This week we are supposed to blog some statistics to back up our arguments. In doing this research I discovered that the majority of homelessness stems from financial catastrophes within families. Financial catastrophes are also the reason behind homeless men and women, and not only families but it seems that it’s most common in families. Families with children are among the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. The Conference of Mayors found that 41% of the homeless are families with children, up from 34% in 2000. The Urban Institute reports about 23% of the homeless are children.(Mary Otto. The Washington Post Washington)In my project my goal is to not only limit my services to homeless families but also to homeless children, men, and women. This project will hopefully be able to bridge the gaps in the lives of these individuals so that they may be able to rebuild their lives without those issues that put them in the predicaments that they were in. I realize that financial catastrophe is not the only reason for homelessness among all groups of people. While the economy is driving some of the increase in demand for shelter and food assistance, other factors include mental illness, substance abuse and low-paying jobs, according to the Conference of Mayors survey (Mary Otto. The Washington Post Washington). These other factors will be taken into consideration once I have gathered the individuals in need of assistance. Im not saying that there aren’t any programs out there that are doing the same things that I plan to do , all Im saying is that there aren’t enough programs out there of this nature. I understand that the fact of the matter is that there are homeless people out there who are homeless because they themselves ruined their lives or they are homeless by choice, but I feel that no one deserves t be homeless whether it be by choice or not. I think that there is probably something mentally wrong with the person who wants to be homeless. I also can tell the difference between someone who means what they say, and someone who is discreetly crying for help. I have come to realize that sometimes people say things to get a reaction from others, and to see just how serious the person will take the things that they say. There are a lot of homeless people out there who seem mean and angry but that’s because they need help but they don’t really know how to ask for the help, so in stead of asking for help the pout and be mean to others to get some attention hoping that all the while someone will notice them. I know that some people would respond to this by saying that they aren’t mind readers, but sometimes you have to look beyond the words to see the underline meaning behind them. Another major part of why some families are homeless has to do with employment. A growing number of families are vulnerable to homelessness because of the dismal job climate. The unemployment rate reached 6.4% in June, the highest since April 1994 before edging back to 6.2% in July. Last month, there were nearly 2 million unemployed workers who had been looking for a job for 27 weeks or longer, an increase of 276,000 since January, according to the Department of Labor (Mary Otto. The Washington Post Washington). For many families already on the edge, homelessness is a catastrophic reality. Less than a year ago, Kimberly Brochu was expecting a baby and living with her husband and four children in an apartment in Winslow, Maine. Then her husband, Allen, was laid off from his painting job. Eight months pregnant, Brochu wound up on the streets with her family. They spent their nights sleeping in bunk beds at a homeless shelter and during the day camped out in their car at a Burger King. Today, she and her husband rent a duplex and are both working again.
“People think we get homeless because we’re irresponsible, but it’s hard finding jobs,” says Brochu, 29, who works as a housekeeper and a waitress; Allen is a farmer’s helper. “But my kids, if they become successful, they won’t look down on people who are poor (Mary Otto. The Washington Post Washington). I chose this topic because I felt that homelessness is a subject that often get over looked, and the statistics of homelessness is not something that people of today really make a conscious effort to recognize. In doing my research I found that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments did a survey and reported that 2,234 chronically homeless people who would be candidates for such supportive housing, many of them mentally ill, addicted to drugs or dealing with other disabilities. Those people are using about half the region’s emergency shelter spaces and other resources, which cannot properly address their problems. The COG recognizes that these people don’t just need temporary shelter, they need a reconstruction period so that they will be able to return to the public sphere. Basically, Homelessness is an issue that is steadily on the rise and although there are organizations out there that are trying to help these homeless individuals and families rebuild their lives it’s still not enough. The fact of the matter is that we have the state and government officials making these huge salaries but there is a child somewhere in the world who won’t eat because their mother or father doesn’t have enough money to feed him/her. I feel so strongly about this subject because I have been very fortunate to have never been homeless but who knows what will happen in ones life from one day to the next and one day I could very well become home less. If that was to ever occur I would like to be assured that I would have somewhere to turn to help me back on my feet and to prevent this from ever happening again.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2005 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Week 07: Research Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Almost all the articles and research that i found, most of them disagree with gay marriage. A lot of people agreed with the topics i disgust in my blog about homosexuality. There was an article i found that stated twelve reasons why gay marriage would make society bad.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2005 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Project Progress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

In this week’s blog we are supposed to get some hard statistics dealing with our project. Researching statistics is never easy, but it helps when one takes advantage of the library resources. Anyhow, my project deals with racism, therefore my research and statistics will be based on racism and prejudice. First off, lets discuss the definition of racism. Racism can be defined as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Racism is racial discrimination and prejudice. Then the question arises, “What is prejudice Mr. Chima?” Well, to be prejudice, one must decide beforehand; to lean in favor of one side of a cause for some reason or other than its justice. For example, a judge ought to be without prejudice, and he cannot therefore sit in a case where he has any interest, or when a near relation is a part, or where he has been of counsel for one of the parties. Racism and prejudice work together like Stockton & Malone. One “drives through the lane” to your heart while the other “sets a strong pick” into your mind, leaving you confused on how to stop the simple play (please excuse the basketball player personification, I couldn’t help it). Now lets jump into some of the statistics of racism. Despite the “progress” in culture, science and technology, racism, tribalism, nationalism, colonialism and the caste system have been mainly responsible for the death of over 62 million human beings in the last 100 years. These numbers, however, do not tell the full story since no numbers are available for the colonial period. And one really cannot imagine the misery of so many millions who suffered through it although they were not killed. Today there are about 22 million refugees in our world who were forced to abandon their homes essentially because of nationalistic wars.Here are some frightening statistics that should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind about the destructive nature of all of these diseased ideologies: The Colonialism-1500s-late 20th century; Colonialism was such a powerful force that by 1900, for instance, 90.4 percent of Africa was under European colonial control. This was a political-economic phenomenon that began in the 1500s whereby various European nations “discovered”, conquered, and exploited large areas of the world. The last century began with almost all countries of the world enslaved under Europian colonial control whose effects are still felt in the shape of neo colonialism and the exploitative power of the few nations of the world. Slavery became a science in the colonial era in which tens of millions of people were killed or enslaved because of their race and color. Some national and racial wars are:
1. The nationalism based wars of Europe resulted in World War I (1914-1918). Over 8 million were killed and over 21 million wounded.
2. World War II (1939-1945) killed 52 million worldwide.
This was marked by the rise of Germany’s fascist dictator Hitler and his Nazi party. Over 20 countries took part in World War II and suffered not only death, but also destruction of homes and infrastructures. The Nazi genocide against a number of groups: Jews, Gypsies and non-whites to name just a few were a clear example of racism.
African-Americans, even today, over 30 years after the civil rights movement, are oppressed in many ways.
-African-Americans numbered about 34.2 million in 1997, making up 12.8 Percent of the total U.S. population, according to tabulations released by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau (Feb. 7, 2000)
-The income of 2.1 million African-American families (26 percent) was below the poverty level.
-Incidents of racial hate crime reported to the police, by bias motivation in 1998 was 4,468. The highest number was reported by African-Americans: 2,901.
-Between 1975 and 1997, African-Americans had the highest unemployment rate.
-African-Americans aged 12 and up are the most victimized group in America. 41.7 over 1,000 of them are victims of violent crimes, compared with whites (36.3 over 1,000). This does not include murder.
Nationalism continued to play the killing role throughout the last century
Countries, which fought colonialism, fought it on the basis of nationalism learned from the colonial masters. The result is the perpetuation of tragedies based on this idealogy. Muslim countries also suffered through this phase of delayed nationalism.
Here there are several examples:
1. The destruction of the Ottoman Khilafa because of Arab and Turkish nationalism-1924
This fervent Turkish nationalism under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal came into power in Ankara (Turkey’s capital today). The Ottoman empire’s last Sultan, Mohammed VI, fled in 1922 after the Sultanate had been abolished. Every member of the Ottoman empire was expelled from the country two years later. Turkey was proclaimed a republic, with Ataturk as its first president.
Arab nationalism affected the fall of the Caliphate with the view that Arabs, not Turks should be rulers. This nationalism conveniently exploited by the Lawrence of Arabia, led to a push to wrest control from the Turks of the Ummah’s leadership hence expediting the end of Khilafa for the first time in the 1300-year history of Islam.
2. India attacks and still controls Kashmir since 1947. One Indian soldier for every seven Kashmiris is used to further India’s nationalist claim on Kashmir. More than a million refugees, three wars, and hundreds of thousands have been killed as a result.
3. Israel’s Zionism expelled Palestinians from their land (1948). Palestinians still constitute the largest refugee population of the world.
4. Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan)-1971
Bangladesh was once East Pakistan, following partition from India in 1947. But after seething under a number of grievances against West Pakistan (which is the Pakistan today) war erupted and the fight for separation from West Pakistan began.
As many as 300,000 people were thought to have lost their lives in this civil war.
5. Iran-Iraq war of the 1980’s was a nationalistic war which killed 1 million people.
6. 1992-1995-the genocide of Bosnians at the hands of Serb nationalism resulted in 200, 000 killed 2 million refugees.
7. 1997-1999- expulsion of approximately one million Albanian Kosovars from Kosova.
8. Chechnya is suffering right now through the fifth genocide by Russians in last one hundred years along with the Tatars.
9. Over a million Iraqis have been killed as a result of the 1991 Gulf war and the continuing US sanctions against Iraq reaching the genocidal proportions.
Amazing how the world is presently, and how it was in the past. Not much of a change. We just look over it nowadays…
[[[My statistics were sited from http://www.soundvision.com/Info/racism/statistics.asp]]]

This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2005 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Project Progress, Week 07: Research Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.