17 replies to this topic

[Hum]

(Reuters) - A Swazi Member of Parliament has urged the government to hike taxes on traditional healers and soothsayers to help solve a funding crisis in Africa's last absolute monarchy.

The mediums, known as sangomas in the landlocked southern African nation, pay an annual 10 emalangeni ($1.15) license fee, but MP Majahodvwa Khumalo said they had jacked up their fees fourfold in the last few years and should pay more.

"A majority of our people consult traditional healers but the money they pay to government falls far too short of the money they make," he told parliament.

Swaziland's budget deficit ballooned to 15 percent of its annual economic output in 2010 but the government managed to keep itself afloat by running through central bank reserves and delaying payment of wages to civil servants.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) declined to launch a bailout because of reluctance by King Mswati III, who has at least a dozen wives and a personal fortune estimated at $200 million, to cut royal or military spending.

The IMF has continued to press for reductions to what is officially Africa's most bloated bureaucracy. In an in-depth assessment of the economy published in February, it rated the scope for raising more taxes as "small".

($1 = 8.6745 South African rand)

source

[Growled]

Quote

The mediums, known as sangomas in the landlocked southern African nation, pay an annual 10 emalangeni ($1.15) license fee, but MP Majahodvwa Khumalo said they had jacked up their fees fourfold in the last few years and should pay more.

Hike the price of a license so much that none of those quacks can afford one.

[Nothing Here]

Growled, on 11 December 2012 - 00:14, said:

Hike the price of a license so much that none of those quacks can afford one.

Really Growled? Why? Alternative health options use natural remedies. Much better in alot of cases then chemical medicines.

[Growled]

The article calls them "mediums" and "soothsayers" Doesn't sound like they are into natural remedies to me, that's all.

[rippleman]

Faith healers are the ONLY way to go! /s

Its comical how people go there WHOLE lives saying medical doctors are horrible and they make you more sick and use chemicals that kill you faster etc but then soon as they are really sick where do they go? oh ya, the hospital! LOL

[compl3x]

Lo Tec, on 11 December 2012 - 00:21, said:

Really Growled? Why? Alternative health options use natural remedies. Much better in alot of cases then chemical medicines.

Do you know why they are called 'alternative medicines"? Because if they worked they'd just be called medicine.

http://en.wikipedia....waziland#Health


This sounds like a country that needs less quacks and more real doctors prescribing, as you put it, "chemical medicines".

[Nothing Here]

compl3x, on 11 December 2012 - 02:44, said:

Do you know why they are called 'alternative medicines"? Because if they worked they'd just be called medicine.

http://en.wikipedia....waziland#Health


This sounds like a country that needs less quacks and more real doctors prescribing, as you put it, "chemical medicines".

If you say so. Real doctors as you call them, are the quacks.

[siah1214]

Lo Tec, on 11 December 2012 - 03:07, said:

If you say so. Real doctors as you call them, are the quacks.

Oy what planet are you from?

I've seen too many stories about children who died whose parents thought like you...this line of thinking is dangerous. Anyway, when you're really sick, I guarantee you, you'll be beating down the door of those "quacks" looking for them to save your ass.

[Nothing Here]

siah1214, on 11 December 2012 - 04:25, said:

Oy what planet are you from?

I've seen too many stories about children who died whose parents thought like you...this line of thinking is dangerous. Anyway, when you're really sick, I guarantee you, you'll be beating down the door of those "quacks" looking for them to save your ass.

LOL! Ok. I never said I didn't go to them. I have to. But I also use alternative meds. I also go to the inipi(sweat lodge) twice a month.

[rippleman]

Lo Tec, on 11 December 2012 - 05:21, said:

LOL! Ok. I never said I didn't go to them. I have to. But I also use alternative meds. I also go to the inipi(sweat lodge) twice a month.

trying to understand this... you feel doctors are quacks but yet you go to them to advise, heal, and try to fix you? For some reason, this doesn't compute for me. I for one would never take advice from a "quack" and i suggest you shouldn't either if that's truly what you believe.

[Nothing Here]

rippleman, on 11 December 2012 - 05:40, said:

trying to understand this... you feel doctors are quacks but yet you go to them to advise, heal, and try to fix you? For some reason, this doesn't compute for me. I for one would never take advice from a "quack" and i suggest you shouldn't either if that's truly what you believe.

Well, maybe you can understand this then: They are all quacks. Even alternative med docs. Who really aren't doctors. But I use them.

[Simon-]

Who cares if they are quacks, the extra revenue will not make a difference to their debt, it sounds like they have problems in other areas.

[compl3x]

Lo Tec, on 11 December 2012 - 03:07, said:

If you say so. Real doctors as you call them, are the quacks.

Of course they are. All those doctors who study for years, do research, save lives and prescibe life saving medicines. Those frauds! Hang 'em all I say!

Lo Tec, on 11 December 2012 - 05:21, said:

LOL! Ok. I never said I didn't go to them. I have to.

No, you could suffer through curable or managable illness/conditions, if you choose to.


I'll put penicillin, just penicillin, against everything in the alternative medicine arsenal. Can you guess which one we can be sure actually works?

[Hum]

Growled, on 11 December 2012 - 00:14, said:

Hike the price of a license so much that none of those quacks can afford one.

You offend me, sir.

[Dushmany]

Some alternative medicines have worked in the past
Taxing a poorer nation to death isn't the answer, I don't know what the answer is, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it
(maybe the king should think about investing some of his fortune back into his nation....)