No sooner do I set up a new category, People Who Need Slapping, than I get hit with a request that I can't decide needs a nice response or a slap.
Probably neither. Here is today's strange request for my freelance writing services:
I would like to send an email to Hospitals around the world to have them interested in building one or several hospitals in (INSERT NAME OF POOR CARIBBEAN ISLAND RARELY VISITED BY TOURISTS).
As you know, Medical Tourism is a new and very profitable trend and we are trying to interest those hospitals to invest in the Caraibbean. (sic)
What would be your fees?
I don't know anything about this new and profitable trend, Medical Tourism. At first I thought this guy had the very noble thought of building nice hospitals in places where the people lack good medical care, and then "medical tourists" (which I thought would be real medical professionals) could come work at the hospitals on their vacations in order to help the local people.
I have a dear friend who's a doctor who has visited a poor island near the one this guy is promoting twice on medical mission trips. Her stories are very touching and her despair for the health of the people there runs deep. She said, "There's no medical skill or drug I could bring to change the poor health caused by widespread malnutrition." She said it better than that, but you get the point.
So I thought, well, this would be good. Maybe Medical Tourism provides a hospital for poor people and lets people like my friend come spend a week or two there every year and bring medical care to people.
Turns out that's not what Medical Tourism is. Medical Tourism is when people like me decide to go to a resort-style hospital to have procedures done in peace and quiet and anonymity. If you get the right surgery, you can look really well rested after your vacation. And nobody's around to find out just what you've had done.
Facelift? No, I just got a lot of sleep. I've never slept so well as on (INSERT NAME OF ISLAND). Liposuction? Why no, I just did water aerobics while I was there. And it was a beautiful place, but the food wasn't all that good, so I think I lost weight. What was the name of the resort? I'll have to get back to you on that....
Or perhaps you can get other treatments you need for a lower cost than you can in your own country. I don't know. I pretty much want my surgeries and medical treatments done here. There's enough risk for me, right here at home. Maybe I just don't get it.
There's nothing wrong with Medical Tourism. I'd be extra careful before I'd be a Medical Tourist, but it's certainly not a bad thing and would probably bring jobs to the area for the poor people. (They can be surgeons instead of trash pickers.... It's up to you to investigate.)
So, while I'm not sure this guy needs slapping, I don't think he needs my help either. Sounds like what he wants to do is spam hospitals.
And what kind of fellow lives in the Caribbean and doesn't know how to spell it? He wrote on behalf of no organization and used a Yahoo account.
Perhaps it was a new scam where I would pay him to invest in his Medical Tourism hospitals.
Maybe I'll slap him after all.
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