Homeless.

Image courtesy of BBC

            I have lived a long life, heading for 90, and throughout the adult period of that life I have heard repeated bullshit spewed out by the crooks and liars that hold the reins of power. As each election approaches, (I call them crooks and liars competitions) I've listened to those phoney pledges, "We will end child poverty" "we'll end homelessness". So here we are and the figures for homelessness are staggering to say the least. The figures here are for England alone, I have no doubt that the other three parts of this part of the planet called The United Kingdom will swell the numbers considerably.

Image courtesy of Edinburgh Live.

 

         No doubt when the elected crooks and liars hear of these figures they may 

spout, "pandemic", "Ukraine", but the figures are the worst for 25 years. In England, according to a recent report by Shelter, almost 250,000 are in temporary accommodation, this is up 74% over the last 10 years, the present bunch of crooks and liars have been in control for 13 years, so we know where the blame lies. In this human disaster there are123,000 children living, (if you can call it living) in temporary accommodation. In England 1 in 208 are homeless,15,000 are living in hostels and there are 2,400 sleeping rough.

Image courtesy of The Mirror.

 

         This is an indictment of failure of the present economic system, it is not that 

we live in a poor country, we are among the richest countries in the world. Yet all my long life I have heard these callous phoney promises, but the poverty and deprivation continues. It is not an immutable fact of nature, it is the result of an economic system that pillages and plunders the riches created by the people and channels it into the coffers of the wealthy, powerful, pampered, parasite class. We are the causalities of a class war, a war we can win if we come together in organised solidarity, throughout our workplaces and communities. We have the numbers, the imagination and the knowledge to end this cruel insanity and create that better and fairer world for all our people.

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

What A Wonderful Soundbite, "This Should Not Happen"!!

     Our political ballerinas are all upset, and creating a fuss. The reason, a homeless man died from the cold, on the street, a few yards from the entrance to their privilege club, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. How inconsiderate of that homeless person to die there, why didn't he take himself off to one of the poorer districts, then the political ballerinas would not be so upset. 

     The fact that homeless people are dying on our streets, almost on a daily basis, but no song and dance from The "Right Honourable Members" shows their utter contempt for the homeless, only when it is on the doorstep of their privileged palace do they get upset.

      Where have their crocodile tears been for the last three years over which period, the number homeless rough sleepers has increased by 73% in England only. It has been calculated that on any given night during autumn last year, 2017, 4,751 people were sleeping rough on the streets of England alone, this is more than double the figures for 2010. No agitated responses and calls of this is a disgrace, etc.. The sad, pointless and avoidable death of this young man, is replicated across our country, while our privileged political ballerinas, spout sound bites and platitudes, grasp photo opportunities, anything that might further their careers, but nothing changes. They all go home to their very comfortable mansions, and plan their next career move.

        Jon Glackin, a former rough sleeper who is the founder of Street Kitchen, which provides meals for homeless people, urged that the latest death is one of many.
“It’s getting far too common. This one is poignant because it was outside the Houses of Parliament. But I’ve already been to three funerals of homeless people this year. There is no need for this,” he said.
      “It’s beyond breaking point. All services are over-subscribed, services are closing down left right and centre. Everybody seems to think the problem was solved over Christmas. It’s gone out of the public spotlight but it’s becoming worse than ever.”

Read the full article HERE:

       Of course nothing will happen, the process of dispossessing the poor is in full swing. In Greece it is being done savagely, mercilessly, brutally and quickly, elsewhere in the capitalist world it is happening at different rates, some slower than others, but the aim and direction remains the same, the dispossession of the poor. Everything must end up in the the hands of the corporate greed machine and the financial Mafia. Public assets will go for a song to the cabal of CEO and the financial Mafia. Libraries, public swimming baths, health care, social service, will all be run for profit by private companies. The NHS will continue to be squeezed encouraging the public outcry of "something must be done", and then the "think-tank" of "financial experts", business entrepreneurs, CEO, and members of the financial Mafia, will come up with the magic solution, "private capital" is the only way forward. Then the size of your premium will determine the type of care you will get, not the nature of your illness.
      The so called government will then be tasked with its only purpose, keeping civil unrest of the streets. We haven't reach the stage yet where armed Coca Cola militia patrol our streets, so the government will be the keeper of peace to allow the corporate juggernaut to run roughshod over society, shaping it to meet its ever growing appetite for profit. 
      Those who are naive enough to believe that somehow capitalism can be reformed, should take a closer look at Greece. Within a few years, they have destroyed the health service, the education system, trash all incomes for those who can still find work, reigned over rising suicides, sky rocketing substance abuse, crime, poverty and deprivation. And they are not finished yet, they want more from the people of Greece. With that in mind, do you think they are bothered by a few people dying on on streets every other day. The only answer to our problems, the only way to end people dying from cold and hunger on our streets is to get rid of the cause, capitalism.

        Westminster City Council has described the incident as a “very sad incident” and pledged they would work with police to establish the cause of death.
      A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the death was being treated as “unexplained but not suspicious”. A file will now be prepared for the coroner.

        Are they stupid, we know the cause of death, it was death by capitalist induce homelessness and hunger, or you could say, murder by capitalism, we also know the remedy, get rid of capitalism.

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Home In An Alleyway, Death In A Doorway.

         Last March a young man sleeping rough, died in the doorway of a department store in Argyle Street Glasgow. At the time it raised a lot of anger and dismay, and there was shock that such a thing could happen in Glasgow in this day and age. Of course anger, dismay and shock don’t resolve anything. Since the shock and horror at such a tragic event, figures now released show that far from being a one of tragic incident, it is a rather common occurrence. In fact, Glasgow’s city streets are the death bed of approximately one rough sleeper a week. Think of Glasgow, its fancy shopping malls, its jewellery arcades, its trendy coffee shops, cafés and bars, its expensive off-roaders and large luxury cars parked around the city centre, its tourists strutting along fashionable Buchanan Street. Then compare this with the life of the homeless who seek shelter from Scotland’s cruel elements, in shop doorways, alleys and back streets.

         Figures obtained by the Sunday Herald from Glasgow City Council via freedom of information request reveal that at least 39 homeless people have died in Glasgow in the space of just 10 months. The deaths occurred between May 2016 and March 2017 with the city council admitting that the numbers likely underestimate the full scale of the scandal. Details of the number of deaths in other major Scottish cities are currently unavailable.

Continue reading HERE:

        We can rule out old age killing these unfortunate and largely ignored individuals, of the 39 deaths in the released figures only 5 were over 60 years of age, the others were somewhere between 25 and 59. What really killed these ill-fated and forgotten individuals was a society that values property above human life and dignity. Our city is awash with empty property, all valued and protected, while the life of a homeless individual is unprotected and valueless.
       As a city we can plan to cover part of the Charing Cross motorway with a gardened roof, it will of course raise the value of the property in the area, empty and otherwise, and make it more pleasant to stroll around and sit and sip your cappuccino, but we can’t offer shelter to homeless individuals who face sleeping in dismal doorways. We are not a civilised society as long as people sleep on our streets, we are complicit in a society that values property higher than human life. Nobody with compassion should tolerate such a society, we have the resources, there is the need, to ignore that need is an indictment of our society.
       This picture is of course replicated across our small country, it is estimated by the charity Shelter, that approximately 5,000 people sleep rough in Scotland every year, the same can be said about all the other countries on the planet. It is the malignant economic system that breeds this sort of situation, quality of life is dependent on wealth, wealth flows into ever few hands, and so the problem far from being remedied, will ever by exacerbated. As long as we continue with this capitalist economic cancer, misery, homelessness and death in doorways will continue.

I'll repeat the two poems from the previous post on this subject.

The Homeless.

Tenebrous spectres, they exist,   out there,

on the crumbling edge of chaos.

A father, a son, a brother,

a daughter, a sister, a mother.

Fragments of some shattered family structure;

waste products

from a society being driven to destruction

by a hurricane of greed

living a life that wears out life,

dying,

the devious death of exhaustion from existence.

The Warmth Of A Dream.

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone.

In the dream there was a sister,

a pram in the garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngster the same young men, who

now laugh at him, throw beer cans,

piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?

When was that first step down this slippery slope,

when was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain. 

 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Enslave The Unemployed, Hide The Homeless.

       How does Cameron and Osborne, the Financial Mafia's two UK hit-men, help the most vulnerable in our community? Well they are trying workfare, where people work for free, to be honest, this is more an attempt help their corporate buddies and to legalise slavery. Then there is "sanctioning" this is where they take the poorest in the community and remove whatever little income they have, making the individual destitute. However these policies tend to cause another symbol of a country's poverty to appear, begging. To our pompous privileged Oxbridge parasites, begging sends out the wrong message, it exposes their claim of growth and prosperity as myth. So how can they help those unfortunate individuals who find themselves sitting in all weathers begging to survive? Well according to the powers that be,

"Begging will not be tolerated in the City of Westminster or any other London borough. Wherever possible people begging will be arrested and ASBOs sought where appropriate."  Problem solved, poverty eradicated. Or more accurately, imprisoned, moved on to another area, hidden from the affluent centres. We must keep the centres of consumption nice and pleasant, for the more affluent and of course those lucrative tourists. 

     The article in the The Huffington Post has an array of photos of people sleeping rough in London in numbers that are an affront to any civilized country, and an indictment of this system of rule by the financial Mafia. The system will not sort out the reason for sleeping rough, it will merely intimidate, threaten, harass, move on. Push them deeper into the darker recesses of this corrupt system, and when out of sight, they can display their myth to the world, that we are a very affluent society. 

 

     We are a very rich country, a country overflowing with wealth and resources, every penny of which was created by the ordinary people of this country. However it has been purloined, plundered and stolen, and now lies in the hands of those who sweep the poor under the carpet, while implementing policies that create more poor. It doesn't have to be this way.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

    

No Way To Spend Your Nights.

      It has been a lousy, cold, wet and windy winter so far, and though we are one of the richest countries in the world, we still have people sleeping rough in our towns and cities. There are two methods local authorities assess the number of rough sleepers in their area. One is by a count, the other is to estimate, most local authorities estimate, rather than count, so it is obvious that the figures can't be 100% accurate.

 

Photo from Google.

      What we can be sure of is that there are far to many people having to face the winter on the streets of our country. The 2012 autumn figures for England, gathered by these methods was 2,309, an increase of 6% on the previous year, which was a massive increase 23% on 2010 figures. London, that city where the streets are "paved in gold", has the highest number of rough sleepers in the country, and there, like the rest of the country the figure is climbing. The figure for London Autumn 2012 was 24% of the total rough sleepers in England, 557.

      Scotland is no different, according to figures from the report, Operation of The Homeless Persons legislation in Scotland, we have 1,737 people sleeping rough. The Glasgow Winter Night Shelter has been running through the winter months since 2010, It was the severe winter of 2010 that prompted some of the leading charities and voluntary organisations to set up the shelter. During that vicious winter it provided accommodation on approximately 2,000 occasion.

Edinburgh is the Scottish city with most rough sleepers, last year's figure was 363, while Dundee had 97.

       In a country, that as a norm, suffers dreadful winters, with long dark nights, and weather from bitterly cold to extremely wet and cold, sleeping rough just shouldn't happen, no matter the circumstances that brought the individual to that position. Sufficient facilities should be in place and well publicised to make sure nobody faces the winter trying to find shelter. Just another aspect of a system that has bankers and accounts shaping our society.

How to get help on the streets 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk