Urban Splendor: A Sarcastic View

One had the emptying of neighborhoods in Newark because of the unrest in the sixties that people want to forget. Businesses were boarded up a nd violence spread before the upset ended. Understood that this was a racial uprising. Could the same happen with the establishment of tent cities that are being forced to close? Not really when they are law abiding and taking down their tents deem ed to be fire hazards. It is a concerted effort orchestrated by the municipalities concerned and we all know today that urban communities talk to one another sharing their triumphs and woes. What ever happened to the shanty town build for Nigerians who were not integrated into the fabric of the Italian society outside Naples, Italy. One racist set fire to the lot years ago. Haven’t heard about the squalor since but one can believe that where there are unwanted communities in Europe like this or outside Calais there will be tent cities. With all of this goes dissension and a voice rises calling for the integration into the major society, perhaps even calling for the a narrowing of the gap between the rich and poor. You see all these shanty towns are multiplying at a time when the gap between the rich and poor is widening.

These towns increased when populations left the rural areas for work in the cities and now there will be an added impetus of people wanting to live in tents and lean-to structures in order to protest the lack of equality they have with other materially rewarded people who worked their way up a hierarchy or who were allowed to enter into a better lifestyle at the cost of depleting money resources lower down on the social pyramid. Mismanagement of private funds is one barometer to the access that a select few on Wall Street and other business areas have had that allowed them to create bogus companies that raked in millions of governement support money at a time when the money could have been used for improving health and investing in higher education espcially for the low income earner

Personally I would hate to see those who fairly earned their way to economic independence suffer. Society is sick when it lauds the giving of exorbitantly large masses of money ti one person and that gift is not distributed  to many more. What someone will do with 50 million in their pocket when a million can safely change their lifestyle is questioned and should be questioned especially at a time of repeated economic recession. Somehow monies have to be shared and get back to the majority of people instead of accumulating in the hands of a few, and that few seems to be reinforced all the time when elections come up. I laud the effort being made to bridge the gap between rich and poor in nations where there was once a healthy middle class.

n the meantime although the tent encampents have been physically removed there will be an effort to keep social movements for equality alive. People will want to test their right to freedom of assembly and the right to demonstrate in a working democracy. The US and Canada have their constitutions on the line when it interferes with the right to demonstrate differences through the occupation of public squares through bogus excuses like supposed fire hazards although it may be argued that these squares are supposed to be there to the advantage of everyone including those who chose not to demonstrate. And what a beautiful example the Montreal mayor sets when his administration has been steeped in construction scandals and pay-offs. Green public square  space has been cut short but there are plenty of other green spaces the public can still have access to.