is really in a different league than the "poor" countries of the world.
Spain is not a poor country. They are in a recession but they have the "ninth largest economy by nominal GDP, and high living standards (16th highest HDI)." That being said, unemployment recently hit a record high 17% and is thought to surpass 20%. What are Spaniards doing to find jobs? "Raquel Riojas, 26, from Malaga, spends ten hours a day surfing internet jobsites" In poor countries, people start selling fruit on the streets, doing manual labor, not surfing the internet.
Maybe it's just me who is biased and stubborn....
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