Doctor's here, Doctors there....

Recently, we reported that Don Candido’s land, which he was renting for his garden of medicinal plants, was in trouble. The owner, an older woman, wanted to sell it, and had been approached by two “rich gringos” who offered her $48,000 for the land. As luck would have it, the land was saved by bureaucracy. When the title search was done, it was discovered that the land was within the borders of the indigenous reserve. Not only could she not sell it, but because she is not indigenous, she can’t live there either. The government will pay her the official value of the land - $7,000, and then she has to move out.

Candido needed to go to San José with the documents granting him title to the property, to make sure they were valid – his land, as well, was on the Bribri reserve. He needed to come up with the $60 or so it would take for bus fare and an overnight stay in a hotel to make the trip. He took up a collection. We helped.

On his return, he was all smiles – the documents were OK! His house – and the garden – are now secure!

It Doesn’t Seem Fare

Thinking about this, I felt a twinge of sadness. This man has been regularly curing people we’ve brought to him – people with terminal or serious diseases – using medicinal plants. He’s producing what some would describe as “spectacular results”. Yet he has to take up a collection for bus fare.

His colleagues in the US are “enjoying” a different form of reputation. Consider this snippet from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

“The U.S. health care system may contribute to poor health or death. According to Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 250,000 deaths per year are caused by medical errors, making this the third-largest cause of death in the U.S., following heart disease and cancer. “

Yet I have a hard time envisioning a doctor in the US having to take up a collection for bus fare.

It doesn’t seem fare...