The Issue Of Tent City

The Issue Of Tent City

In what has become an increasing battle in Tampa Florida between homeless advocates and the city government, the issue of what is called tent city is now gaining news. Located on the property of St Vincent church in the county of Saint Petersburg, many of the local homeless sent up tents over a month ago after it came clear that social services weren’t taking the issue seriously. Here is a closer look at the situation. 

A new report has revealed that both the mayor of St. Petersburg, Rick Baker and the fire department told the police department to look for any reason to close down tent city. Authorities a few days later came into the compound without warning and started cutting up many of the tents with box cutters. The reason given was that several people were caught smoking in their tents, violating fire code. As it turned out, there were no warning given by the police or by the fire chief according to the report. Representatives of Mr. Baker have gone on record with apologies over the situation, but the actions taken by the county follow a pattern that back almost a month ago when Baker ruled against the community, saying in violated camping laws. At the same time, service programs that were set up focus on the homeless have been doing almost nothing according to many of the homeless themselves.

Some NIMBY groups have sided with the mayor, complaining that they come home to people peeing on their driveways or somewhere near their homes. Others fear that the crime rates will go up. Unfortunately none of the members of these groups worry about where the homeless will end up.

Finally, the city of Tampa have been so lacks when comes to the homeless, that public officials have not conducted any recent census over the last few years to get any kind of idea on the actual numbers concerning those that are homeless. In fact, homeless advocates are now being forced to conduct the surveys themselves. Further troubling is that many organizations that were suppose to be taking care of the homeless are now being accused of performing abusive practices  concerning those they swore to protect. For more on this story, please check out the links below.

Until next time.

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Why New Orleans Is Being Ignored

One issue that seemed irringly missing from George Bush’s state of the Union speech was the issue of New Orleans. The the images of a city turned into a subterranian prison are still fresh on the memories of millions of Americans. For the first time in the twenth or twenty first century, more than two thirds of a city was dislocated only to take up refuge everywhere from Houston Texas to Long Island New York. Whole communities now stand as rotten ghosts of themselves. Further frightening was the the US Governments response to the situation, from, shoot to kill orders given to the national guards to the racial displacement that is now taking place since large land developers moved in.  Here is a closer look at the situation.

While New Orleans was quickly filling with water and the residents were dying in their homes or at the few functioning hospitals, the Federal goverment was doing their version of the key stone cops, tripping over themselves, not knowing who was in charge to having no real idea to where to place all those who just their homes. And while this was happening, the coast guard was in Iraq performing a job they were not trained. The local police department turned in their badges and while all this was happening, there was no attention being to by the US media that both the local a federal Government had brought in the paramiltary, private contract group, Black Water who given the order of keeping the peace from the barrels of their guns. For those African American’s who didn’t get out of the city, they were esstially hunted down or forced into water logged prisons. It was a scene out off hell. Black water, by the way is just one subcontractor in Iraq that was brought on to hunt down rebels in Iraq.

Fast forward to today and we see a lack of progress being made in the communities of color, most notably, the 9th ward. Now over two years later the federal government is finally starting to look into way the clean up and rebuilding effort is taking so long. That rebuilding effort will undoubtly mean the permeanate dislocation of thousands of residents who forced out due to the floods. And for many, they are being refused re-entry even if there is a lack of damage or black mold on their homes. What seems to worry the authorites the most, is that the largest land grab since the trial of tears is not going as quickly as planned. And many of the developers that have been put in charge of the redevelopment effort were some of the largest contributers to the campaign efforts of the George Bush 2004 presidental run.  

After the fact, Michael Brown finally came forward and admitted that he warned the white house of the up and coming disaster, a claim that is dubious at best since Bush was warned by scientists over video phone and whose warnings were ignored by the Bush administration. You can see the clip here.http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/28/1342209&mode=thread&tid=25 . As mentioned above people are being priced out of their neighborhoods and the money that most many should be sent to New Orleans to rebuild the communites for those citizens that were out is now being sent to Iraq in a lost effort. So is there any wonder Bush didn’t mention the issue during his speech.

Until next time. 

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Why Mainstream Media Get The Iraq Issue So Wrong

Perhaps there should be no surprise when we hear major corporate media’s reports concerning the war in Iraq. It, after all, mirrors what the Bush administration has been saying since the increase of the resistance towards the American occupation could longer be hidden from the eye of the camera. Nor should we be surprised by the fact that what passes for news on the television very rarely resembles printed media or for that matter what scholars have been saying long before the first bomb was dropped. So lets take a quick look on why tv news gets it so wrong.

The first problem with all corporate media is that it gets away with so much of its reporting by being A historic in their approach to delivering a story. This is, of coarse by design. If you don’t explain a situation from an historic or relevant stand point, you can report what ever you want and take what ever angle best suits the ideology of those who own a particular syndicate. The best example of this is fox news which can give reports that sound like a pentagon briefing only because they don’t have to explain why it is that what they report does not fit at all, the reality of Iraq or its people.

Perhaps it would surprise most American’s that Iraq was under the rule of a very progressive leader that provided women the chance to hold down careers, the poor had full access of land and workers belonged truly powerful unions. The year was 1959 under Abdel Al-Qusim who was involved in a coup to over throw the  Hashemites, pro British Sunnis. At the time the Middle East was rediscovering Nationalist pride.  Shiites and Sunnis (who didn’t support their pro west neighbors,)  along with the Kurds and even many Jews were able to live in a very stable peace.  One would think, according to the latest national speech, that the United States would be pleased with such a government. But, when looking at Iraq from outside the Bush tainted glasses, which is the healthy way of doing it, there were at least four problems with the Iraq situation when it came to US interests. First, its parliament had a communist majority, while it is relatively accepted  the war with communism was never anything more than a red herring to explain some of ower most unsavory actions around the world, the fear of Soviet influence was real and to even have a communist parliament put your country on the West’s hit list. Second you had a free and truly sovereign nation sitting on the worlds second largest oil supply. Since 1938, every western nation prized nothing more than the full access to Middle Eastern oil. The situation of a free nation sitting on such an oil supply was  the worst nightmare for any western nation from England to the United States. Third, Qusim sought to reestablish Kuwait as a part of Iraq. And forth, Iraq had a minor arms deal with the Soviet Union which amounted to small arms so its military could defend itself.

None of this information has been reported on any of the major networks nor has the fact that in in 1959 a young CIA agent Named Saddam Hussein attempted to assassinate the Iraqi leader with western funding and training. And in 1963, CIA staff stood by as Saddam and his coworkers slaughtered the majority of the parliament. The history from then until now is too long to allow for any meaningful analysis unless, you were running a series so, in the interest of time, we can take a look at two specific dates of interest, 1972 and 1983.

In 1972 Saddam nationalized Iraqi oil under the request of OPEC. Just a few years earlier, US representatives claimed Iraq was the model of democracy for the Middle East but, suddenly, it became the most dangerous terrorist state in the world, second only to the Soviet Union. Also that year Henry Kissinger gave a speech that has received little attention in the American press. During that speech he stated that “the issue of oil is too important to leave to the Arabs.” This statement was the clear feeling of Washington.

In 1983, after the slaughter of several thousands of Shiites in 1982, US sales to Iraq more than doubled. You can see the hand shake of Saddam and Rumsfeld on the National archives. Not once was any of this brought up by either political party.  But, again the mainstream media is able to get around this pesky facts by not mentioning them.

Until next time…

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Senator Obama To Run For President

The Senator from Illinois, Barak Obama has filed the proper paperwork needed to raise the money to run a presidential campaign. He joins a field already crowded by potential nominees ranging from John Edwards to Hillary Clinton to John Kerry. While Obama’s popularity continues to rise, the road to the White house will be a very rocky one. Among the obstacles standing before him, will be the powerhouse staff of Clinton to the rising status of dark horse candidate Al Gore.

While we are not even out of January of 2007, already we are hearing about the potential candidates of 2008.  Near the top of that list is Barak Obama who is the Democrats current golden boy. He has the charismatic charm of a Bill Clinton and the mastery of language similar to that of a Bobby Kennedy. Furthermore, he is young which could very well attract younger voters but, it is important to remember the Hillary Clinton’s skillful staff.   Her advisors are the same road-warriors who helped her husband Bill Clinton win office in 1993 and maintain it ‘97. They know the political game as well, if not better, than most Republican strategists. she also has the major money donors that backed Bill during his second term. Furthermore she has gained the support of many conservatives including popular New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Then there is the dark horse in this race, Al Gore. True, he keeps saying that he won’t run in 2008 but the numbers are on his side.  His position against the Iraq war along with his rebirth as a decent public speaker puts the current opinion poll numbers in his favor. If he threw his hat in the ring tomorrow, he would come in as the Democrats leading candidate.  After his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” he now has the star power to beat even John McCain whose numbers are starting to drop off for his stance on the proposed troop increase. Gore is no fool, he knows how to sail in the direction of wherever the wind blows.

John Edwards is not a major threat to Barak Obama but, is one worth mentioning anyway. Like Obama, he is young and hungry. Like 2004, he is entering the race as the poor man’s candidate.  Don’t look for him to get much attention by the rank and file in the Democratic party, but he could very well sneak up on everyone if he can get the working poor in New Orleans and around the rest of the country to the polls.

Then there is the issue of race. Barak Obama could win the more liberal states if he becomes the Democrats presidential candidate but, the big question, could he win in the red states like Georgia, Tennessee and New Mexico, all-important states for any candidate. Time will tell but, for those of us who have traveled to middle America, race relations are far from where they should be and in many towns, the ghosts of Jim Crowe are alive and well.  Obama’s ability to overcome this obstacle could very well decide if he takes the office of president in ‘08. 

Until next time…

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Pinellas County Fails The Homeless

  

In a story that gets very little attention outside of the Tampa area, it seems as if the county of Pinellas has taken a page out of the Rudolph Giuliani’s 1990s hand book of how deal with the homeless and forcing them out of one area with no place to go. What is known as “Tent City” is located on the grounds of Saint Vincent which is also the location of a society that allows the homeless to maintain their makeshift community. Unfortunately, authorities claim that the set up violates code laws. Local representatives have ordered the tents to be removed but, offer no real alternative for those residents in terms of housing. To make matters worse, as Tampa in general becomes one of the new hot spots for those who are looking to relocate, the cost of housing continues to go up, Jeb Bush has been little more than a nightmare for those older residents who wish to continue to live in the area.

The homeless in America represent those that are by all statistical measures a growing population that is not kept on any employment record. That is to say, before one reaches the point of homelessness, he or she is stripped from the official records of employment. In fact, anyone who is unemployed for over one year automatically disappears from most government records. This also goes for a category that is widely ignored, that is, the underemployed, those that make less than 20,000 dollars a year. So when we hear that the unemployment rate is going down, one must ask how much is this due to those being taken off the official record.

While those who make less than 20,000 dollars belong to the fastest growing population in America, the rate of affordable housing is going down at an expediential rate forcing many working poor out of the once suitable locations throughout Americas major cities. Living in New York myself, I’ve seen Harlem become the fastest growing community of what we called yuppies in the 1980s. And don’t think landlords are not involved in the modern day version of the trial of tears. In a place like Florida, however, which is on a continued up turn of population growth the impact on the homeless is even greater.

For more on this story check out the link below. Until next time.       

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