Last year an acquantaince found himself homeless and destitute. Falling on his knees before Newham Council’s Homeless Persons Unit he begged and was eventually offered temporary accomodation.
At first he was in a hostel surrounded by crack-cocaine addicts. However, he had been told that Newham Council had £25 million of ring fenced money from central government to pay for temporary housing for the homeless. He looked forward to getting somewhere better.
It took a while but he was offered a one bedroom flat and went to sign the tenancy. The tenancy was for a studio flat and was at a rent of over three hundred pounds a week. Regretting that he would be locked into benefits for the length of his stay because of the extortionate rent he nevertheless signed.
He moved into the flat and soon met the private landlord it had been rented from. He was wondering how the man had convinced Newham to pay such an incredibly high rent for a 10″ x 15″ room which looked out on a toilet so he asked. “The rent is a ton a week”, the landlord said (a ton = £100). The next day they looked at each others contracts and confirmed the discrepancy.
It took him a while to work out what was going on but eventually he realised. It seemed like Newham had worked out a neat little plan to un-ringfence the money. Newham rented a load of hovels at one hundred pounds a week, shoved the homeless into them, then rented them back to themselves at over three hundred pounds a week charged to the ringfenced account.
A nice little earner, cash strapped Newham seemed to strip two hundred a week on each rental from the ringfenced homeless budget to bolster their always flagging general finances. Brave Mayor Sir Robin, otherwise known in Newham as “Sir Robin everyone blind” is a New Labour man through and through. Now the third way is becoming clear: If you can’t take it legitimately, call it an administration charge.
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According to Radio Four this morning there are £450 million worth of unused foot-spa’s and £431 million of unused bread makers languishing unused in British homes. These items, unwanted gifts, show us much that is wrong with the way we do things.
£881 million of technology, human effort, scarce resources, all wasted. Of course, this is just bread makers and foot-spa’s. Think of all the other unwanted gifts and you start to get to very scary numbers. The resource waste is the most appalling aspect. The manufacture of many of these gifts uses energy, water, plastics - oil and precious metals. These are all scarce resources which could, without exception, be used to great benefit elsewhere.
Gift-giving is about the ego of the giver. Presents are bought to support the self-image of the buyer. This is why they are so often wrong for the receiver. Will your gifts end up on the ever expanding “Crap Gift Mountain”?
I take back my earlier post about gift-goats. At least goat shit can be used to cook a meal, unlike the £431 million of bread makers.
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Life, Politics, economics
When the USA announced it had formed a coalition to “lead” the recovery efforts following the Tsunami, many observers were dismayed. The hope that America had learned it’s lesson from Iraq was dashed. Undermining the mission and methods of the United Nations once again, the USA isolated itself in it’s little coalition.
Fundamentally Mr. Bush cannot “trust” another human being unless he has power over them. This is symptomatic of his dry-drunk mental health problem. Of course this is not really trust which explains why Mr Bush prefers to go it alone every time. This problem is fundamentally because Mr. Bush cannot trust himself and his own mind. Retrenched into the black-and-white thinking that is the primary avoidance strategy of the dry drunk, Mr. Bush does not have to touch the pain of his childhood yet his humanity is numbed by the effort.
Unfortunately for the rest of us we are not playing “cowboys and indians” here, we are managing a planet. Mr. Bush has failed on this occasion to undermine international accord and it has been quietly announced that the coalition is being dissolved such that efforts can proceed under the auspices of the UN. How much longer before Mr. Bush is at the doors of the UN asking them to take over from his other coalition in Iraq?
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“Rizal Shahputra, 23, said he was initially swept out to sea with other survivors and family members, but that one by one they drowned.” - From the BBC
Rizal Shahputra can hardly be described as lucky. Caught in this disaster and washed out to sea he then watched members of his family and other survivors drown. How many lives could have been saved had a major search and rescue operation been launched immediately throughout the Indian Ocean? Are there other survivors still floating around out there?
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It is becoming clear that the death toll from the Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami will probably exceed two hundred thousand. As we all know it made amazing viewing and shocked and belittled all of us before our environment. The giving that has resulted though essential is ultimately very hypocritical.
Since the last waves washed ashore on December 26th, approximately three hundred thousand children have died needlessly from starvation, lack of water or basic medical care elsewhere in the third world. Indeed every week the death toll from these causes exceeds that of the recent catastrophe.
These deaths do not make such good viewing and so, every week, they are largely ignored. Daily the numbers mount, not decrease, and nobody promises several billion dollars to aid them. The Tsunami will likely make this death toll even worse through stretching of aid budgets and agencies, people’s limits to giving and a lack of focus on these issues.
Rather than knee-jerk reactions to TV’s grubby visuals, I wish this disaster had made people stop and think. To a great extent it was the third world poor who subsisted on these coastlines and died. We have to change the basis of our economics from top to bottom to solve these issues - not just give a little spare change as thanks for the holiday entertainment.
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There is more video footage starting to emerge of the Tsunami. The BBC have some video’s. Click the “WATCH BBC NEWS IN VIDEO” link then “Tsunami Strikes”.
Video Uplift is What the Punters Want an earlier post with other links to Tsunami video footage.
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Countries affected by the Tsunami should have their debt wiped out, according to the UK Finance Minister Mr Gordon Brown. Mr Brown has been proposing debt relief of substantially all third world debt for some time. This year, as Britain chairs the G8, Gordon Brown really thought he was on to a winner.
Mr Brown’s call for debt relief for nations struck on dec 26th is flawed: he has done this because he see’s his ‘grand cause’ slipping away in a world dominated by this disaster. Unfortunately, he makes his case weaker for general debt relief by trying to get this special case fast tracked.
Additionally, there is no indication that countries relieved would spend the money where intended or wisely. It is also true that such a heavy handed response does not account for differences between these nations.
I am not a supporter of capitalist economics as it now stands. I believe it to be harmful to persons and planet, including the unfortunate beasts who share our world. However, relieving this debt in these circumstances is an ego trip for Gordon Brown and not based on need. For this reason I find Brownian Economics unpalatable too.
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First reports of Tribal survival in the Andaman and Nicobar islands are appearing. It seems the largest, most integrated tribe have suffered severe losses whist the more ‘backward’ tribes have survived much better. Traditional bow & arrows were fired this morning against government helicopters dropping food.
It seems that the reasons for the tribes survival are twofold. Some of the tribes live in the forests and not by the sea. However, even the coastal tribes look to have survived quite intact. It is thought that these people became aware of the strange activity in the sea or by animals/birds and fled to high ground. A little awareness, a little harmony with your surroundings, a simple life: these things have saved the tribes.
Much money is now going to be spent on an early warning system. The Thai scientist who proposed it in 1997 has been pulled out of retirement to do the job he was mercilessly attacked for proposing eight years ago as it was seen to be bad for tourism to have an early warning system.
As I proposed immediately after the disaster the dead have delivered the warning already which will be in mind for the next generation or two. The Thai government shows us how important timing to be. The Andaman tribes on the other hand show us that we can not afford to be complacent about the ‘advanced’ nature of our ‘civilisation’.
Source on tribes: Inforshop.org
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Some romantic folk have been getting all steamed up with the idea that the Tsunami deaths and damage will inspire great co-operation among nations. This feeling arises from a combination of two things, a real need for greater co-operation on the one-hand and the endorphins running around romantic brains with nowhere to go.
I discussed endorphins and how the Tsunami has lead to an uprising of them in an earlier post, “Vicariously Uplifted by TV’s Grubby Visuals”.
Unfortunately the persons romanticising about greater co-operation have fallen prey to these endorphins. A lack of real ways to rid oneself of the emotional hangover left by such an event can be blamed. If you are going to get your high’s from TV disasters, it’s best not to think your groovy feeling is real.
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