What to do with homeless people?

 

   We have so many homeless people on the streets of London, Ontario that it becomes unwelcome even to walk on some streets around downtown, especially near the building where I live now. You better look at the sky instead around you. May be you'll see a flying saucer as on my photo that was made a couple of years ago  - just a 'flying' street lamp I call it.
   I moved to a new place in December of last year. This new place is bigger, better(warmer for sure in winter) and everything is better but this area is full of people who by their look are homeless and spend all their time on the streets or around soup kitchen. And we have constant broken windows around especially if that business is closed .
   I don't think we as a civilized society (are we?) have to have so many people who look unhealthy, dirty, lost and abandoned by society and themselves and totally not capable to take care of themselves. But what as a society can we do? Good question. My friend suggested to collect everybody who lives on the street and send to North Territories. But I don't think this solution is adequate. As a matter of fact it has been done in my old country too. Authorities would collect people they don't like and send to Siberia to survive if you can (happened in years 1930 and up). Most of them just died there. If we need to eradicate homelessness we need something better and more civilized. But what?
   Most of those people are young and should have some help from their parents or somebody else I think.We should be able to have some jobs available. I don't know if it's possible to organize jobs with some positive result as that problem becomes bigger every day. Soon I will be thinking about moving somewhere else if  we are going to have them more and more in this area. Some are probably on drugs judging by their behavior, some are just gave up on normal life.

   And what is normal life?
 As I understand this first of all you have to have your own place to live. Rented or not it is still yours if you take care of it and pay for it. It is yours and you do not have to live on the streets as it is not save and not comfortable and not healthy but for some reason accepted by so many people right now. I am not saying rich people, please, give your money to poor, no, that has been done in my old country at one time with terrible results for society, but we cannot have people living on the streets, we should not, not ever.
   Is there any solution for that problem? I think we have to analyze what they do in other countries and may be adopt some of their ways of dealing with homelessness. Lots of shelters is not a good solution either. You have to have your own place to live in and take care of it and be proud of it. Even as I said it's just a rental place as not everybody can buy a house or an apartment. And if you are sick and cannot live alone, you should live with somebody who can help you. Again society has to help people, not just throw money on them as many people don't appreciated that anyway and spend money wrong way - on drugs or endless lottery tickets hoping to win big. And then they go to soup kitchen and to shelter because they do not have money to buy food or pay rent.
    May be we have to start teaching at school how to avoid homelessness so at least future generation will be smarter and more adaptable in our society and will be able to create normal life to themselves. May be we should teach kids how to buy food you can afford and pay rent. Some people don't know how to do even that. And then we do not have to boarder our windows anymore. Will it be nice?

Urban jungle survival - how to fight elements.

Please, do understand, I don't mean weather when I am saying "elements"
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   Yes, when you are in a real jungle, you have to fight wild beasts, cold, hunger, what not. But in our civilized world  people are not exposed to wild elements so often. In a civilized society we are surrounded by walls, heaters or/and air conditioners. And it's a good thing.
  We have warm clothing, plenty of places to buy food, transportation - personal or public and shelters. We are getting relaxed. We trust. If it says 'diet' we think it's good. But...
   There are so much hidden elements that may spoil, endanger and ruin your life and those elements do not look like wild beasts at all; and their threat is much more hidden, gentle; and sometimes it takes years to realize, to fully understand what exactly threatens you not less than a wild beast.
   Everything is about safety nowadays -  safe water and plenty of it.
   It's so clean, amazingly transparent,it does not smell, it is tasteless, odorless and seemingly good liquid. We consume it freely, we give it to our children and pets, we drink it from a tap without fear of becoming sick or poisoned by polluted water. Should we? Or should we not?
  We go to a store. Every product is sealed securely, labelled properly. You can read all the ingredients, calories, percentage of everything on a label. The product is in convenient portions and in colorful, inviting, appetizing containers. It has expiration date so you don't have to worry about eating the spoiled products. You trust your food industry, they know the best,they are professionals. They would never sell you a bad product. As soon as it is past expiration date, it is removed from shelves and destroyed - you can rely on that. Can you?
  That's what we all do, well, up to the point. Then we start asking questions. Why? Why my son suddenly gains weight and have dizzy spells(which his doctor calls migraines though he never has headaches, ever).
  We eat normal Canadian  healthy food - why do we all gain weight? Is it because we are immigrants and used to different food? Or is it something more sinister in all this?
  How to fight this?
  You start reading food labels. You see that under all that colorful pictures there is the product that contains  lots of chemicals that are absolutely unnecessary to your nourishment. Okay, may be they are not harmful in small dozes, but what if you eat them day, after day, after day and add other small ingredients of unnecessary chemicals from other food products that are lased with all that stuff that keeps them fresh, appetizingly looking, smooth, sell-able for weeks and months.
  Why do I care if  the sour cream is smooth or not, as long as I know that this is a good and fresh product? Why do I buy a drink and in 2 months (?) forgotten on a kitchen table in summer weather with no refrigeration, not sealed, because somebody drank some of it, and it still tastes good and looks perfect??? Well I tried to drink it for mere curiosity and my stomach felt strange after but nothing happened, not even diarrhea... Long live our food industry, they know how to preserve products and us!
   Well, I am not concerned about shelf life, I have refrigerator and I can go and buy some more products, I don't have to keep them for months and months.
  And I prefer fresh stuff. Not artificially fresh, not chemically laden fresh, but really fresh. And it's shelf life is not going to be months but much less and may be we should learn to deal with that and freeze products when you can or buy them in smaller portions, I don't know.
   I can tell you one thing - when I started to read all labels on regular everyday products I was so appalled, so disgusted  because every single one had some ingredients and sometimes lots of them that are no supposed to be there at all. They do not have any nutritional value for me or anybody else.
  I do not want my milk pasteurized and then laced with synthetic vitamins because natural ones have been lost in a process of pasteurization, I find it's extremely ridiculous.
   I do not like ALL my milk products being made from pasteurized milk with all kind of weird added stuff. I want them to be made from raw, RAW MILK.
   Sour cream, butter, cream, cheese - all that can give you lots and lots nutritional goodness, just do not add crap(chemicals) to it. Something should be done and soon or our children will never have healthy kids of their own and will never know what healthy life is.
  Nowadays they talk a lot about organic food. Okay, organic is perfect but it is expensive and hardly affordable for most people. I certainly cannot afford it. But free run eggs I can afford. And clean, not chlorinated and not fluoridated water I can and I do. Recently I stopped drinking tap water and cooking in it (that one is harder but doable) and  I will tell you next time how amazing it was to my health. That's the elements we have to fight in civilized society. We have to fight our own trust into our civilized rules of the game if you know what I mean. To survive in an urban jungle you have to be not less smart and resourceful than out there  in the wild. Your tools have to be different though. You have to be alert and vigilant and...
 well, let's put it this way. You get up in the morning from your chemically laden anti-inflammable mattress, clean you teeth with fluoridated paste, take your shower in fluoridated water, put on a clean shirt that was chemically dry cleaned, eat cereal full of preservatives and sugar with pasteurized milk, drink chemical juice or coffee made with fluoridated and chlorinated water... I think you've got it. After all that you cannot expect to be healthy. It's a miracle if you still are.
  Annual check-ups are good too but it's not enough. You have to spend some time and really investigate what you are putting into your mouth every day and how you treat your body.
   Is it a garbage disposal for food industry or is it your temple that will serve you loyally through your long and healthy life?
   You just have to take care of it, protect it, really take care of it. It's your survival mode, you can do it if you want a good life. Fight the elements. Small things are important. Now. When it's not too late. When you are still healthy. Stay that way, please.