I was shocked to find my country has slums (US)

[chuckman1]

They are not far from where I live either.
You can see it in the NY Times here [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/08/17/us/20070827_COLONIAS_FEATURE.html?_r=0] and take a look at Wikipedia's info here. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_(United_States)]

So I am from the United States. I knew we had really rough urban areas like Detroit that looked bad. But I never thought we had what could truly be considered slums. It turns out I was wrong. While these slums do not look as bad as what you would see in Liberia. But they look more like they would be in Romania than England.
Also here's a pictures of public housing in New York

(These people probably have better living standards still since there are regulations)
Is it ironic that we have such poverty in the "richest nation in the world"

Does your country have slums? How bad do they get? What should be done about them? If you don't have them how did you get rid of the slums? Social services?
(Sorry if this is hard to discuss I just wanted to get the word out. I think most people don't know about colonias, a lot don't even know about the rough conditions of the projects.)

 

[Thaluikhain]

The Australian government is about to take water and power from Aboriginal communities (those that have them), so we'll be getting more soon.

 

[chuckman1]

The Australian government is about to take water and power from Aboriginal communities (those that have them), so we'll be getting more soon.

I saw quite a few aussies on facebook cheering on the govt and calling the aboriginese backwards.
Is the racism as bad as it seems online?

 

[Thaluikhain]

The Australian government is about to take water and power from Aboriginal communities (those that have them), so we'll be getting more soon.

I saw quite a few aussies on facebook cheering on the govt and calling the aboriginese backwards.
Is the racism as bad as it seems online?

There is, and has always been, a real problem with the way Australian view Aboriginal Australians, though that's par for the course for indigenous people in the Anglosphere.

 

[JoJo]

As far as I'm aware, the UK doesn't have any slums, with a long tradition of the state providing housing the least well-off can usually fall back on council-let accommodation, though they aren't exactly luxury. Most of the UK homeless live in those, with a small minority on the streets who have fallen through the cracks, usually due to mental illness, drugs or because they're an illegal immigrant.

 

[Queen Michael]

They are not far from where I live either.
If anyone can help me embed this link I would appreciate it http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/08/17/us/20070827_COLONIAS_FEATURE.html?_r=0
and here is the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_(United_States)
[/IMG]

You can read about it in the NY Times here [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/08/17/us/20070827_COLONIAS_FEATURE.html?_r=0] and take a look at Wikipedia's info here. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_(United_States)]

(There. Just copy-paste that sentence and you're set.)

 

[chuckman1]

snip)

Thank you buddy!

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Yup. I live in a private village. Huge houses, some as big as football fields. Some even have more than three floors. We have a clubhouse that has tennis courts, badminton courts, basketball courts, conference rooms, swimming pools with slides, etc. Yet to the west of our village, literally right by the walls, is a large slum. Naturally, nobody buys property there. When that land is turned into a condo those people will be out a home. It's kinda hard to live by all this poverty. I might live in a village that's so high class, but I am not rich. I'm only in high school, and while I want to help those people out one day, I don't know what being anything short of the President would do to help these people. I plan to move abroad one day, but it feels like giving up on my country.

BTW, you call those slums? That would look like a fricking five star hotel to the squatters (illegal settlers) in my country.

 

[briankoontz]

The Australian government is about to take water and power from Aboriginal communities (those that have them), so we'll be getting more soon.

I saw quite a few aussies on facebook cheering on the govt and calling the aboriginese backwards.
Is the racism as bad as it seems online?

There is, and has always been, a real problem with the way Australian view Aboriginal Australians, though that's par for the course for indigenous people in the Anglosphere.

It's not a problem when considered logically. If your plan is to steal from someone, demonizing them so that there's no moral repercussions to YOU for doing so is very valuable, for obvious reasons. The next step of getting the entire community of thieves to collectively demonize the victims is no problem, since people recognize intuitively the value of doing this to such an extent that it's standard operating procedure in all colonial projects.

So what happens is that the demonization and theft proceed - if successful the theft occurs and the wealth is transferred from one group to the other. Then AFTER the theft succeeds and is secured through laws and regulations (so that the victims can't recover the wealth) the thieves show "tolerance" and decide that the victims aren't "savages", "heathens", "evil", or whatnot after all - they pity them. So then it's ok for some level of support, which the victims have no choice but to accept unless they prefer starvation for the sake of their pride.

Here's the real icing on the shit-cake. When the thieves show "tolerance" and "compassion" for the very people they tortured and destroyed, they celebrate THEMSELVES for their goodness and "progressive views". They say - "We're one step closer to becoming saints". They forget all about the theft - let's not talk about that. They torture and distort the history whenever they aren't forgetting it - the context and reality of what happened are devastated beyond recognition. And because they forget and desire to keep this cycle of demonization-theft-"tolerance"-amnesia going, it's ready to begin anew with another group. You know, Muslim Terrorists this time around.

So after the "War on Terror" is won, after all threats to the imperial interests of the world are destroyed and the Middle East is divvied up among various kingpins within the US, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, western Europe, Russia, and China, among others, after the local populace is enslaved and impoverished, then it's time for us to "morally progress" and decide that Palestinians and militant activists in the Middle East aren't evil terrorists after all. Out of the kindness of our gigantic hearts we can then give them a basic amount of material support to keep them from staving to death. You know, if they aren't such assholes that they refuse.

We're so generous.

 

[Thaluikhain]

It's not a problem when considered logically. If your plan is to steal from someone, demonizing them so that there's no moral repercussions to YOU for doing so is very valuable, for obvious reasons. The next step of getting the entire community of thieves to collectively demonize the victims is no problem, since people recognize intuitively the value of doing this to such an extent that it's standard operating procedure in all colonial projects.

So what happens is that the demonization and theft proceed - if successful the theft occurs and the wealth is transferred from one group to the other. Then AFTER the theft succeeds and is secured through laws and regulations (so that the victims can't recover the wealth) the thieves show "tolerance" and decide that the victims aren't "savages", "heathens", "evil", or whatnot after all - they pity them. So then it's ok for some level of support, which the victims have no choice but to accept unless they prefer starvation for the sake of their pride.

Here's the real icing on the shit-cake. When the thieves show "tolerance" and "compassion" for the very people they tortured and destroyed, they celebrate THEMSELVES for their goodness and "progressive views". They say - "We're one step closer to becoming saints". They forget all about the theft - let's not talk about that. They torture and distort the history whenever they aren't forgetting it - the context and reality of what happened are devastated beyond recognition. And because they forget and desire to keep this cycle of demonization-theft-"tolerance"-amnesia going, it's ready to begin anew with another group. You know, Muslim Terrorists this time around.

So after the "War on Terror" is won, after all threats to the imperial interests of the world are destroyed and the Middle East is divvied up among various kingpins within the US, Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, western Europe, Russia, and China, among others, after the local populace is enslaved and impoverished, then it's time for us to "morally progress" and decide that Palestinians and militant activists in the Middle East aren't evil terrorists after all. Out of the kindness of our gigantic hearts we can then give them a basic amount of material support to keep them from staving to death. You know, if they aren't such assholes that they refuse.

We're so generous.

Certainly, though I'd question how much this is done on a conscious level. Given that the pattern often goes for generations, the people doing it idn't plan their part out, the winning moves are just the same ones over and over.

 

[chuckman1]

Yup. I live in a private village. Huge houses, some as big as football fields. Some even have more than three floors. We have a clubhouse that has tennis courts, badminton courts, basketball courts, conference rooms, swimming pools with slides, etc. Yet to the west of our village, literally right by the walls, is a large slum. Naturally, nobody buys property there. When that land is turned into a condo those people will be out a home. It's kinda hard to live by all this poverty. I might live in a village that's so high class, but I am not rich. I'm only in high school, and while I want to help those people out one day, I don't know what being anything short of the President would do to help these people. I plan to move abroad one day, but it feels like giving up on my country.

BTW, you call those slums? That would look like a fricking five star hotel to the squatters (illegal settlers) in my country.

These are places where people are paying rent or own the land.
I have seen squatters too but the worst condition I saw (other than homeless) was in a turned over plane cockpit or something along those lines. There is a place known as skid row in LA that I think is a slum.

My grandma grew up as a squatter in slums in East LA.

But you do win the more slummy country debate here.
Btw? What's your home country?

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Yup. I live in a private village. Huge houses, some as big as football fields. Some even have more than three floors. We have a clubhouse that has tennis courts, badminton courts, basketball courts, conference rooms, swimming pools with slides, etc. Yet to the west of our village, literally right by the walls, is a large slum. Naturally, nobody buys property there. When that land is turned into a condo those people will be out a home. It's kinda hard to live by all this poverty. I might live in a village that's so high class, but I am not rich. I'm only in high school, and while I want to help those people out one day, I don't know what being anything short of the President would do to help these people. I plan to move abroad one day, but it feels like giving up on my country.

BTW, you call those slums? That would look like a fricking five star hotel to the squatters (illegal settlers) in my country.

These are places where people are paying rent or own the land.
I have seen squatters too but the worst condition I saw (other than homeless) was in a turned over plane cockpit or something along those lines. There is a place known as skid row in LA that I think is a slum.

My grandma grew up as a squatter in slums in East LA.

But you do win the more slummy country debate here.
Btw? What's your home country?

I now feel like I came off as too confrontational, sorry

I live in the Philippines.

 

[chuckman1]

Yup. I live in a private village. Huge houses, some as big as football fields. Some even have more than three floors. We have a clubhouse that has tennis courts, badminton courts, basketball courts, conference rooms, swimming pools with slides, etc. Yet to the west of our village, literally right by the walls, is a large slum. Naturally, nobody buys property there. When that land is turned into a condo those people will be out a home. It's kinda hard to live by all this poverty. I might live in a village that's so high class, but I am not rich. I'm only in high school, and while I want to help those people out one day, I don't know what being anything short of the President would do to help these people. I plan to move abroad one day, but it feels like giving up on my country.

BTW, you call those slums? That would look like a fricking five star hotel to the squatters (illegal settlers) in my country.

These are places where people are paying rent or own the land.
I have seen squatters too but the worst condition I saw (other than homeless) was in a turned over plane cockpit or something along those lines. There is a place known as skid row in LA that I think is a slum.

My grandma grew up as a squatter in slums in East LA.

But you do win the more slummy country debate here.
Btw? What's your home country?

I now feel like I came off as too confrontational, sorry

I live in the Philippines.

It's fine. It seems rough for countries who were once colonized to deal with poverty and slums. Basically these are just worse than anything I know in Western Europe or Japan. But a lot of these people have at least running water.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

But a lot of these people have at least running water.

I'm actually not too sure of that...

Or were you referring to those in Europe?

 

[chuckman1]

But a lot of these people have at least running water.

I'm actually not too sure of that...

Or were you referring to those in Europe?

I read in Texas 30% are not hooked up for water in colonias. Perhaps that doesn't mean 70% have RUNNING water. I know lots of people in the projects have no electricity and water, since these areas are rural it could be more easily.

I just know the Phillipines has some problems with fresh water sources.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

But a lot of these people have at least running water.

I'm actually not too sure of that...

Or were you referring to those in Europe?

I read in Texas 30% are not hooked up for water in colonias. Perhaps that doesn't mean 70% have RUNNING water. I know lots of people in the projects have no electricity and water, since these areas are rural it could be more easily.

I just know the Phillipines has some problems with fresh water sources.

Oh, I thought you meant that the slums here have running water. But yeah, you are right. One time a couple of dumbasses at the one of the few dams we have here decided to let a couple of feet of water go, and right after a drought hit.

 

[Slitzkin]

The Australian government is about to take water and power from Aboriginal communities (those that have them), so we'll be getting more soon.

I saw quite a few aussies on facebook cheering on the govt and calling the aboriginese backwards.
Is the racism as bad as it seems online?

Just like every country Australia has its issues with racism. But with every person that is for this plan there is two against it, there is also a huge social media movement against these plans. Australia is a very diverse and multi-cultural nation so only the bottom of the barrel bogans (or rednecks as some would call them) would be for this. Just like everything in life there is more than one side to a coin. The saddest part is there has always been neglected communities like this in very rural Australia but until now many Indignenous and otherwise Australians haven't known about it till now. I think the greater crime is these communities that only survive on government welfare but have a self-destructive culture of drugs, alcoholism and petrol sniffing abuse. The government feeds these addictions but doesn't do anything to actually help, which is sad.

PS: I grew up in an predominantly Indigenous town as a white person and I met many great Aboriginal people but I also met some fucking terrible people. Just like every other race of human.

 

[Parasondox]

The Australian government is about to take water and power from Aboriginal communities (those that have them), so we'll be getting more soon.

The fuck?!?! Is your government really that backwards to deny the original inhabitants of the country basic need like water and power? Who voted them in?

 

[Smooth Operator]

We do have gypsy villages, that is as bad as it gets. And we did try to help them out of their situation, problem is they don't want help, they love living exempt from law and responsibility and have proclaimed this shit as their cultural heritage. So if anyone tries to enforce laws in their area they cry cultural prosecution and shit...

Now if they want to live like that I have no problem with it, becomes everyone else's problem however because the only way a village doing no work can survive is theft, i.e. they are leaching on the entire surrounding community. So they aren't just taking everyone's stuff but the police is also powerless to do anything because that is culturally insensitive, complete fucking mess.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

We do have gypsy villages, that is as bad as it gets. And we did try to help them out of their situation, problem is they don't want help, they love living exempt from law and responsibility and have proclaimed this shit as their cultural heritage. So if anyone tries to enforce laws in their area they cry cultural prosecution and shit...

Now if they want to live like that I have no problem with it, becomes everyone else's problem however because the only way a village doing no work can survive is theft, i.e. they are leaching on the entire surrounding community. So they aren't just taking everyone's stuff but the police is also powerless to do anything because that is culturally insensitive, complete fucking mess.

My family is going to Europe and my parents seem to be very concerned with the gypsies. Is that concern warranted?