[homeles_ot-l] Fwd: [cathycrowenews] October 2007 Newsletter

[Terrie]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Crowe News <crowenews at tdrc.net>
Date: 4 Oct 2007 17:24
Subject: [cathycrowenews] October 2007 Newsletter
To: cathycrowenews at povnet.org

   *
Newsletter # 38 ~ October 2007*



Dear Subscribers,
Below is the thirty eighth edition of Cathy Crowe's monthly newsletter. This
is a great resource for individuals who care about homelessness and housing,
health and other social issues.

You can also view Cathy's newsletters at her website at:
http://tdrc.net/index.php?page=newsletter.<http://tdrc.net/index.php?page=newsletter>




 Further information about subscribing to the newsletter is found below. I
want to hear from you - about the newsletter, about things that are
happening in the homelessness sector (what a sad term!), and about good things
which will provide inspiration for all of us.

*************************************************************


*1.    Lily and the Paper Man -  a children's story
2.    Films and War
3.    Election Time – again


1.    Lily and the Paper Man - a children's story*

It's pretty easy to love this newly released first book by Rebecca Upjohn,
inspired by an experience with her son when he was four years old.  Renee
Benoit's illustrations are engaging.

I was pretty much hooked by the second line where Lily, the protagonist,
tells her mother *"Let's walk. I like the rain."* And later *"I like the
snow." * Lily's route home from school with her mom leads her to encounter a
homeless man selling papers.  Never mind that the story focuses on certain
stereotypes of who is homeless: male, scruffy, scary, shaky – it's hard to
deny that this is what many children do see at street level.  Like most
children Lily is observant, curious and compassionate.  She's also smart.
What evolves is a pretty lovely response that I hope will inspire teachers
and parents to take the story to the next step, which is to ask "Where does
the 'Paper Man' go each night?" and "Why doesn't he have a home?"  My
experience is that children are way smarter than adults and can handle this
type of discussion.  In fact, this is the type of book that can counter the
nonsense coming from politicians and right-wing media outlets who insist on
perpetuating fear and loathing about people who are homeless or forced to
beg.
My only caution to teachers using the book is to imagine ways that their
students can move beyond collecting socks and warm clothing.  The Elementary
Teachers' Federation of Ontario has been developing curriculum in this area
and may be of assistance.
www.etfo.ca<http://www.etfo.ca/Pages/default.aspx>(in particular see
Danny, King of the Basement).

Lily and the Paper Man, by Rebecca Upjohn, Second Story Press, 2007
Recommended ages 4-8


*2.    Films and War*

Yes, once again I went to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
Surprisingly, of the 22 films I saw, five depicted nurses in a range of
films from history to drama and musicals.  Watch for Salma Hayek in the
singing nurses role in *'Across the Universe'* by Julie Taymor!

I saw two older films that I believe need to be screened more widely given
the current world situation.  Both were in the Dialogues: Talking With
Pictures program, where film artists, usually directors, are asked to show
and talk about a film that changed their lives.

The first was by English director Ken Loach who showed Czech director Jiri
Menzel's 'Closely Watched
Trains<http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=131>'
(1966).  This film is set in WW II and shows the impact of the ever present
war on the lives of ordinary people at a provincial railway station in
German occupied Czechoslovakia .  It is both a delightful and moving film.
As an aside, I should add that Loach also screened his new film 'It's a Free
World <http://www.sixteenfilms.co.uk/films/film/its_a_free_world>', which
addresses the layers of issues in the global economy that impact on migrant
and exploited workers.  It is a must see for the performance of Kierston
Wareing as 'Angie' who starts her own recruiting agency.

The second film was 'Oh! What a Lovely
War'<http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19691030/REVIEWS/910300301/1023>(1969)
by Sir Richard Attenborough.  This was the first film the actor had
ever directed.  It is a musical based on Joan Littlewood's beloved stage
play, employing satire, song and absurdist humour to show the callousness
and stupidity of the leaders who bring us to war.  It has only recently come
to DVD. In the Q&A session Sir Attenborough lamented the diminished use of
film in recent years to build compassion and tolerance, in contrast with
Hollywood 's heightened fetish for guns and vengeance movies.

To view some of my past movie picks from TIFF go to:
http://tdrc.net/resources/public/Crowe-Newsletter_oct_06.htm
and
http://tdrc.net/resources/public/Crowe-Newsletter_05-09.htm


*3.    Election Time – again*

Facing an Ontario election with political platforms remarkably void of
social issues, an amazing coalition of over 100 groups calling themselves
Toronto Anti-Poverty (TAP) recently marched on our provincial legislature.
The Queen's Park rally called for action on social issues including housing,
welfare rates, minimum wage, and rights for people who are disabled and for
those without status.

http://torontoantipoverty.tao.ca/torontoantipoverty.tao.ca/demands.html

*Here is the brief speech I made on that day:*

"When a few people in a community have no housing due to a fire or some
other tragic event, or when hundreds of people become displaced because of
some disaster, the community mobilizes.  To do otherwise is unthinkable.

When many people are unhoused we have a community-wide crisis.  When the
numbers are allowed to grow, and when all reasonable analyses point to even
more homeless people every day, we have a disaster – a situation requiring
emergency relief and prevention measures.  In the same way as when a flood
or a storm leaves many people homeless.  All people must be protected from
becoming homeless, from having inadequate food, and from being exposed to
life and health-threatening circumstances."

This is from the State of Emergency
Declaration<http://tdrc.net/resources/public/Report-98-TDRC.htm>,
TDRC, October, 1998 – nearly nine years ago!

In that State of Emergency Declaration written 9 years ago we declared
homelessness a disaster in Toronto and a national disaster.  Over 400
organizations across the country signed on to the declaration.  Some of you
are here today.

Yes, our mobilizing together brought relief.  It brought in the SCPI money,
it brought in emergency shelters like the armouries, and the shelters in the
armouries and old empty hospitals like Princess Margaret and Doctors.  It
brought in more food relief for drop-ins; it brought in donations for
sleeping bags.  It brought a housing victory for the Tent City squatters in
Toronto .  But it still left people homeless.

Yesterday, I finished reading a new health report on people in Toronto .  It
had these words in it: violence, fatigue, pain, stress, rape, despair,
death, depression, tuberculosis, bedbugs, killer heat.  In a health report!
Well you probably know I'm referring not to a health report on people living
in Forest Hill, but the Street Health
Report<http://www.streethealth.ca/home.htm>
.

The Street Health Report found:
•    40% were unable to get a shelter bed at least once in past year
•    56% had experienced serious depression in the past year
•    One-third had been homeless more than 5 years
•    78% cited economic reasons for why they remain homeless

Remember the words *"When many people are unhoused we have a community-wide
crisis."*

I often say that THIS is our Katrina.  This is our Katrina because like
those hurricane victims our political leaders are leaving people languishing
in hellish conditions because they will not deal with the question of right
to housing and build the infrastructure.

Shortly after the election the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing,
Miloon Kothari is coming to Canada to investigate our conditions.

What will he see and hear?

•    that there is no proper shelter in Kingston or Cobourg,
•    that there is no designated family shelter in Sault Ste. Marie, in
Thunder Bay, or Sarnia,
•    that no new affordable housing is being built in northern Ontario,
•    that we now have palliative care programs set up for homeless people,
•    and that women suffer greatly, like Heather, age 48 who in the Street
Health Report says: "I WILL NOT live on a park bench any more, or in a tent
like I was doing. They should have a lot more housing for us. Because it's
terrible."

What is terrible, what is criminal really is the lack of heroism, the lack
of courage, the lack of political will, the lack of determination, the lack
of imagination, the lack of empathy by political parties to put housing and
homelessness and hunger and poverty onto their election platforms.  And to
the media, many of you here today, many of you have covered these issues for
years, you know the issue.  Where is the coverage of our Katrina during this
election?

We, the people affected and the agencies and unions and churches have come
together today.  We must stay together to speak out, to protest.  It is the
right thing to do.

Cathy

Thanks to Dave Meslin for layout and Bob Crocker for editing.

*Back to Top ^*



*****



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------------------------------


-- 
Terrie ( mocharebyl at gmail.com )
"If you see an injustice being committed, you aren't an observer, you are a
participant." June Callwood
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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