Category Archives: Thoughts

Consider, Homeless

Please remember the Food Bank

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I read in the papers that for Food Banks this is the time of year a major portion of their funds are raised and that it is also an important time for food item donations.

From my observations and knowledge, in Abbotsford we are seeing an increasing number of people relying on the Abbotsford Food Bank for their daily sustenance. With an alarming increase in the numbers of seniors and children dependent on the Food Bank.

I share this in order to urge people to be as generous as possible in making cash donations to the Food Bank because I believe that in order to serve the growing population of hungry in our City, the Food Bank will need all the funds it can muster. So, please be extra generous.

I also want to urge people to be extra generous in their food donations now and in the New Year. I had a recent conversation with a friend about what to donate or how to find out what to donate. As a service and to provide an expert opinion on this matter, I contacted the food bank which (or is that who?) said:

“Virtually anything for food works…as you know however high protein items like peanut butter and fish are always good and breakfast items like pancake mix and syrup…our clients here all like KD (Kraft Dinner) of course and pasta’s of any sort…we virtually get no dairy and little produce so that would be of great help.”

A simple guide from the horse’s mouth.

Dairy? Produce? I do not have clue as to how to address this. So ladies and gentleman, boys and girls let us put on our thinking caps and come up with ideas on Dairy and Produce. Remember donations can be also be a good idea or volunteering your time.

In my pre-homeless, pre-poverty days it was a regular habit with me to drop a food item into the food bank boxes that the grocery stores had, at that time, prominently displayed near the check out area. These days the only generosity I can show to the Food Bank is to not use it (I can eek by without) leaving a little more on their shelves for those who, without the Food Bank, face hunger. I can also ask you to be generous – and I do.

Please be sure to take time at this hectic time of year to remember those who need our help to put food on their tables. Support our Abbotsford Food Bank and please, be generous.

Consider, Homeless

Government/Big Business Conspiracy?

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I want to be a little careful here because I was speaking with some classmates the other day, in a mental health context, about people who see government conspiracies everywhere and about at what point they become delusional. Still …

In a later conversation, on the webcast the Fred Factor, I touched on the point that the current welfare system tends to beat you up, beat you down and abuse you.

The system strips you of your dignity, self-confidence and self-esteem. It hammers you into a little box, makes you dependent on the system and places multiple barriers to you getting off of welfare.

Having beaten you down it inundates you with all these messages about how much better your life would be with a minimum wage job. Despite the fact that in Abbotsford the minimum wage is not a living wage. That is to say – you cannot live and pay your bills working a 40 hour work week at or within a few dollars of minimum wage. Do the math and you will find that you need to earn $13.00+ an hour to afford housing and food in Abbotsford.

Consider the screams, moaning and carrying on that business does at the mere suggestion of raising the minimum wage even $0.50. $13.00+ is apoplexy range.

Many businesses, many big businesses, are built on low (slave) wage rates set by the current minimum wage rate as well as their ability to use and abuse employees by labelling them “part time”. Business needs a supply of people willing to accept this abuse and wages that do not pay the bills or enable employees to make ends meet – in order to make their huge profits.

Where is business to find such a desperate labour pool of compliant worker bees?

Enter big government with their “Income Assistance” system who also, conveniently, just happen to set the minimum wage rate.

They have a system, the welfare system, which takes people in need and transforms them. It strips them of dignity, of their confidence, abuses them, habituates them to jumping through hoops, renders them totally dependent on the system and then bombards them with advertising that extols the virtues/advantages of even a minimum wage job to escape the clutches of the fiends at Income Assistance.

Voilá! You have the labour pool so needed to run business and fuel the continuing transfer of wealth from those people who actually do the work and build the wealth to the wealthy business/ruling classes.

One would almost think that the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance was a branch of business, not of the “people” government. Or one could see a conspiracy among the ruling politicians (and their bureaucrats) and the wealthy/business rulers (and their bureaucrats) to provide the needed cannon fodder fir business to thrive, earn undeserved, excessive profits and continue the transfer of wealth to the wealthy and ruling classes.

But that would be delusional – or would it? Keep in mind that you are only paranoid if they aren’t out to get you – and there is no conspiracy. But you might want to be careful – Mental Health is under the control of the politicians and their bureaucrats.

Just a little something to ponder.

Homeless, Poverty

Balance? Fairness? – where did you go?

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I had dinner at Global Harvest and I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank the gentleman and his helpers who were responsible for a great treat of a meal – Thank you.

In spite of the great meal and generosity of our benefactor, the evening was disconcerting with a disquiet that began when I stepped through the doors and looked around the tables set out for diners. There were far too many new children in attendance, families with children in need of a meal they could not afford to provide for themselves.

Ask the good people at the Food Bank how many new families and children have been added to the ranks of families and children that already depend on them for food, for sustenance, for life. Lunches at the Salvation Army are attended by an increasing number of families with children.

Escalating housing costs in the lower mainland are dragging more people and families down into the class of the working poor. The poorest of this economic class are forced to choose between shelter and food; forced to depend on the food bank and soup kitchens for their daily sustenance.

The comfortable lives that people take for granted and often smugly congratulate themselves for achieving arise from the transfer of wealth from the working poor through the means of poverty wage levels and working conditions that in many ways are no better than the conditions we condemn sweatshops or China for. Never in Canada’s history has Canadian society been so economically unbalanced and unfair.

Denial of this reality is so much more comfortable than to accept our part in benefiting from and at the expense of the working poor economic class. Denial also lets people avoid any thoughts of giving up any of their luxuries so that the working poor can afford the basic necessities of life.

Thus I expect to continue to be disquieted stepping through doors and viewing increasing numbers of families and children in need of food to sustain life, while wealthy and comfortable Canadians continue to dwell in the comfort of their lives and the land of denial.