Vancouver Woman Burns To Death, She Was One of Thousands of Homeless

I am so saddened by the needless death of a human being when it was totally preventable. The woman was outside, the temperature was at least -10 C. or about 15 F with a wind blowing. She just wanted to find some way to keep warm under her meager belongings, and asked for a candle. Instead of finding an alternative to an open flame,  people told her “No, you cannot have a candle, and I will not give you any matches either.”

Somehow, that woman did find or get a candle, then borrowed a lighter, lit the candle and tried to sleep.  She was huddled under her grocery cart, with cardboard and other covering over that, and yes, the candle caught the material on fire, the woman burned to death.

One time when someone may have used some brains, maybe just gone out of their way to find her some way of getting some flameless heat, and that woman would be here today. But, no, people won’t go that extra step, even the people who worked for the local police. Yes, the police did TELL her to get to a shelter, but unless you know someone who has experienced the local homeless shelters or seen photographs of people sleeping on wooden benches and matresses that even gymnasts would avoid, as well as hearing about the theft and mentally ill people crying out all night because they have not had medication, you too would tell the homeless to get to one of these hellish places.

Some of the local agencies try their hardest to give some semblance of decency and respect to the shelters, some of the places are clean and afford a mimal amount of privacy, but the carts are the lifeline, the possessions, the entire storage for any food, socks, and other goods these people have, and the shelters refuse to allow the carts inside the buildings, and there is no means to securely store the carts anywhere.

Burning to death is a very harsh sentence for anyone, but when it comes from the very basic need for warmth on a very cold, humid night, it becomes tragic. Someone saw this, went in to call the local emergency and they were basically given a cold shrug, the same cold shrug that most of those living on the streets where millionaires walk during the day. Yes, the woman burned to death on a corner where the condos sell for over half a million dollars, there are boutiques and designer shops nearby.

This will just be a passing note, not even worthy of concern to our governmental agencies here, mostly because they figure the poor, those who are so impoverished that they become sub-human, non-existent in any monetary or political power, that this type of death can and will be dismissed.

The 2010 Winter Olympics are getting billions, the city is putting millions into window dressing, the province is pumping out ads that call this place, “The best place on earth”. There are millionaires here that will  lobby the government to reduce the purchase taxes on high cost property, yet every person who has volunteered for charity knows very well, they give much less than the poorest. Why? Because they all just do not give a damn, and the impoverished do not have monetary or political power, and certainly don’t have lobbyists working for them.

I guess the ugly truth is that the government will ignore this death, maybe count the money they might save now, and just carry on.  That is why British Columbia is nicknamed “Bring Cash”, because if you don’t have it, you will not survive here.

If anyone does give a thought to those who live on the streets, in Vancouver the agency that helps out these citizens is:

• Blankets
• Bus tickets
• Winter coats
• Long-sleeved shirts and thermal underwear
• Wool socks
• Sleeping bags
• Tarps (preferably small)
• Hygiene items (combs, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, nail clippers, etc)
• Boots

Donations can be made to Gather and Give, a non-profit charity. It is open Tuesday-Saturday, and is located at 105-418 East Kent Avenue South — just east of Main and south of Southwest Marine Drive. Or visit their website: www.gatherandgive.org.

Tax Money, Whose Is It?

Town council, city council, state, province, federal, even tax for schools and roads, all depend on someone having to pay up. Lately I have noticed a laissez-faire attitude toward the spending, the use of those tax dollars, as if the supply will always be endless and plentiful. Bad attitude!

Whose dollars are those? Whose pounds, yens, pesos, are those? Often they come from the pockets of the poor, the fastest growing segment of most societies. This means children are often eating poorly, going without new shoes, clothing, so the taxes can be paid. Those taxes are coming from families with single parents working part-time, paying for daycare, rent and all those other daily expenses. Tax dollars come from the people who work in minimum-wage stores with no health plan. Tax dollars come from the small shops who make or sell things. Tax dollars come from welfare payments, retirement income, the small trust funds of children who have lost a grandparent. Tax dollars are seldom gained from those who live in the high-income brackets, because there are write-offs, tax deductions for stock losses, and other means to avoid paying taxes. For every 100 tax dollars, less than half of 1 % is from those who make the most.

Poverty bashing has been a growing game, with those who are forced to live on food stamps, unemployment payments, and welfare the people targeted for derision, scorn.  “Get a job!” “Come on, get off your butt and get out there, earn your own way!” “Stand on your own two feet, I am tired of you sitting there and collecting money, tax money, from my hard earnings!” Take a look at almost every industrialized country statistics and you will find a very ugly trend. Poverty is growing. One in ten children now live in poverty in countries that have huge wealth, why? Wages for single parents are usually low, college, university, even health care courses are all well out of the range for any children of single parents. Costs have risen consistently at all those higher education sites, putting the squeeze on money. How could any of those children even consider getting out of the poverty black hole? Food banks are a common sight now, when once, food banks were only seen in cities with huge populations.

This is where Barack Obama had it right, START AT THE BOTTOM! The real bottom. The middle class has virtually disappeared because of the huge gap between those earning the high wages and income and the lower. The middle class is quickly becoming part of the poverty class, the lowest rung on the ladder.

When the 3 auto makers showed up in Washington, for example, there was a severe public relations gaff they made. People were aghast that those CEO’s showed up via private jets to ask for the tax money. Hmm not a good plan, guys! This showed a complete lack of understanding and even comprehension about tax funds, where the money comes from.

This current shakeup is, in a way, ironic. Those who “invested” in CDS, who played funny-money with others hard-earned money, have lost a huge chunk of their own income from the stock market collapse, the losses in the real-estate speculations, the property bought as “investment” for rental. So, no longer are those people walking around looking like they “own” the world. But, those people are the very ones who distained the ordinary working person, the money and taxes from the growing poverty class, and spent like a lottery winner. CRUNCH!  Now maybe some people will realize that every person who is going hungry, who lives in misery, is directly connected to all of us, and in ways we don’t see, we are the ones who are hungry and miserable too.

The bottom line here is respect. We need to relearn respect for ourselves, to do what we know as well as we can. We need to have those who want to have our tax money learn to respect the work required.  Maybe, just maybe, we can then learn to respect those who live with the hardest struggles, those who have been scorned and derided, the Vietnam veteran, the father, the mom, the sister, the son or daughter who live on the cold streets.  Yes, they deserve respect too.

Most of all, we all need to respect our own lives, to realize that we do all have unique abilities, skills, and underneath, we all are sacred, no matter what religion or belief system we use. We also have to respect our world, making sure that we don’t create such a mess that animals starve or get sick and die from poisons we add to the world.

Every being alive looks for a better future, wants to create a better world, and every one of us is capable of doing that. What the definition of “better” is, is where we have to put respect, honour and care into choosing what we do.

Child and Family Poverty Growing in Canada

Little Change For 20 Years in Poverty Rates

Welsh Children and Families living in poverty

National Center on Child Poverty, Letting Poverty Remain Costs All Of Us

State by State Cost Of Child Poverty in the U.S.

As long as we all believe that we MUST be compared to others, we all lose perspective. Poverty WILL grow now, with job losses, houses foreclosed, debts rising, and support systems being slashed.

Housing Crisis and Financial Mess 3 Years Old!

Speaking of the FBI, housing crisis, and mismanagement of money, there is one that seems to be just fine when it comes to the governments and any oversight! Yes, it is now 3 years old, yet no-one seems to even give a damn! There were millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, that have apparently gone missing, yet no-one in the administration, federal, state or even city has done a damn thing to find out where that money went!

What am I talking about? Well, once upon a time, roughly 3 years ago, a storm hit and, in the words of President Bush, “those people in that place” faced death, destruction, homelessness, and even starvation. Starting to ring any bells yet? People from all over North America rallied, raised huge sums of money for relief, and those who had gone through hell, including children, were seen as worthy of any help!

Yeah, once upon a time, this happened. Today, those who are first responders, including the police, the firefighters, and those who were litterally washed out of their homes are living and working in pathetic trailers. The New Orleans Police Department is operating out of trailers now, and their ability to do their jobs is hampered with a severe lack of resources. Even the houses for first responders had to have someone from another country come down to help repair and restore a few of them. Why the hell does it take someone from another country to do this? Very little infrastructure is back to normal, some children and their parents are STILL living on the street, and others are STILL living in emergency housing.

Scammers have grabbed land, others are abusing the shortage of any decent housing to charge rents way out of proportion.

Yet, no investigation! NO authorities, state, city or federal are even looking for the money. NO investigation into the federal emergency aid monies or housing restoration has happened either! Hmmm maybe because those children and families are NOT white?

If President Obama wants a place to start with investigating, working on infrastructure, housing, and supporting citizens who just got caught in a whole series of lies about water, levees etc. then I would say New Orleans, Saint Bernard Parish IS the place to start.

Maybe I need to be a bit more blunt. IF a nation CANNOT restore a city where there ARE NO insurgents, then the credibility of the nation is basically shot. How can any nation propose to restore, rebuild and help others when THAT NATION REFUSES TO REPAIR ITSELF? This tells the whole world that the US cannot even manage to restore a part within the country and any promises to help other countries will likely end up with the same mess years later.

When the US is trying to get the world to help out in the two wars, and the stated objective is to restore Iraq and Afghanistan to democracies, perhaps the argument for restoring those countries would hold a hell of a lot more credence if the US could actually restore one small city. Until that happens, people around the entire world see the promises from the US as empty air.
Maybe now that more than just one small city with “those people in that area” are affected, somebody may actually pay attention now!

Tax the School Property, then Give 50% to Business?

It seems the plan here is to cut taxes for the wealthy and take 50% of the taxes on school property and give that away to business! Stupid idea! It will impoverish the schools, already underfunded, and do nothing to make our kids learn or be safer in crumbling buildings, teachers so over-stressed the good ones quit, and leave the money in the hands of people who are running businesses?

If this is passed here, I am going to be very very pissed off! Schools are already dealing with huge class sizes, violence from dealing with kids who need access to counselling and programs after school, and teachers dealing with a government that has absolutely no concern for families living on third world incomes. Rents are high here, probably the highest in the country, yet there is nothing here for any kind of support for low income earners at all!

As I put in another post, society grows from the bottom up! Apparently the bottom of this society starts at the line of business, not families, not children (find reports on the neglect here by the department dealing with abused and murdered children) or those who have to live in rooming houses infested with cockroaches, drugs and filth.

Does this sound like some place you would want to come to? Well, guess what? The 2010 Winter Olympics will show you homelessness that is growing by 50% each year with our government doing nothing whatsoever. Food banks are being drained faster than they get ANY food, with people coming more and more from working poor families. Sure, come, but know that you will find a place with underpinnings of misery.

Tax cuts are in the announcement, but only for those who have work that is higher paid, nothing for those who need to get a leg up and get onto solid ground. Phooey! Damn Stupid plan!

Other measures outlined in the premier’s 10-point plan include:

• Unlimited deposit insurance for deposits to credit unions in B.C.
• Rebate of 50 per cent on all school property taxes to light and heavy industry.
• Doubling the commission paid to business for collecting the provincial sales tax and hotel room tax.
• Speeding up public investments in capital infrastructure projects.
• Re-evaluating spending priorities and scaling back unbudgeted increases.

New Orleans

It is long overdue that someone in the US realizes that there are still huge parts of New Orleans and the surrounding areas that have yet to even see the beginning of restoration. There are hundreds of people who are STILL waiting for the funding for such basic things as trades to come in and put the electrical, plumbing, heating and walls into some semblance of repair.

The Ninth Ward basically looks much the same as it did about a month after the water receded. There is a woman who just wants what she was promised, help to get back into her own home.

When the hurricane hit, she graciously agreed to take care of a neighbour’s pet, but when she found no help coming after 2 weeks, she had to make the decision to shoot not only the neighbour’s pet, but her own two.

All this woman wants is for the utility company to get the power back to her street, find someone who can help her get the drywall and other rotting material out and get things going again.

Where the hell are those who promised help?

There are still kids living with their families on the street because they are still waiting for the help they were promised. Remember all the outpouring of good feelings and offers?

Apparently these people don’t deserve any of the promises.

I know some of the Canadians have gone down to Saint Bernard Parish just after Christmas to put back the services and structure for those who have perhaps the hardest jobs. Firefighters, police officers, ambulance attendants, even hospital workers are still living in homes that are literally falling apart around them?

What the hell? How can anyone expect these people to work, sleep, and keep their calm in situations when they have a home that is still a mess more than 2 bloody years after Hurricane Katrina left?

Canadian wood workers and carvers took down a huge load of carved wooden toys to the kids who went through hell in the Dome, perhaps were raped in the washrooms, and yet are still living on the street!

If you really want to help, either write the congressman/woman or Senator in your area, or better yet, go to your local home renovation supply store and buy a gift certificate for Habitat for Humanity. They are in that area, getting those who need homes built, and the people who get the homes must work on the houses.

I find it hard to see any credibility in the US Adminstration telling the world they are “restoring” places like Iraq and Afghanistan, when they apparently cannot even restore their own country areas. There are no insurgents shooting in New Orleans, Saint Bernard Parish, the Ninth Ward, so what the hell is their excuse now?