A Letter To Gaza

It is clear now to me that my thoughts have taken on a life of their own. Possibly because I am in a degree in Public Health. This definitely could have done it, as I am insidiously being brainwashed with some rather remarkable ideologies; namely that people with these degrees can actually create peace and health in the world.

I can publicly state that I have been tremendously influenced by all my professors – remarkable as they are – who have come in every shape, size, color, nationality, religion, and personal lifestyles. This remarkable body of intellectually challenging university mentors and teachers have created in me, and possibly in all their students, an unusually high level of ‘savior complex’, which has manifested itself in today’s post, ‘A Letter To Gaza’.

What more can I say. After months and months of watching videos from around the globe and reading articles and books describing and portraying catastrophic human rights violations, including child slaves to the tune of 9 million globally (Child Slavery); child laborers totaling 160 million globally (Unicef: World Day Against Child Labor); man-made and corporate-created economic disasters and mass starvations in developing countries; an almost complete desecration of the crucial natural environmental resources in third world countries and rain forests by corporations around the globe; almost universal illiteracy; and serious issues in human rights (The Story of Human Rights), I can almost guarantee, with certainty, that my thoughts are no longer my own.

But I see this as a good thing. Having one’s thoughts take on a life of their own, particularly when it comes to global health, peace, and restoration , can be fairly admirable at times. I, for one, am beginning to actually admire these thoughts. I am curious to see how far this degree created ‘savior complex’ will take me.

Things are obviously getting interesting. I would never have dreamed I would be writing a letter to Gaza.

So here you have it, a Public Health degree-created ‘savior complex’ and thoughts that are not fully my own:

Dear Gaza,

As a university student getting a degree in Public Health here in the United States, I would like to ask you a few questions. After five years in Gaza, things for you have not improved at all. Actually, they have truly gone south. Why haven’t you yet been able to develop a sustainable community in Gaza? Why haven’t you been able to create jobs, adequate housing, parks for your children, and sustainable agriculture to feed your people?

These and additional questions stem from my work on my Public Health degree. If there has been one main thread throughout my degree it is that economic health precedes almost all other forms of societal health. If countries that have fallen victim to disasters are any indication as to what has happened to you, you will be surprised to know that external support often destroys a struggling nation’s economy.

Hand-outs, as they are often called, can ruin the ability of a nation to support itself. While handouts are often necessary in a crisis, like an earthquake or hurricane, if they are prolonged the local economy will never recover. This is what has happened to Gaza.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn has a land mass of 71 square miles. As of 2006, more than 2.5 million people made Brooklyn their home (What is the population of Brooklyn). The residents of Brooklyn enjoy a wonderful life. There is ample room for everyone. There is a wonderful economy, with businesses, jobs, schools, parks, homes, tourist attractions, everything that makes for a wonderful place to live. All this for 2.5 million people on 71 square miles.

I recently searched for the land mass of Gaza and discovered it was 146 square miles (Gaza: the Basics). That is more than twice the space of Brooklyn. I also searched for the population of Gaza. There are currently 1.5 million people living in Gaza. This does not include non- residents, tourists, and people coming into Gaza to work, as there are none. On the other hand, Brooklyn has hundreds of thousands of additional non-resident workers and tourists daily.

So here are the statistics:

Brooklyn, 71 square miles, 2.5 million residents, hundreds of thousands of additional daily non-residential tourists and workers – flourishing economy, healthy society

Gaza, 146 square miles, 1.5 million residents, no non residential tourists and workers – people homeless and starving, desperate and dependent on Israel

I have also lived in Miami, an even smaller, more highly populated city in the United States. Here are some statistics from there:

Miami, 35.68 square miles, 5.23 million residents (2008) not including the additional millions of non-residents as tourists and seasonal residents (Miami). Healthy, flourishing economy, healthy society

What is going on here?

Dear Gaza, you have clearly more than twice the space of Brooklyn, more than 4 times the amount of space of Miami, with only 1.5 million people as residents and no additional non-residential traffic. Brooklyn has 2.5 million residents, hundreds of thousands more as non-residential tourists and workers; Miami has over 5.2 million residents and millions more as non- residential tourists and workers.

As a student of Public Health, it is obvious to me that something is seriously wrong here. You have no economic health, and that is the problem. You depend on Israel for everything. If Brooklyn depended on New Jersey, or Miami depended on, let’s say, Tampa, for sustenance, they would also have millions of homeless and starving. You need to be self sustaining. You need your own economic strength.

When I relocated from Brooklyn to another city, I was distraught at being a woman alone with three young children. I was angry that I had to leave Brooklyn and felt completely uprooted and displaced. But right around that time I remember reading an article that had a small box on the page that said in big letters ‘bloom where you’re planted’. Since then, ‘bloom where you’re planted’ has become my mantra until this day.

Land for you is not the issue; at 146 sq. miles, you already have twice the size of Brooklyn and four times the size of Miami. What you don’t have are creative people who can show you how to put those 1.5 million people into decent housing, with good sanitation and running water, and additional creative people who can show you how to create sustainable farms on your naturally fertile soil (as we speak, Brooklyn, with their 2.5 million residents in 71 sq. miles has some of the most beautiful urban farms and gardens I’ve ever seen, and Miami, with their 5.2 million residents in 35 sq. miles has hundreds of backyard gardeners and community gardens, as well).

But. unfortunately, what you lack the most, is this remarkable ability to ‘bloom where you’re planted’. Without that, there is little hope for anything else.

Resources:

Child Slavery: retrieved from the web at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2008602565007230476#docid=8823573530624253148

Unicef: World Day Against Child Labor: retrieved from the web at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbLfFtzTokQ&feature=channel

The Story of Human Rights: retrieved from the web at: http://www.humanrights.com/#/what-are-human-rights

What is the population of Brooklyn?: retrieved from the web at: http://brooklyn.about.com/od/brooklynneighborhoods/f/qa_population.htm

Gaza: the Basics: Retrieved from the web at: http://www.slate.com/id/2208444

Miami: retrieved from the web at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami

Miami River Foods Project: retrieved from the web at: http://www.miamiriverfoods.org/