11.Groups or Individuals in our Society that live in Poverty.

The title “People who live below the poverty line” can refer to a wide range of people- not just homeless. My understanding is that people in our society that tend to live below the poverty line can be from different extremes. There are people that have nothing- no place to live and nothing to their name (ie the homeless) but there are also people who have shelter and basic necessities but are only able to to get by with their cheques from welfare. These groups are often excluded from the “norms” that we as middle class citizens take for granted day in and day out. On Christmas morning some families have maybe one or two small things under their Christmas tree and they can have the best Christmas ever. On the other hand, there are some children out there that expect so much and if they don’t get it, there Christmas in ruined.The homeless are often stereotyped to be worthless, useless and that they have only themselves to blame. This is NOT true. The homeless are excluded from everyday life activities- showers, toilets, food, shelter etc.

 As far as the homeless, I rarely see anyone of the Asian culture out on the streets but that may just be that I am not familiarized with the situation. I mostly see Caucasian or African Americans in my community and on the streets of Vancouver.  There are also a high population of homeless Aboriginals and immigrants. Sadly, statistics show that a lot fo the disabled are found living on the streets. Age wise, it really varies. I see people of all ages. From teenagers to seniors, the struggle is still the same. Lately it has changed to become more equal, but a few years ago the predominate gender of the homeless was male. Before the announcement of the 2010 Olympics, most would say that the most highly populated area of homelessness would be downtown Vancouver- I beg to differ. As a result of the Olympics coming to Vancouver in just under a month, the city has tried to eliminate as much signs of poverty as possible from their streets. This means forcing the relocation of hundreds of homeless having no other place to go. Families on welfare come from all shapes and sizes really. It can vary anywhere between a single mom with one child to a family with a mom, dad and multiple children. At this day in age I really don’t think there are specifics anymore as to who could fall into this category. All it takes is one financial slip up.

The causee of poverty is often misunderstood or more in depth that what we as onlookers would assume. From the website cited below, I learned that factors that contribute to poverty range between personal and structural. Personal factors could be anything from a loss of health to the death of a spouse. Structural factors include: “the affordability of housing, the adequacy of employment insurance, access to health, education and training, and the lack of living wages from employment.” Societal issues such as racism and sexism are also factors that could contribute to poverty.

 Many people who live in poverty may become withdrawn, depressed, anxious or hopeless. “They may feel marginalized isolated, and robbed of the opportunity to contribute as meaningfully to society as they would like to. As far as personal factors, government programs and agencies need to be supportive and help those who need it to maintain livelihood through a difficult period. Structures, laws and policies need to be changed to facilitate the needs of those suffering from structural issues.

For both of these groups, I would say that Bill Moyers paper, ” Economic Inequailty Is a Serious Probblem in America,” reflects why these groups are so impoverished. In his paper, Bill tries to get across that it is our system that allows so many people to fall ito poverty and never really have the resources to get back out on their own. Therefore I think the choice of government is a lot to blame. It seems as though the majoriryt of voters are either middle class or even higher class and whatever they want goes it seems. When this happens, they bend the government into doing whatever it is they want done and it gets done. The problem here is that the lower class or the people that fall below the poverty line hjave little say of what goes on.  The health insurance, the car insurance, the cost of going to post secondary and all of the other costs we endure every year are only available to those who can afford it. When we get bills in the mail and see the amount and cringe, imagine hwo one would react if they did not have the money- at all- to pay it off. The goverment keeps serving the majority and continues to ignore the impoverished. I personally am tired of waiting for them to step up and do something about it. I think itis great that there seem to more and more organizations and programs out there to help the homeless and impoverished. For example, the Gateway of Hope in Langley is now fully open and running. I stillthink there must be something more the government can do. As for individuals, the least we can do is educate, educate, educate. Too population is blind to this ongoing issue that is yet so obvious. Enough is enough.

“Poverty undermines the right to every person to live with dignity, as an image bearer of God, to participate in society, and to meet basic needs. It is therefore our collective responsibility to respond to the problem of poverty.”

http://www.cpj.ca

Bill Moyers paper- “ Economic Inequality Is a Serious Problem in America.“

10. Human Rights Day

Thursday, December 10 was International Human Rights day. Although we have much to celebrate, we also have much to mourn, as there is still enormous genocide occurring in our world as we speak. This past week in my social justice class we investigated and took a deeper look at major genocide in our world’s history. As you may have already assumed, it was a very glum week as we learned about the millions of people who were beaten, raped, tortured, murdered and the list is endless. Through movies, notes and presentations, our class was able to get a pretty clear picture of what went on in these times of horror. Why isn’t the UN doing their job?

The United Nations is an international organization made up of “51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.” Founded in 1945 after the Second World War, the UN is best known for peacekeeping, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance. Their purpose you ask? “The purpose of the United Nations is to bring all nations of the world together to work for peace and development, based on the principles of justice, human dignity and the well-being of all people.” For having such an impressive reputation, the UN is definitely not living up to their own standard as too much genocide is still occurring today. This organization is not paying enough attention to the countries that are obviously in great danger and therefore is costing way too may people their lives. I definitely do not think they are making enough of an impact in our world and I truly believe they could give more effort. They say they want to make a “safer world” but what are they doing to put their words into actions? I must give them some credit for what they have done in the past but right now is the time to step up. For instance, Darfur. The UN is continually denying that there is anything unethical happening in this country and therefore aren’t doing much to help. It seems as though they know their facts but are not doing anything to change the heart wrenching statistics. When are they going to step up and do their job? I am not expecting them to stop all genocide but the least that can do is promote and educate these situations to the world to try and aid is some way.

wikipedia.com
Un.org

9. Genders. Can our world have more than two?

Honestly, I was extremely biased to this issue before I started researching about it. I felt it was completely wrong and doubted if it should really be legal. I didn’t feel his way with disrespect towards those who choose to change their gender, I felt this way because that is the only feeling I could feel at the time.

Gender Identity Disorder is a disorder in which a person feels discontent towards the biological sex they are born with. Symptoms of this disorder may include: confusion of gender identity, distress of gender identity and wishing that they were the other gender. Males who wish they were born female often dress in feminine clothing, making themselves appear as feminine. Women who wish they were men often deny that they have women features and dread the thought of menstruation and bearing kids. People who have this disorder have some options. Most people first start with psychological treatment. The next step is drastic: sex-change surgery. Prior to the surgery, a patient undergoes a hormone treatment to suppress same sex characteristics and to accentuate characteristics of the desired sex. The hormones create changes on the both exterior and interior of the body. Following the hormonal treatment, the adult will be asked to live in a cross-gender role before surgery to alter their genitalia or breasts is performed.

In today’s society we have certain pre-conceived notions as to how a man and lady are supposed to act. Men are expected to “act like men” and play the role of a man in a relationship while women are expected to act “lady-like” and act in ways that reflect their title. If one goes against these status quos, they stand out in a crowd. For example if a man dresses and acts feminine, society’s first stereotype towards that man would be that he is gay. If a female on the other hand dressed and acted like a male they would be seen as “butch”. Society has pre- conceived stereotypes as to what males and females should be interested in and the similarities and differences they should share.Line have been created that if crossed, it affects the way society views and treats a person. But to what extent would a person go to thoroughly change their image to match the gender they feel they are?

Check out this article:
It it featured by ABC and Barbara consisting of an interview with a ten year old girl who was born a male.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3072518&page=3

My thoughts after researching and reading this article? Putting my beliefs aside, I truly feel that if someone is fighting an inner battle with themselves, they should go to all precautions to quit fighting and come to a consensus.It that means physically changing their gender so be it. I still believe it is wrong, but should i go around screaming at those who feel differently?NO. We are all entitled to our opinions and feelings and should respect those of others. This poor girl in the article struggled with herself day in and day out. Would she really have been happy living her life as a boy? Right now it is still a struggle for her as society sees her as a male and she sees herself as female, but what if that changed? Should society be as quick to judge someone?

http://wrongdiagnosis.com

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3072518&page=3

http://www.athealth.com/consumer/Disorders/GenderIden.html

8. Does our education system provide equality for all?

I do believe that now our education system offers equal opportunities for success for all groups. I think the statistics shown on the link below really reflect the initiative that the people in all groups have or do not have to graduate. If a person is lazy or does not have the drive or ability to graduate they are obviously not going to, no matter what group they are from. Everyone has the potential to graduate it is just what the do to make it a reality that affects the outcome. Of course this can’t be everyone’s reason for not graduating. Aboriginals still have a much lower rate of graduation than more common groups like French Immersions and this may be for a number of reasons. First Nations are still traumatized from what had to happen to get them to this point in life. Residential school treated them very cruelly and inhumane. That point in time, I imagine, can not be easily forgotten even if you were not directly affected. To this date, those memories still haunt the aboriginals and therefore it is hard for them to trust a school. Aboriginals are rarely taught about their culture in traditional Canadian schools and that may be something that affects their will to learn. Money may also play a factor. Depending on their home situation, some might be forced to quit school order to provide for their families.
I completely agree with a point that Justin from my Social Justice class brought up. Often Aboriginals take advantage of their benefits. For instance, a huge portion of their post secondary schooling and high schooling is paid for by the government. Some just look past it and never pursue their education . Do they understand what they are giving up? They often boast but never prevail. Whats the point on striving to graduate when you know that you will be covered for university no matter what?

Note: This is not only the case in Secondary Schools:
Go here and read about how Aboriginals are twice as likely to drop out of Post Secondary School than other Canadians.

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/local/story.html?id=4594c354-e708-4a96-9722-7e7edcfac712

Secondary School Graduation Rates:

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/reports/pdfs/graduation/03535019.pdf

7. Highway of Tears

The Highway of Tears, otherwise known as Highway 16, is a 500 mile stretch of highway that runs from Prince George to Prince Rupert. It has its name because since 1988, 32 women, 31 of which were aboriginal, have mysteriously disappeared or been murdered between those two destinations.

Sadly, this story has yet to receive the same amount of attention as any other missing girl case because all of these women were involved some way in either drugs or the sex trade. People don’t care about people who involve themselves in that life style so therefore the media has not paid much attention… until now. The Highway of Tears has been getting more and more media attention because Robert (Willie) Picton, a vicious murderer, has just been charged in court, ruling him with a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. The Picton case has been an ongoing battle as he is seen as guilty of brutally murdering and mutilating the bodies of 27 women from Vancouver’s Down Town Eastside. People see the cruelty that the women went through in this case and realize that the Highway of Tears is real and what the women went through is also real. The families of the victims are seeing that justice is being served to Robert and want justice for their loved ones and answers.The Picton case has gotten tons of media even though it too involved women in the sex trade and therefore people are starting to see the pain and torture that women have gone through not matter their chose of lifestyle.

Although these women have obviously chosen a life style that is not suitable to most, the information about their murders must get out to the public as it may be able to prevent anything like this from happening again. I am glad that the Highway of Tears is finally getting the publicity that it deserves, but I wish that we would have known about it sooner. The families of those women who were murdered deserve to have closure, knowing that this case is public and warning others what is going on in our world.

Recently there have been articles in the news about how the focus is primarily on investigating the 18 cases of murder in the Highway of Tears case and not necessarily finding the missing women. With all do respect, shouldn’t we be focusing on the cases where these women may still be alive somewhere? Definitely we should still be finding closure in the murder cases but there are still women out there who may have a chance at life and we may be running out of time.

www.wikipedia.com
www.highwayoftears.ca
www.vancouversun.com

6. Racism and Civil Rights

Linda Brown- -seven-year-old girl who helped bring about multi-race schools.

Linda Brown, stationed in Topeka, Kansas, was denied entrance into a “white school” in the 1950′s. Although there was a school just seven blocks down for her house, she was forced to go to a “black school” in which her bus stop was a mile away from her house. Linda’s father was outraged and filed a lawsuit on the Board of Education in 1951 along with thirteen other concerned parents. “For every $150.00 spent on white children at the ‘white schools’ only $50.00 was spent on African American children at the ‘black schools’.” The children that attended the school of colour did not have access to the the most current textbooks, had very little school suppilies and were learning in overcrowded classrooms. After Brown was turned down by the school, he went to the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) where they unfotunately lost their battle in the state courts. The NAACP then took the case to the United States Supreme Court on May 17, 1954 and after three long years, the judges ruled in favour of Linda Brown and other African American students in a vote of nine to one. Although the work of the Brown family was a step in the right direction in the fields of racism and discrimination, their efforts took years to take effect as the world was still quite prejudice against the Blacks.
Brown v. Board Timeline
Year Event
1950 The parents of black students try to enroll them in the local “white schools.”
1951 The suit is started by Oliver Brown and other parents.
1952 The Supreme Court first heard from the lawyers.
1952 One justice died and had to be replaced.
1954 The case ends in favor of Linda Brown and the other Blacks near
-from http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/brown_v__board_of_education.htm

5 1/2. A little blurb

Thought I would let out my frustrations with the recent health care cutbacks. A seniors orientated housing facility was just built in Mission about two blocks down from the Mission hospital. In fact, I just moved my Grandpa into this facility las weekend. He has a pace maker and is 83 years old. We thought moving him there was the best suited area for the best price and it would be beneficial to have a hospital so close. Last week, Mission hospital announced that their emergancy ward would be closed from something like 11-8 every night due to health care cutbacks. WHAT? Are they kidding? How can an emergancy ward be shut down at night.?Are they trying to tell me that if my Grandpa has a heart attack,he will have to travel to Abbotsford to see treatment? What if a kid stopped breathing in the middle of the night? Those few extra minutes could cost someone their life!! I think this is completely ridiculous. How far with they go? Next thing we will here about will be specified hours that emergancy vehicles will be available. Come on now.