It’s the one thing the Tories have been good at – breeding poverty, low pay, homelessness, food banks and freezing pensioners. We have nurses using food banks now. So much for banging saucepans.
We’re living in a sick society.
Roy expresses it so well. Greed rules!!
The real measure of a country is how well it treats its weakest members not its wealthiest.
Amber has sent me this poem through about the homeless. It is a condemnation of our society that we tolerate homelessness, isn’t it?
A big thank you to Amber.
OBSCURE SOULS
Does anyone think of our fellow souls
Lost and deep in obscure black holes
The homeless out on the streets
With nothing to eat
Shivering and shaking
A sure death in the making
The mentally ill locked up inside
Dreaming of the world outside
Love and support is what they truly need
I don’t believe that’s what they are getting in places similar to a weed
The old people in homes
Looking out of glass windows
Their figures cast in the shadows
The people living on their own
With no one at home
Lonliness and suicide, they are all alone
The mother’s and father’s struggling to feed their children
The night workers keeping this matrix going
People want to be overthrowing
But war on peace
Will not equal what you want
Where are these people
In the midst of time
It’s something I want to remind
The world of
These parts of the universal fabric
Need our help
Why can’t we hear their yelps?
Will they ever get true help?
With a system designed
To set us up for failure
This society has no allure
Just know you are in my mind
One day will be the time
When you are free
To be healthy, strong and happy
You hold a place within me.
-DiosRaw 15/01/21
You might like to check out Amber’s blog. There are a lot more delights to be found over there:
Inequality is the basis behind most of the world’s problems. The division between the have’s and have-nots is immense. The judgement of a good civilised country is how it treats its underprivileged, needy and disabled.
I was shocked by what I saw in America and what I see in Britain. There is a heartlessness in many people’s actions; they seem to believe that the homeless and down-and-outs deserve all they get. They should have worked harder at school, achieved higher qualifications, got themselves a job.
I am not referring to the hapless free-loaders. There are the scroungers who need to be made to contribute.
Before making judgements people should listen to the stories of the people concerned. There are many sad tales of neglect, abuse and disaster. Many are traumatised and unable to function.
There but for fortune.
The worth of a society is its benevolence. It seems that the greatest nations on Earth are content to have people living rough and scratching round dust-bins for food – as if they were vermin.
I think that is an indictment on those nations. It is cold, heartless and uncaring. We should be better than that.
The children brought up in the degradation created by poverty, desperation, prostitution and drugs will grow up to have a blighted life. It needs addressing and we are rich enough nations to address the issues properly. There is far too much greed and selfishness.
Neil Young highlighted the problems in this song. The ‘Free World’ should set an example and show the world how compassion is done!
“Rockin’ In The Free World”
Keep on rockin’ in the free world,
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world,
Keep on rockin’ in the free world.
We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.
Keep on rockin’ in the free world,
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world,
Keep on rockin’ in the free world.
Inequality is the basis behind most of the world’s problems. The division between the have’s and have-nots is immense. The judgement of a good civilised country is how it treats its underprivileged, needy and disabled.
I was shocked by what I saw in America and what I see in Britain. There is a heartlessness in many people’s actions; they seem to believe that the homeless and down-and-outs deserve all they get. They should have worked harder at school, achieved higher qualifications, got themselves a job.
I am not referring to the hapless free-loaders. There are the scroungers who need to be made to contribute.
Before making judgements people should listen to the stories of the people concerned. There are many sad tales of neglect, abuse and disaster. Many are traumatised and unable to function.
There but for fortune.
The worth of a society is its benevolence. It seems that the greatest nations on Earth are content to have people living rough and scratching round dust-bins for food – as if they were vermin.
I think that is an indictment on those nations. It is cold, heartless and uncaring. We should be better than that.
The children brought up in the degradation created by poverty, desperation, prostitution and drugs will grow up to have a blighted life. It needs addressing and we are rich enough nations to address the issues properly. There is far too much greed and selfishness.
Neil Young highlighted the problems in this song. The ‘Free World’ should set an example and show the world how compassion is done!
“Rockin’ In The Free World”
Keep on rockin’ in the free world,
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world,
Keep on rockin’ in the free world.
We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.
Keep on rockin’ in the free world,
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world,
Keep on rockin’ in the free world.
Where-ever I have travelled in the world I have encountered homelessness and begging. From the streets of the UK to the USA, Brazil and India; it is ubiquitous. They all have their stories and reasons – some good; some bad. They are the residue of society; the ones who do not fit in; who have no place. It is as if they have been discarded and thrown aside like the rubbish in the street.
Yet they are people.
My last visit to India had its share of beggars but not as many as I remembered. Perhaps India is on the up? Or perhaps Chennai is not as bad as Delhi? I do not know.
My observations in India seem to suggest it is the old who beg. Perhaps there is no pension to be paid? Or perhaps their families no longer care for them? Or perhaps it is the culture? There is a culture that encourages people to give up worldly pursuits and all possessions and embark upon a spiritual quest. All they have are their robes and a begging bowl. I am not saying that the beggars I saw were on a spiritual quest. Somehow I doubt that. But maybe the culture encourages begging and the giving of alms?
Another interesting observation I have made is that beggars tend to congregate around places of worship. Perhaps they believe that the pious are more generous? Or else that they can prey on guilt?
I saw a number sleeping on the hard concrete. How difficult it must be to bathe and keep clean – particularly in such heat.
In these times of austerity, wage restraint, loss of work, automation and globalisation 500 people just got $1 Trillion richer.
Inequality grows and festers. While the rich buy yet another penthouse and choose which multibillion yacht or plane to buy millions sleep on concrete in the cold.
How bad does it have to get before something happens?
Here’s the report from the Washington Post.
The richest country in the world has a million people living rough on the streets. Why?
Opher's World 