At the beginning of the World Economic Forum in Davos, held in May of this year, the International Confederation of Humanitarian Organizations "Oxfam International" ("Oxfam"), which deals with combating poverty in the world, published a report entitled "Profiting from pain", which states that during the covid-19 pandemic, 573 people in the world became new billionaires - one every 30 hours. On the other hand, "Oxfam" predicts that this year another 263 million people in the world will fall into extreme poverty - a million people every 33 hours, so it recommends that countries "immediately introduce one-time solidarity taxes on the unexpected income of billionaires from the pandemic". "Oxfam" and all other recommendations on taxing billionaires are not understood, regardless of the fact that this is the only way to reduce the number of extreme poor in the world. The director of "Oxfam", Gabriela Buher, believes that "the super-rich rigged the system with impunity for decades and are now reaping the benefits." They seized a shocking amount of the world's wealth through privatizations and monopolies, by destroying regulations and workers' rights, and they hid their money in tax havens, all with the complicity of the states." (source: Beta, reported by multiple media)
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, food and energy prices in the world are rising faster than they have been in decades. Montenegro, as a highly indebted country, whose economy relies on tourism and something else, all sensitive to earthquakes, in which a third of the population already lives at risk of poverty, does not have mechanisms to mitigate the consequences of a major economic crisis. Everything is in the phase of assumptions about investments in food production, which is delayed for decades. The opinion of the director of "Oxfam" also applies to our millionaires and their ilk, who contributed to the stratification of Montenegrin society and pushed the majority of the population into poverty. We have often heard the hypocritical justification of certain politicians that "they did not deal with the quality of life of citizens enough, so it is a priority as it is now". That "now" has not happened for decades, if we exclude the "Europe Now" program, which took care of increasing wages for employees, but not for everyone and not according to the same principle. The program has even bypassed highly educated personnel on professional training, while the unemployed, the majority of pensioners, beneficiaries of social benefits and other categories of the population are "drowning" in the waves of rising prices of basic foodstuffs, health services and everything that life means.
It was high time to increase the salaries of healthcare workers, which, as they say, slowed down their departure to PZU and outside of Montenegro, but Prime Minister Abazović can hardly help the threatened Healthcare Fund, "by selling confiscated cigarettes". It is humiliating and sad that Montenegrin healthcare is offered such help! Instead of buying new diagnostic equipment and building the missing clinics, of which there are many, the new Ministry of Health began its mandate by counting, which is an inherited practice. They used to count written prescriptions, then used boxes of medicines and vaccines, and now they count millions of debts in FZ and MRI examinations done. Again, the fault lies with the patients, who needed examinations. Respected doctors, from the elected doctor to the radiological council, who recommend modern diagnostics to patients are also guilty. They say that a lot of money from the Fund goes to PZU, with which the current minister signed a cooperation agreement, while some private polyclinics advertise examinations paid for by the Fund as "free". No one in charge cares how much money the patients go to PZU, which is why we have almost reached Singapore!
In the aforementioned Oxfam report, it is stated that the epidemic has created 40 new pharmaceutical billionaires, while "Moderna" and "Pfizer" are making a profit of $19 every second on vaccines against covid-1.000. Due to the "corona blockade" of public health, Montenegrin citizens spent huge sums of money on medicines and services at PZU. Judging by the marketing, new private outpatient clinics and polyclinics were opened during the pandemic, where doctors from the public health sector generally practice. It is important that reputable experts are available to us, for our money or budget (also our) money!
Finally, a nice story from public health: Within the framework of Neurology at the Nikšić General Hospital, the EEG cabinet worked, so patients from Nikšić have the privilege of being examined by prof. Dr. Slavica Vujisić. To the satisfaction of the patients, everything works flawlessly, from the EEG recording to the meeting with the three-member medical team (Dr. Zlata - head, Prof. S. Vujisić, Ph.D. and sister Danijela). All without going to KCCG!
Bonus video:
