{UAH} PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION IN USA

Edward P'OJIM/MOSES NEKYON/WBK,

I watched this harrowing documentary on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the USA and it brought tears to my eyes. It is the saddest programme I have watched on the USA and demonstrates how the current political and economic system in the country has completely  failed some of the most vulnerable American people.Here is a reservation that the programme makers say would rank in the lowest levels of the poverty and deprivation index in the entire world, if it was removed from the USA and assessed on its own. The death rate, mainly by suicide and alcohol abuse, is the highest in the USA. Up to 9 young people, mainly young girls of 9-12 years commit, suicide in a month. Unemployment is at a record 80%, generations have never worked, from great grandfather to great grandchild.  The whole community seems so caught up in a culture of alcohol and sex abuse, it seems there is just no way out. And yet the USA government has no policy on how to address the problem, apart from sending in the police and law enforcement. A huge social and economic problem, with deep historic roots, is reduced by the USA government to simply one of law and order. I am not bragging here, but this level of government neglect would never exist anywhere in the UK. The welfare state would never allow any community to sink to such a level that even young people think life is not worth living. But this is happening in the richest economy in the world. Truly shocking!

Bobby

BBC World News - Our World - Next on

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n13xtmdj/broadcasts/upcoming

1. Cached
2. Similar

Legacy of Wounded Knee. Nick Lazaredes reports on life at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota. (R). BBC World News North America.

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