AUSTIN ADVOCATE

Modern Day Slavery: Illiterate men without documents wanted for immediate exploitation

By Alan de Faria
Translated from Portugese by Flavio Carvalh

In the rural areas of Brazil alone, around 25,000 people are kept as slaves. Alan de Faria reports on what is being done to eradicate this criminal practice.

Unfortunately in this day and age, slavery in Brazil isn’t something that is found only in history books. The sad reality is that even after 118 years after the abolition of slavery, the International Labour Organization reports that there are around 25,000 slave workers in the rural areas of Brazil. The world figure for forced labour is estimated at 12.3 million people.

In ‘contemporary’ Brazilian slavery, rural landlords use illegal agents known as “Cats” to find their slaves. The Cats will recruit people to work in forests, illegally cutting down native trees to make charcoal for the local industries. “These workers are usually illiterate, without identification documents, homeless and with no qualifications”, says Xavier Jean Marie Plassat, leader of CPT (Comissao Patoral da Terra), the campaign against slave labour in Brazil.

At first, the Cats offer the workers great opportunities; a good salary, accommodation and food. The Cats’ objective is to convince them to accept the job through giving false promises; they guarantee regular transportation from and to work and even offer some money in advance to show good faith. The money given in advance, plus all the hidden costs including transportation, uniforms and even their tools are accounted for at inflated prices so the workers are in huge debt to the Cats before they even start work. Once far away from home, with no documents, in debt and watched by armed security guards, the workers find it impossible to end their contracts with their employers.

PLANS TO END THE CARTELS

After years of international organizations claiming that slave labour takes place in Brazil, in 2002 the International Labour Organization sent a paper to the Brazilian government demanding more action against the practice. In 2003, in response to this plea, the Brazilian government created the ‘National Plan to Eradicate Slave Labour’, the objective of which being to establish operational strategies to fight the slave traffickers.

As a result of this plan, one of the government’s new actions is to start a programme called “Zero Hunger”, which intends to supply free food to areas which are reported to have high numbers of slave labour. Patricia Audi, who runs the national project against slave labour for the International Labour Organization sees the “Zero Hunger” project as a step in the right direction, but feels that fundamental changes in the law are needed to end this practice in the country. Plassat from the CPT agrees, “the end of slave labour today in Brazil is directly linked with the end of poverty, not via temporary social assistance to these areas. This is helpful, but it is only through new laws that the extreme social difference and discrimination in society will end.”

Another of the National Plan’s proposals is to create mobile units to monitor areas where slavery is common. Marcelo Goncalves Campos who runs the Labour Ministry’s Mobile Surveillance Unit, says that a mobile unit will respond quickly to any claims of slave labour.

Questioned about research carried out by the CPT which stated that only 10% of slave labour incidents in the state of Para were ever reported in 2003, Campos says that it is important for slave workers to feel that they can report their employer’s actions after, if not during, employment. “Contemporary slavery is totally different from Colonial slavery where slaves had no rights to report their condition”, he says.

Plassat believes that reporting slavery requires a complex set of circumstances that, even until recently were very unlikely to happen. “The victims need to be aware that their situation is not normal and it merits being reported to the authorities. They need the strength and courage to escape the captivity, take the risk of been captured, punished and taken back to a worse conditions than before”, Plassat explains.

DIRTY LISTS and RESULTS

Ricardo Resende, from the Research group of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, states that a publication produced by the Mobile Surveillance Unit, called the “Dirty List” which names the businesses where slavery was uncovered, was one of the most important actions taken towards ending slavery in Brazil. By the 3rd of April 2006, 159 names were already on this list. The owners of these establishments are publicly shamed for their actions and other companies have an agreement not to trade with them. The properties on the “Dirty List” also lose any agricultural subsidies from the government.

Even with all these laws in place, the majority of those involved in slavery still challenge the government actions as only a minority are caught and prosecuted. A journalist for the ‘ONG Reporter Brasil’, Leonardo Sakamoto, reported for example that the owner of the Fazenda Castanhal in Ananas in the state of Tocantins, had 23 slaves freed in November 2001, another 72 freed in May 2003, but to everyone’s surprise another 201 slave workers were found in March 2005.

Although by Law a sentence of 2 to 8 years in prison should be granted to those involved in slavery, Plassat says that none of the 1500 cases found guilty since 1995 were sentenced to prison, “that’s why the majority of these people go back to commit the same crimes again”.

SILENCE

Mr Campos says that the best way to end slavery in Brazil would be to have the Congress approve the law that was proposed 12 years ago. This proposed law states that any property in which slave labour is found will be confiscated by the authorities and then donated to poor families who wish some land to work on.

Certain politicians who have the backing of farmers have objected to the proposal, arguing that it would encourage illegal land invasion by people called “Sem Terras”(without land) to the properties reported to be involved in slavery. Several members of Congress were contacted for their opinion on this article, but none responded.

The end of slavery in Brazil will only be possible when all these laws and projects are implemented, but more importantly with better wealth distribution bringing the reduction of social differences and poverty.

PARA STATE RANKS HIGHEST IN SLAVERY

According to reports, the majority of slave practice takes place in the states of the North of Brazil. Mr Plassat from the CPT states that in the past 3 years, 40% of slaves where found in the state of Para, 22% in Mato Grosso, 9% in Maranhao, 8% in Tocantins and 8% in Bahia.
“The presence of slaves in these areas coincides with the cutting of native forests with the aim of the expansion of cattle farming and economic activity specific to these regions” says Mr Campos. Official records state that from 1995 to 2005, 17225 slave workers were rescued from these areas.

SOME PROPERTIES NAMED IN THE “DIRTY LIST”

By the 3rd of April 2006, there were 159 properties on the Government “Dirty List”

PROPRIETOR PROPERTY NUMBER OF SLAVES DATE

Ernesto Dias Filho Roda Velha Agro 745 12/2004
Ind Ltda
Sao Desiderio/BA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jose Silva Barros Fazenda Vale do 261 12/2004
Rio Fresco
Camuru do Norte/PA

Andre Gomes Ribas Fazenda Agricola 259 12/2004
Constantino de Oliveira Tabuleiro
Corretina/BA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roberto Demario Caldas Fazenda Sao 219 12/2004
Joaquim/Mequens
Pementeira do Oeste/RO

Antenor Duarte do Valle Fazenda Maringa 188 07/2004
Vilhena/MT

INTERVIEW WITH RICARDO RESENDE

“ If an individual doesn’t have education or a job, he is easily recruited”

To Ricardo Resende, member of the research team at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the Government has taken steps in the right direction to end slavery in Brazil. In this interview he tells is what should be done to permanently end this illegal practice.

-- Ocas: There are around 25,000 slave workers in the Brazilian countryside, what can be done to end this practice?
Ricardo Resend – The Government has been acting more efficiently and introducing new measurers against slave labour, the “dirty list” which names properties found to be using slave workers is a good example. The Government has also been putting pressure on the judiciary system, so tougher sentences and higher fines are given to the ones involved in slave labour. With these kinds of actions, we could see a decrease in slavery.

-- Ocas: Article 149 of the Brazilian Constitution states that keeping slave workers should carry a sentence of 2 to 8 years in prison and a find. Also the involved parties should pay compensation to the victims. But are these penalties ever enforced? The Lima Araujo Farm was found guilty of slavery and told to pay a fine of 3 Million Reais, but later on, after an appeal, the courts in Para suspended the payment.

Ricardo Resende – The court decisions have been enforced, obviously there are exceptions like the case that you mentioned. The slave traffickers are scared of the new rules imposed by the Government, and the farmers when reported have been offering settlement directly to the workers out of court, but are still liable to be sued for moral damage to the employees.

-- Ocas: A lot of people believe that the approval of the new law by the congress that will confiscate the properties using slave workers is crucial to the end of slavery in Brazil. Do you agree?

Ricardo Resende – It is important that it happens, but more important is that the general public and the press are vigilant to report any suspected new cases. What is surprising is the power of the big agricultural and Rural groups in Brazil, A famous Brazilian writer called Sergio Buarque de Hollanda wrote in 1936 that the abolition of Brazilian slavery in 1888 was the end of the big rural properties and the start of migration to the cities. He would certainly not expect that in the 21st century, the rural groups would be so strong in Brazil.

-- Ocas: Could you name other victories on today’s war against slavery in Brazil ?

Ricardo Resende - It is significant the change in attitude by the local government in the state of Mato Grosso after the incident where the Mobile Surveillance Unit was attacked by their local police when investigating a reported case in the city of Nova Lacerta last February. Until then, the government of Mato Grosso denied that slave labour occurred in their region, after the incident, they began a strong internal campaign against slave labour.

Ocas” - How can you stop Farmers from re-offending, like the case of the Castanhal Farm in Tocantins that re-offended more than 3 times?

Ricardo Resende – Until the sentences and fines are more severe and properly implemented, farmers will take the risk of re-offending as they know that there is a good chance that they will get away with it. Also there is the need for more proactive educational work to be done, if an individual doesn’t have education or a job, he is easily recruited.

Reprinted from OCAS
© Street News Service: www.street-papers.org

top

School Districts Accommodate Homelessness Students

By Kirk Becker

Who, What, and When
A federal mandate, generally referred to as McKinney-Vento, requires school districts to accommodate homeless students. It's a strong law that provides students with loopholes to bypass any hoops between their circumstances and their participation in school.

In the first place, homelessness is defined broadly for the purpose of enabling kids and youth to enroll in and attend school -- children of parents living in shelters, cars, motels, or even staying with friends because they can't afford their own place, and teenagers living independently on their own, all qualify as homeless for the purpose of McKinney-Vento.

McKinney-Vento essentially reverses the paperwork timeline for enrolling a child into the school system. Basically, the law says get the kid into classes and fill out the residence, previous school records, and immunization forms after school or on the weekends.

What, When, and WhereMcKinney-Vento also requires that kids defined as homeless shall be provided with any financial assistance, such as subsidized breakfast and lunches, normally available to poor families. Again, the principle is feed the kid first, then argue about it on a full belly.

Their are no "magnet schools" for homeless kids. Children in families that become homeless during the school year can continue to attend the same school as before they were homeless and school districts are to provide transportation if necessary. At the beginning of a new school year, parents can request the school of their choice for their kids, and the schools have to either accommodate the request or provide a written explanation for denying the parent’s choice and a write to appeal and review of the decision. Until the dispute is resolved, the kids are entitled to attend the school of their (parents') choice.

How
McKinney-Vento requires each school district to appoint a Liaison for homeless students. The Homeless Liaison doesn’t have to work exclusively on homeless issues, but the Liaison needs a name, a phone number, and an office.

Homeless Liaisons are responsible for training each school admissions office on the provisions of McKinney-Vento and guiding parents of homeless children and homeless teens through the loopholes around any hoops between them and school attendance, even to the point of arranging transportation if necessary.

There's also a State Office responsible for training the School District Homeless Liaisons. In Texas, the state office is the Texas Homeless Education Office which has a web site at http://www.utdanacenter.org/theo and a phone number at 1-800-446-3142. Both the THEO Website and the THEO office provide contact information for the Homeless Liaisons in each school district, can answer questions about the provisions of McKinney-Vento, and may be able to assist with any disputes if necessary. The THEO website also provides a description of a Links to Literacy Program at http://www.utdanacenter.org/theo/toolkits.html#linksliteracy that can help guide the tutoring of children who find learning to read to be more of a challenge than this sentence.

Area School Districts vary in the amount of emphasis that they give to McKinney-Vento on their websites, ranging from none whatsoever (most of them) to the description of Project HELP (Homeless Education and Learning Program) at http://www.austin.isd.tenet.edu/academics/sss/projecthelp/index.phtml [Yes, the web address ends in "phtml" rather than the conventional "htm" or "html".]

The Homeless Liaison for AISD is Cathy Requejo at 512-414-0760 or crequejo@austinisd.org.

McKinney-Vento is already a strong mandate, and Cathy and her staff implement the law's provisions enthusiastically. She also works closely with area homeless shelters and service providers, frequently receiving referrals from case managers and referring homeless families to caseworkers at the homeless services providers. Additionally, she's attracted financial assistance from a variety of Austin businesses and corporations dedicated specifically to assisting children in homeless families.

In the past year, she's helped around 3,000 children, including almost 350 in District high schools. Her caseload increased by 600 students in the past year, almost all of them from Katrina, who were assisted through her office even as FEMA paid the rents for many of them. Cathy doesn't sweat the paperwork any more than necessary, but kids must either document their vaccinations within 30 days of retake their shots.

Cathy has had some problems assisting teenagers living independently because they aren't of legal age to sign official documents themselves and they don't have guardians available to sign documents on their behalf. She also notes that there are occasional retraining glitches at schools as previously trained admissions personnel move on (call her office for help, if necessary) and that, along with the rest of AISD, they're a little swamped at the beginning of the school year. Overall though, and despite the general inadequacy of non-school services for the homeless within the Austin area, AISD's Project HELP has the necessary School District support and resources to enable children in homeless families to enroll and succeed in school.

Why
Homelessness is almost invariably a learning experience for anybody who experiences it, but McKinney-Vento, the Texas Homeless Education Office, and the School District Liaisons ensure that homeless children, at least, can do most of their learning in school.

top

Notes from the Underground
Delving into city secrets with Australia’s urban explorers.

By Adam Ferguson

As far as abandoned psychiatric hospitals go, this one looks just the way you might expect. It’s an ominous, vaguely gothic redbrick compound framed against a bleak grey sky and surrounded by chain link fences rattling in the wind. Apart from the fencing, security seems fairly lax, which begs the question: why would anyone want to break in here in the first place?

But we’ll come to that in a minute. Getting in is surprisingly easy. With a bit of help from my guide I manage to wriggle under the fence. We then scramble through a broken window into the darkness of the building, where I’m taken on a half-lit tour of the deserted wards.

The place is full of dust, its floors carpeted with glass shards, cracked plasterboard and twists of wiring. Although most of the equipment and furniture was cleared out when the asylum was closed in the 1990s (during a nationwide purge of public mental-health services), my imagination fills in the gaps. A debris-strewn hall with a stage, where inpatients would once have performed plays, looks like some nightmarish vaudeville theatre after a brawl. In the staff tearoom I can’t help but think of Nurse Ratched, Jack Nicholson’s nemesis in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Everything is going reasonably well until we walk into a room streaked with what looks like human blood (cue ear-splitting scream and music from Psycho). It doesn’t take long to figure out it is actually red paint left by some sadistic squatter. Even so, I’m starting to gather that fear is part and parcel of the urban exploring experience.

Urban exploration involves going places you are not supposed to go – the obscure, dilapidated, hidden and out-of-bounds zones of the modern city. Urban explorers can be found hanging around in drains, derelict factories, old gas pipelines, military bunkers and, of course, abandoned mental hospitals. In short, anywhere gloomy, ugly, scary or structurally unsound.

This strange hobby is now something of an international movement. Hundreds of websites and online forums are now dedicated to the art, offering an odd mix of gothic aesthetics, practical advice and a general geeky obsession with all things underground.

Dave, my guide to the psychiatric hospital, had his first exploration revelation down one of Melbourne’s stormwater drains. After crawling around in the damp tunnels for a few hours he popped out of a manhole, miles from where he had started. “I couldn’t believe you could actually use drains as a way of getting around,” he says. “It was like having your own private subway.” Since then he has explored dozens of locations in Australia and Britain. “As a society, we’ve become comfortable and restricted in the way we move, sort of hypnotised by the convenience of the modern city,” he says. “This is a way of getting out of that passive mindset and challenging yourself.”

According to the Sydney-based Nivelo, who runs an urban explorer community called Requiem Wanderer, a big part of the thrill comes from getting a new perspective on the urban landscape. “Explorers want to see, feel and experience a location that is beyond the boundaries of what civilisation deems to be appropriate,” he says. “The appeal for most people is to see something that 99 per cent of people will not.” Nivelo’s site has a strong emphasis on photography and seems drawn to urban decay. It features some genuinely haunting images created out of crumbling, rotten and birdshit-covered locations in Australia and abroad. Like fellow Australian urban explorers The Cave Clan, Nivelo and his group is part of an ever-expanding network of underground aficionados.

“The global urban exploring community has grown immensely in the last five years,” says Nivelo, who has used his international connections to take himself on an urban exploring world tour, visiting places as far-flung as Chicago and the catacombs of Paris – the latter being hallowed ground in urban exploration circles.

Though it is less likely to be admitted, the essentially juvenile enjoyment of doing something a bit illicit is probably another big motivator – there is something undeniably boyish and Goonies-like about hanging around in gangs and scrambling through scary old buildings. But urban explorers stress that the pastime is not just about getting up to mischief. Some prefer the term ‘guerrilla archaeology’, and see themselves as renegade historians delving into the substrata of modern cities. A few take their scientific responsibilities very seriously, carefully photographing and documenting sites for posterity.

For Dave, it is these industrial, utilitarian parts of the city that tell us the most about our culture. “There are some building interiors that most people never get to see,” he says. “A bank vault or a chemical factory, for example. But these are the artefacts of our times, the things that contribute to the workings of our society. Exploring these places is like doing an archaeological dig on your own era.”

To illustrate, Dave takes me to an abandoned brickworks, eerily filled with huge cogs, belts, steel hoppers and even workers’ punch cards dating back decades. Dave underlines the significance of the place. “Think about it – most of the buildings in the city would have been built from bricks from this factory or one just like it,” he says. “But you’d never get to see how they are made unless you happen to have worked here.”

Although urban exploring usually involves trespassing, most explorers say that even if they are caught in the act, the authorities are generally sympathetic when they find cameras rather than cans of spray paint. “Because we like to explore places in order to preserve them for future explorers, we don’t intend to damage, smash or graffiti locations,” says Nivelo. “Usually, we find the authorities understand our view, after a lot of explaining.”

Respecting locations is an important part of the explorers’ ethos – the only ‘rule’ involves leaving a place as they found it. But this edict seems subject to a bit of bending, and a bit of souvenir hunting is not uncommon. Explorers talk of finding century-old clothes, archaic currency and even caches of ammunition or explosives.

As cities all over the world become more and more regulated, sanitised and predictable, it seems there will always be people looking for ways to (literally) get below the surface. “We live in this clean, plastic world and just beneath it is all this dark greasy machinery,” says Dave, with obvious relish.

For more information on urban exploring, visit Cave Clan (www.caveclan.org) or Requiem Wanderer (www.urbex.org).

Reprinted from The Big Issue Australia
© Street News Service: www.street-papers.org

top

Streets of goals. Football and Redemption. [Trans. from Italian] (Terre Di Mezzo, Italy)

By Andrea Rottini
Translated from Italian by Lois Walsh

Homeless people from 48 countries, Palestinian refugees and mentally ill people from Milan; stories of special athletes with a dream at their feet.

Football shows that you can enter from behind and win.

There are some people who have demonstrated the desire to revitalize their whole existence by playing football, like the homeless footballers of the Homeless World Cup: after the 2004 competition 38% found a job. And a new hope.

You must not call it a game. Football is an exhilarating collective rite; full of passion, fury, dreams of glory and bitter delusion, a money making machine to its detractors and poet factory to its supporters. By taking advantage of its capacity to catalyse public interest, football can become a formidable occasion of redemption for those who risk being relegated to the substitute’s bench of life.

Like the Portuguese player Sara Coelho who last year in Edinburgh took part in the 2005 Homeless World Cup wearing her national colours. Suffering since childhood from a mental illness, Sara has a familiar troubled story behind her which brought her to alcoholism, drug addiction and to leave her parents’ home ending up on the streets.

At the Homeless World Cup she played her first football match in an extraordinary contest which contributed to a turning point to her life: during the tournament, Sara improved her self confidence and in the end returned to her parents’ home. Now she is trying to rebuild relationships with her family, following regular therapy for her illness and attending a vocational college where she studies carpentry and interior decoration.

Her story is similar to that of the Afghani Moshen Soltani, the Chinese Cheong Wa Chau, the South African Nkosinathi Mkhonono and the “Italian” members of the Multiethnic, national squad composed only of immigrants and winners of the last two Homeless World Cups. For all these people football has represented much more than a simple game: 90% of the 204 players who took part in the 2004 Homeless World Cup in Gothenburg stated that the competition had a positive impact on their lives. After taking part in the competition, 38% of the homeless people found a job, 46% improved their living conditions, 34% started studying 27%, stopped taking drugs 72%, continued to play football and 16 of these have even received a contract with professional or semi-professional clubs as players or technical members of staff.

During the mainstream World Cup, the eyes of the world were be captivated by Totti’s passes Ronaldinho’s shooting, the class of Zidane and the feats of the 733 champions. On the 24th of September in South Africa, more than 500 footballers from 48 countries will compete to win a cup equally important to their destinies.

And they say football is only a game.

Reprinted from Terre di Mezzo
© Street News Service: www.street-papers.org

top

The Transition
By JD Acuff

Well this was the toughest thing for me to do. The change from being homeless to getting a job and having a home is a lot tougher on your mind then people think. First of all we will go back and I will explain how I first got off the street.

I was in Tampa, Florida and camping in a patch of woods. I had a tent and there were at least 30 other homeless people in the same woods. We were a close knit family with are different flaws. We all watched out for one another, some of us worked and others just panhandled and dumpster dived for food. Anyway that is where I was and I was one of the few who would go to the labor halls everyday. I got lucky and landed a steady ticket which was for five months. I was working as a laborer for a construction site. I worked closely with the superintendent. Brian was a younger man then myself and was a nice guy. For the first few weeks he had no idea I was homeless. Then one weekend he asked if I would help him at his home over the weekend off the labor halls ticket making cash under the table. I said I would work but had no way to get to his house. So this is when he found out that I was homeless because he said he would pick me up at my place. Well that day after work Brian said he would take me home so he would know where I lived to be able to pick me up. I was very nervous and wanted to just have him meet me somewhere but he insisted to come and pick me up. Well it wasn't a cool thing in our woods to bring in outsiders and could even cause me to get booted out of the woods. At the edge of our woods was a little store. I took Brian to that point and he was really wondering now what was going on. So we sat and I explained that my home was a tent in those woods and also explained the rule of no outsiders. He was shocked as hell. But still agreed to pick me up at the store.

That weekend was a trip I worked for Brian at his home and he changed in the way he looked at me. Not for the bad but he felt sorry for me now. At his home he gave me lunch and dinner and a few beers. He offered blankets and some camping gear. He even let me take a shower BTW is the best thing that a homeless man loves. A nice hot shower is better then sex, beer or even a steak dinner to most homeless. Well I worked for Brian the whole job thru 6 to 7 days a week he even paid me cash on top of my labor ticket so I was getting more then the small chump change the labor hall paid me. I saved my money up and Brian helped me a lot. Now Brian’s boss had no knowledge of me being homeless he was a complete asshole and Brian told me that he wouldn't understand and would get rid of me if he knew.

As the months went by I finally got enough saved to rent a little slum lords trailer at $80.00 a week. It was a real dive but was a place of my own. I had some trouble at even getting into the trailer cause of me being homeless she questioned my ability to pay the rent. But she took a gamble with me as she put it. Brian was my reference and that really was my way of getting her to rent to me. I worked about one more month with Brian and he tried his damnedest to get the subcontractors to hire me. Then one day he took me off the job to a plant that he had a friend who worked there. I got the job and was juiced in.

After awhile working there and getting to know some people there are conversations opened up some. One day at lunch I told a couple of guys that I used to be homeless. Well they almost right away looked at me now as if I was a drunk or druggie. They also acted like they thought of me as a lower type person. One even made comments to me a lot about going to AAA even though I didn't even drink that much. Out of 60 people who worked at this plant maybe 10 were not drunks or druggies though. Most went out at lunch and either smoked pot or had a beer. But they still looked down at me. Even the plant manger came in to work smelling like a brewery everyday. Mentally though it is scary to tell people that I was homeless fearing that they will look at me as a bum or drunk even a druggie. I worked there for 8 months and finally got into it with the plant manger one day. He even brought up the fact when we were arguing that I was once homeless. I never told him that others must have. Well that really hurt me. I felt as if I was a marked man. I ended up quitting and going back to day labor work. I eventually lost my trailer for that winter the labor halls slowed down and I ended up back out on the street.

I finally left Tampa and hitched hiked to Austin, Texas being homeless still. Austin was tuff for day labor work. They seemed to take the Mexicans over white and black people and were located a long way from the shelters. I ended up flying sign and sleeping under highway bridges there. Until one day my mother called me on a cell phone she bought me to stay in contact with her. She paid my bill on the cell phone so I had a better chance of finding work and she could call me. Well she called one morning and asked where I was hearing all the traffic near me over the phone. I told her what was going on and she got me a bus ticket to her home in Vegas.

I stayed 4 months with my Mom and while I was at her home I used the internet a lot. I met a woman from NC thru the internet and we both liked each other. So I moved to her place in NC and I got a job at a plant. She had a good friend who was a supervisor there that got me in. It took almost two weeks for them to hire me and two interviews. They were curious of my traveling and stability. I didn't say one thing to anyone about being homeless this time except to the women that I moved here with. They are fine with me so far I will never tell anyone of what I have been thru at the job from my prior experience at the plant in Tampa.

It’s pretty strange on how people look at you different when you have been homeless as a person. But the general public only sees homeless people as drunks, druggies or mentally ill people. It’s a shame that they are so racist and judgmental. What is even worst is that they don't want to hear the truth about the causes or circumstances of how someone can become homeless. I have worked with several people that see a homeless person and make a comment about that lazy asshole should go find a job. Well most homeless would love to have a job. But when you are downgraded as a person it’s hard to go and even want to work. God gave me the insight and will to overcome that stigma. Not everyone that is homeless has that luck though.

It’s a major culture shock to come from off the streets. A psychological change and some need to see someone for that kind of change. But also the public needs to become more aware of the mental change and the hidden racism of the shadow hanging over the homeless. You know when you talk over the internet and not knowing if that person is black, white or any other race you can be friends with them. But face to face and that barrier changes the mind set of a person. This is one obstacle that we need to change to help the homelessness. We all eat, and bleed the same. And at one point came from the same place. Some are just luckier in life but to put one down for being different is wrong. Most homeless are so scared of the general public that they only stick around other homeless for safety. Like a nation within a nation. Even myself when I go to the shelter I can tell that I am looked at differently then if I walked up with a backpack and was still homeless. Even when I am there to help.

top

North American Street Newspaper Association officially welcomed into International Network of Street Papers
By Lisa Maclean

During the successful International Network of Street Papers (INSP) conference in Montreal in June 2006, INSP was pleased to officially welcome the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) into the network. 12 NASNA members were present at the conference and each gave a short presentation on their paper.

The merger of the two organisations means that NASNA's 25 members and 5 Associate members are now part of the INSP family, while still retaining their regional identity and existing board structure. Both organisations will benefit from a closer working relationship, greater communication& experience exchange, resource sharing and wider networking opportunities.

Tim Harris, 2005-06 Chairman of NASNA said, "This is a really positive step for the street paper movement. Whilst we have been working informally for the last number of years on joint projects like the Street News Service, we can now move forward strategically and maximise out limited resources for the benefit for homeless and socially excluded people around the world. It makes absolute sense to work closer together."

In the short term, the merger will mean that NASNA members will receive direct communication from the INSP headquarters in Scotland, be invited to take part in funding possibilities, as well as street paper partnering and the annual conference.

It was agreed at the INSP conference, that for 2006-07, the new NASNA members would not be asked to pay an additional membership fee to INSP. Payment of subsequent membership fees would be worked out by the INSP and NASNA committees during the coming year.

Serge Lareault, Chairperson of INSP said: "The new INSP board is very happy to be working with NASNA and all members from United States and Canada. As the Director of Lâ'Itineraire in Montreal and a long standing member of both networks, I am delighted to see that we are now able to work closely together. Poverty is increasing all over the world and our local actions will be stronger as a result of a larger network."

Lisa Maclean, Network Director of INSP, based in Scotland, will be in close contact with all INSP members over the coming months, communicating all relevant opportunities and information. She will also communicate with both network committees, working out the details of their future working relationship.

top

Live With Me Today!!!
By JD Acuff

So I wake up at the break of dawn
Hiding in some bushes where I laid myself down
Stretching my arms and letting out a yawn
As the sun rises on the hidden space I had found

I leave my homeless camp where I laid
Just to go out and try to find a way
Yet I am all alone on this day
I know that I will make it anyway

I keep striving on and on as I go
Hoping for the best I pray oh Lord
Thinking of a better life for me to be
I feel like I am lost just at sea

So now I hunt down some butts for my needs
For my craving of that habit I have you see
I get my fix to make me ok
Now I am thinking of what I'll do today

I have searched for work with no addy to give
But I have to figure out a way to live
I grab my marker and make a sign to fly
Homeless my friend could you help get by

I stage myself along the freeway can you see
Posting myself and my sign this way
Hoping for some money or food for me
Some people are just so rude today

I don’t let it get me down can you see
Knowing that people might see me frown
I get enough to eat and ciggys for my needs
As I rest and eat and smoke I am so pleased

Well as my day gets close to the end
Its time to find my cubby hole once again
My safe havens in the bushes are mine for me
A place where I sleep with a piece of mind to be

So then here I go again another day, homeless my friend its my way
It’s a twisted world in my life, a struggle to just keep alive for sure
So many who don’t even care, they don’t know that I am scared
They only knows that I am out here, have no idea I really swear

Yet bitterness and anger from there hearts
Those don’t know my roads or go that far
They criticize about me without knowing me
Is there education that needs to be?

So on the streets how I am to them
God only knows my true sins now my friend
Homeless I may be but underneath a man that you might see once again
I am not unlike any other person or human being
My luck is just been different then others you see

top

Little One
Lawrence Berry

Little one
My little
Grow strong
Be wise with the wisdom of our fore fathers
For one day you will come of age
Remenber those things that happened in past times
Believe that we will always be there
OH Great Spirit my people are gone
your little one is alone
All that's there is memories
My people are gone
your little one is alone
Yet still this lonely life goes on
Still I sit upon my pony
Day end day out
With only memories to see
OH GREAT SPIRIT your little one prays
To come home
Little one

Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berry

top

Once I Dreamed
Lawrence Berry

Once I heard a blue jay singing in the trees
"Oh, how wonderful it would be to be a wolf."
as I opened my ears to the song of the blue jay,
I dreamed I was a wolf.
Running, hunting, filled with joy.
A sound came to my ears. one of a sweet melody.
i howled to be answered back by another howl!
My heart jumped with joy. I had friends
in the wild.
As the song came back to my ears, I knew it
was time to become a boy again.
That's when it was god that
made my dream come true.
"Once I heard a blue jay singing in the trees."

Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berry

top