The Earth Village

The Earth Village

If you could fit the entire world into a village of 100 people and maintaining the proportion of all people living on earth, that village would comprise of :

52 Asians,
21 Europeans
14 Americans (north, central and south)
8 Africans.

Of those 100 in the Earth Village:

There would be 52 women and 48 men
There would be 30 Caucasians and 70 non-caucasians
There would be 30 Christians and 70 non-christians
There would be 89 heterosexuals and 11 homosexuals

Of those 100 in the Earth village:

6 of all those people would contain 59% of all the wealth and all would be from the USA
80 of the people would be living in poverty
70 would be illiterate
50 would be suffering from hunger and malnutrition
1 would be dying
1 would be being born
1 (yes only 1) would have a university degree.

If we look at the world this way, the need for acceptance and understanding would be obvious.

But consider this:

-          If you wake every morning with good health, you have more luck than 1 million people who won’t live through the week.
-          If you have never experienced the horror of war, the solitude of prison, the pain of torture, have never been close to death from starvation, then you are better off than 500 million people today.
-          If you are able to worship with no fear that someone will assault you or kill you, you are better off than 3 billion people
-          If you have a fridge full of food, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are wealthier than 75% of the world’s population.
-          If you have a bank account, money in your wallet and coins in your purse, you are one of the 8 privileged few amongst the 100 in the Earth Village
-          If you parents are still married and alive you are a rare individual
-          If you can read this article, then you are not one of the 2 billion who cannot read or write.

And SO.....

WORK like you don’t need money

LOVE like no one has ever hurt you

DANCE like no one is watching

SING like no one can hear you

LIVE as if this was Paradise on Earth

Availability of easy gambling - a cause of Homelessness?

Gambling is a major cause of misery and homelessness to those addicted. Billions of dollars in taxes are raised from the gambling society and it is not in government’s interest to halt this devastating form of abuse. For many lonely men and women poker machines, horse racing, sporting events and so forth are simply a means of escaping their sad and lonely lives.

 

Soon they are addicted and it is not long before housekeeping money and jobs are lost. Many on the streets have lost everything through gambling. Homes, families, jobs, cars and now they live from dole check to dole check sleeping under bridges and buildings. No support, no one to talk to except the beckoning from the clubs and casinos who welcome them day and night as their dole checks disappear down the slots. Often this is the only means of escaping the weather, to get a cheap meal and perhaps a little company while they wait for the day to pass.

 

It is not just clubs and casinos that beckon gamblers. All major television sports display regular betting odds enticing betting on results. It is so simple to open a telephone account linking it to a credit card or bank account and then betting directly from one’s lounge, while watching television. The only check on age when opening an account is for the "minor" to tick a box which indicates they are over 18. If they are below this age, the onus is on them and they are eligible to place bets online. In other words, who is to know they are under 18?

 

Underage children are not permitted into casinos and clubs. Yet, watching parents betting from their lounge and even in some cases encouraged to do so themselves, is quite acceptable by governments and authorities. I know of children whose parents will add the children's betting wins to the child's bank account they have opened for them. But, should the child lose on a bet, that is not deducted from the account - mom and dad simply "wear" that loss.

 

Is this not teaching children that it is perfectly natural to gamble on sporting events with no regard to the consequences, until it is too late?

Family Breakdown - A cause of homelessness?

I have yet to meet a person who has freely chosen to live a homeless life on the streets. A life of sleeping rough, hungry and cold, with little human contact, no job and seemingly no chance of escaping this dangerous miserable life. A vast majority of the people we support are not drug addicts, alcoholics or people with no intention of helping themselves. Family breakdown, domestic violence, gambling, lack of work, loss of self confidence and esteem are one of the worst forms of human mental destruction. And yet the answers are so simple – love, care and kindness.

 

This blog, I discuss family breakdown.

Family breakdown is, I believe, a major cause of homelessness and misery. It is the children who suffer the most at these times. In many cases this is the start of a life drifting from shelter to shelter, couch surfing, seedy bars or a life of crime and living on the streets. At a critical time in these children’s developing lives, the true meaning of life and morals is not taught them. To survive the harshness of the streets leads to an existence the majority of society shuns and frowns upon. Yet, this forced lifestyle is often their only means of survival.

 

Late at night and on the streets, there is no room for weakness.  I have met boys and girls as young as 14 living on the streets. And what is the reason for their running from home? It is often the abuse by de facto parents or partners, marriage breakdown and separation that drives the child from the safe place they once called home. On the streets at such a tender age, children rightly cannot legally access an adult shelter or motel. Often the authorities who locate such children simply return them home to their abuse once more.

 

A child or young person on the streets matures and hardens quickly and in their circumstances, their belief and faith in adults, the law and religion, is very different to that held by most other children. Street survival is a way of life most people cannot imagine and it is only these young people’s cunning and street smarts that get them through. There are always the drug pushers looking for new clients. Clients they can addict and turn into couriers, pushers or a life of prostitution.

 

I am unable to truly imagine and describe the loneliness and fear a child experiences on the streets alone at night. Sadly though, that is often preferable to the life they are running from. Many an adult we meet living a life of loneliness on the streets started their street life in just such a way.

Domestic violence is another major cause of homelessness. At such times often the only choice for abused women is to take the children and whatever is at hand and flee the home. And then police and courts become involved. In many cases this is the start of a life hiding from abusive partners search for them often ignoring court orders. So begins the woman and children’s life of fear and moving from place to place, sometimes sleeping in cars, on couches in barns or sheds. If in their flee from the violence, leases are broken, or accommodation destroyed, it is often the woman and children who are then no longer eligible for rental accommodation. At such times mothers stand a good chance of losing their children to the authorities. To avoid sibling confiscation mothers may start another life on the run and one of lies, constantly moving and abandoning welfare payments to remain anonymous.

 

We cannot judge and have no right to judge.

 

Quotes

Homelessness is not only of bricks but homelessness comes from that terrible loneliness that the unwanted, the unloved know along their way. Are we there? Do we know them? Do we see them? Mother Teresa quote.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha Quote

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries Douglas Casey

Mother Teresa's Anyway Poem

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

So, what is "homelessness"?

So what is "homelessness".

 

Homelessness is perhaps a person's greatest fear. Daily contact with others is often limited. The view is the same for months, knowing that tomorrow and next month will be the same, perhaps raining or cold though. No chances of a job as you are now too old and not qualified and in more cases than one knows, unable to read or write. Perhaps you are not well and that constant hunger pain never leaves as you sit waiting for your fortnightly payday to perhaps shout yourself a night in a cheap motel to take in a bit of “tellie” and a hot shower, before heading out to the streets again. Are the meagre possessions you own and can carry that you hid in the rocks, safe or will the council workers dispose of them when tidying up? What has happened to your family you may not have heard from for years and perhaps it does upset you your family has no idea if you are still alive. Where will you sleep tonight, the rocks, beach, toilet, bushes? You must find a safe place to sleep, away from other mentally unstable homeless persons or pub revellers who’s fun is bashing “streeties” in the early hours of the morning and you are unable to seek police assistance as you should not be sleeping on the streets anyway.

We regularly meet women who are running from abusive relationships. Some with small children. So too youths, boys and girls as young as 14 years old, who are also sleeping rough, having abandoned school and their home to escape the abuse from people who should be protecting them. At 14 years old, no organisation can legally take them, police will return them to the abuse, so what option except to head for streets, gangs and a life with very little future

Despite the hardships, it never ceases to amaze me as to the unconditional love our friends give back to us. So too the concern for each other, their many talents, sensitivity, humour and amazingly, their belief in God. After all, these are people just like you and I

 

 

 

 http://guide2homelessness.blogspot.com.au/2004/10/introduction-to-project.html