Spiritlifter

I am not sure if you are old enough to remember the L'il Abner comic strip, but there was one episode, set during the heyday of the Peace Corp movement, when a couple of volunteers were asked why they joined this organization, and the answer was so they could save the poor of the world. When asked why they had to fly off to some remote part of the globe, when they could stay at home and save America's poor, mainly First Nations ("Indians" back then), they replied that it was simply too boring.

When problems occur too close to home, the eyes glaze over, the brain turns off, and daydreams of far away (and hence, more important) places dance behind their eyelids.

The Tyee article:
http://thetyee.ca/Life/2010/06/22/SavingLivesInAndes/
has Harper pledging to save the world's poor. But which poor is he thinking of when he utters these words?

Geez!

Who just woke up. All this article does is state the obvious.

SPIRITLIFTER RAISES MY SPIRIT

You, Spiritlifter obviously enjoy a good education, this allows you to put it so eloquently, the plight of our native people. It is unfortunate that those with mental issues (and Natives) are mostly viewed as a blight on our society when in reality our society is a blight on them. The native culture has historically embraced their challenged and accepted them. Shouldn't we?

snert ...

There are many tens of thousands of people in this province alone, never mind the rest of our benighted country, that need to be have the obvioused stated to them time, and time again.

It does no harm to put the heavy hammer to the hard head, from time to time.

ANOTHER OF CAMPBELLS GREAT SOLUTIONS EH ! - JUST IGNORED

Unfortunately, after nearly ten years in power, it is obvious that the BC Lie-berals do not think this problem is bad enough to do anything about it.

Of course there was problems in 2001 and the numbers of homeless has increased - not decreased. You can put whatever spin you want on it, but major cuts to social services has put a lot of these patients out on the streets.

So Campbell continues to beat up on the poor, sick, the elderly, the mentally challenged and nothing gets done. It is not confined to the Fn peoples, but does include a lot of other unfortunates as well.

Just could not resist mentioning how well Campbell has championed the causes of the unfortunate - not at all. He needs to go and go quickly.

Thank you.

Government policy leads to/causes homelessness.

Remember the time before homelessness was pervasive, and a fact of life in virtually every city? Unaffordable housing, a lack of social housing, wages that don't keep up with inflation, closing down mental health facilities, booting the most vulnerable people out of programs and leaving them to fend for themselves on disability payments so out of wack with the cost of living, they're bound to end up on the streets? Mental illness doesn't lead to homelessnes, government policy does.

Mental illness and disability have always been part of the human condition. How society treats its most vulnerable citizens determines whether someone becomes homeless.

Geez snert

It's obviously not so obvious to the majority of people, or perhaps you just woke up and didn't realize this...

Aboriginal navel-gazing is part of the plan, too!

Spiritlifter is under the mistaken apprehension that schizophrenia and other poverty and mental health issues are the exclusive purview of First Nations! A dangerously myopic view, but it's certainly one the legion of attys rep'ing both gov't and aboriginals would like us all, esp aboriginals, to believe b/c it's the key to the federal gravy train from which they feed so voraciously.

I urge readers to examine the facts of aboriginal funding in Canada. See http://www.askbiblitz.com/aboriginal.php. Ba-zillions are spent both federally and provincially by a wide variety of govt depts. - not just Indian Affairs - on aboriginal programs with lofty-sounding names supposedly to benefit this group of fewer than 1.2 million Canadians. Audits of the programs, however, reveal that for the most part - I repeat, for the most part - few, if any, of these programs achieve anything close to their goals. A succession of reports by Auditor General Sheila Fraser consistently reveals how badly these programs fail, yet attys protecting budgetary grift somehow convince the pols to continue funding the programs - ka-ching$ - allowing them to create even more! Worst of all, the nature of the unique relationship btwn FN and Canada means legal rep'n is required on all sides of every transaction involving aboriginals - ka-ching$.

The result: Aboriginals are consistently denied basic life necessaries while attys supposedly rep'ing either them or us taxpayers are covered in gold. The Treasury Board stats on public service salaries and benefits at DIAND alone are staggering. Alas, when aboriginal beneficiaries of these programs complain, the media portrays them as greedy, lazy Indians always with a hand out, fueling the division btwn Cdns and our FN bros and sisters. Clearly, it's the bureaucrats - mostly lawyers - who benefit from the sick, co-dependent relationship btwn FNs and the fed/Crown. Again, follow the money!

As Shakespeare's butcher famously opined in Hank 6, "The first thing we do, kill (or in this case, fire) all the lawyers." If ASKBiblitz programs failed as reliably as these, to turf old Biblitz in the street would be the work of an instant. Surely public funding must be performance driven to a least some extent!

Once this money is liberated from the evil clutches of incompetent bureaucrats, they may be redirected properly toward re-creating the same kinds of anti-poverty programs and services that were in effect before Mulroney's big blue machine rolled over them, giving Canada an urban homeless problem still expanding today. Thanks, Brian.

This is our shame

...and we need people like Paulsen to keep stating it until we confront it and stop turning our backs on our most bulnerable citizens.

People also need to see that it is possible to do better - How are other societies coping with mental illness, schizophrenia, victims of childhood abuse, etc?

Two words...

Housing FIRST!

A lack access to homes and shelter is the cause of homelessness.

Did the study give statistics on people WITH homes?

"Krausz presented results of a recent study of 500 homeless British Columbians found in Vancouver, Victoria and Prince George."

I think that they had surveyed a control group of people with homes the statistics would be much the same for people with homes. And how exactly does one decide who is mentally ill and who is not? And, who decides?

Depriving us of shelter is crazy-making.

Hellooo?

Yes! Of course mental illness leads to homelessness. Couldn't it be more obvious? Some one without control over their mind is certainly not able to take control of their day-to-day life. My ex-husband and father of our 2 young children started suffering from mental illness in his mid-30's. He went into the mental hospital homeless and he came out of the mental hospital homeless. The lack of support for this vulnerable and very ill group of people is deplorable!

BC to Spend $1.1 Billion on "housing"?

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/jails+will+cost+taxpayers+billion/3189341/story.html