https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ8xr2ZfY4I
No, Gentle Reader, you do not get to listen here to either one of the Beatles' old chestnuts, neither number one, nor number nine. This is Judy Collins' interpretation of the song from the play Marat/Sade, for your listening pleasure, and yes, there will be a quiz after.
I think it goes without saying that we are heading into desperate times. Every since our elected representatives were seduced by the cheap thrills of Globalization and the good favour of the multinationals the gap between rich and poor in our country has been widening exponentially. It began in the nineties with the canaries in the coal mine, our own poor and homeless, a crisis created everywhere by rightwing governments leaning harder to the right, by centrist governments leaning harder to the right, and by progressive governments leaning harder to the right as they slashed and burned social assistance programs in the name of being globally competitive and to please their masters at the World Bank, turning thousands of vulnerable people everywhere out onto the street. Despite the egregious human rights violations involved here the rest of us didn't bother to notice until the price of a single detached home became the purview of anyone earning high in the six figures.
Now, especially here in Vancouver, we have people on middle incomes suddenly having to make a very difficult decision: move out of this city into a cheaper community, likely in another province, or end up in a low barrier shelter. We never thought our governments would let it get this out of hand. We never expected to find out how little they really care about us.
We need more than band aids and this appears to be all we are being offered. I have read the math for the Federal Liberals new housing strategy to be rolled out next year. The money isn't going to be anywhere near enough. Nor are the measures being taken by the city. Four hundred new units of affordable housing, just announced this week, many of which are not going to be affordable to the poorest Vancouverites, are not going to be enough. And our provincial government? They are so deplorable I don't even want to dignify their existence by mentioning them in this blog.
We are needing nothing less than a revolutionary approach to housing, in this city, and in this nation, if we are to see a return to the kind of social equality (even in those days way less than perfect) that we all took for granted forty years ago. The government intervention needed to close the loopholes and bring greedy landlords and realtors to justice is going to have to be intense, comprehensive and absolute. No one in this city should have to pay more than thirty percent of their income for housing, and for those on low incomes the percentage really ought to be lower than that.
Even though a lot of us are still fairly comfortable, if worried and anxious about the future, this could easily change in just a few years, even in just a few months. When thousands of citizens disenfranchised by their own governments become tens of thousands we begin to hear a murmur of unrest. When they become hundreds of thousands we can hear the shouting. When we become millions we'll all be screaming and if our governments remain lukewarm and indecisive and continue to fail to show real leadership they are going to find us all dancing on their graves while the rest of us sing songs of victory.
I am a pacificist. I detest violence. However I understand why people rise up and fight for their survival when their very existence becomes threatened. Even a cornered mouse will fight back and bite its oppressor.
Soon, if we don't see real change happen, there is going to be civil unrest. There will be acts of civil disobedience. People, especially renters are going to organize. When you find that everything you once enjoyed has been taken away from you it suddenly becomes very easy to fight back.
I really hope we do not end up having to see this. I for one will not endorse violence but I certainly will endorse meaningful, effective and well-meaning acts of nonviolent civil disobedience and strikes if that is what it is going to take to bring justice to those of us who simply want to be guaranteed the simple and fundamental human right of having a roof over our head.
This is my one thousandth post on this blog, Gentle Reader. Let`s celebrate!
No comments:
Post a Comment