Food Aid? To feed the poor & hungry of modern day America?

It's almost impossible for any none Americans to even come close to comprehending how the hell some millions of citizens of the United States, the world's wealthiest country, could ever be allowed to find themselves in such a shocking sort of sickening situation as this is.

Poverty hits African Americans hard

BBC correspondent Matthew Price continues his journey across America, and reports from Chicago, Barack Obama's home town, where African American community leaders fear the recession is dragging down their communities more than most.

(snip)

Poverty is growing across the United States. Many communities are affected. Yet a number of studies suggest that African Americans in general have been hit harder than others.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black unemployment has risen to 13.4% since the recession began in December 2007. The national unemployment rate is 8.5%.

One of the largely untold stories of America's economic decline is the disproportionate effect it appears to be having on African Americans.

Read the rest of this remarkably revealing report.

[Sigh.]

If only "socialism" wasn't such a shocking swear word in the states, eh?



Who knows though?

Maybe the blessed Obama truly does have the balls he so strongly hinted he had -- last year.

Maybe now that his presidential honeymoon period is over, Barack will be brave enough (and care enough), to bring about some real change : as opposed to simply some more, same old, same old, 'small change'.

Eh?

(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Israel And Britain:Special "About Time Too," Dosh & Disadvantaged Edition ...

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In August last year we published a piece about Israel's shameful indifference toward some special old Israelis ...



Today - 5 months later - we caught sight of the following headline:

Israel to probe neglect of Holocaust survivors

Here's quick clip from said relevant report.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli legislators voted on Monday to form an inquiry commission with executive powers to probe years of failure by the Jewish state to provide adequate financial help for needy survivors of the Nazi Holocaust.

Israel's establishment in 1948 with international backing came after the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees and Holocaust survivors from Europe after World War Two.

Many of the survivors, now elderly and infirm, have complained for years of not receiving adequate funding to allow them to live out their remaining years in dignity.
"Holocaust survivors are tired of promises and they have been treated failingly for years," said Zvulun Orlev, who heads Israel's parliamentary state audit committee

And about time too, eh?

Also today we spotted this story. It's another one highlighting the long term plight of a different disadvantaged/neglected group. But this one's all about Brits.

Disabled poverty 'hits millions'

Disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty than others

As many as three million people with disabilities in the UK could be trapped in poverty, a report suggests.

The study, by campaigning group Leonard Cheshire Disability, says disabled people are more likely to live in hardship now than a decade ago.

The group says the poverty trap is largely due to higher living costs - up to 25% more than for the able-bodied.

The government insists it is developing a long-term strategy to help disabled people lead independent lives.

"Disability poverty is one of the most significant and most challenging problems facing the UK today," said Guy Parckar of Leonard Cheshire Disability.

The report, entitled Disability Poverty in the UK, finds disabled people are twice as likely to live in hardship than others.

So the British government "insists" it's developing a long term strategy, eh?

Well, lets hope they sort out this sad state of affairs faster than the 60 or so years Israel has taken (so far), to sort out a similarly inexcusable, dosh related 'anomaly'.

Read the rest of this report right here.

Cold Comfort Coming For Millions Of Strapped-for-Cash, Americans ...

We've been suffering a streaming cold this last couple of days, and yep you guessed it, feeling pretty sorry for ourselves.

Maybe we should shut up, stop snivelling and count our blessings, eh? After all, there's always some poor soul a lot worse off than oneself, isn't there?

For perhaps as many as 27 million American adults, keeping warm this winter will mean borrowing money and 20 million will use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills, according to a CreditCards.com poll.

Nearly 12 percent of Americans say they will need to borrow money to pay winter heating bills; 9 percent will need to use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills.

"Almost all the heating oil in this country is consumed in the Northeast, in New England, the midAtlantic states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania."

Residents of those areas could pay a total of $2,012 over the six winter months -- or an average of $353 a month -- to heat their homes through March 2008. That's a 34 percent increase over the previous winter's bills.

Read the rest of this report.

So, we suppose we poor old Brits should count ourselves lucky, eh?

Just imagine. We could be living in the wealthiest country in the world.

Brrr. Grrr. Perish the thought.

Since what with this sort of stuff, and the expense of health care in the states, we seriously surmise we wouldn't have survived this long.

*(Cross posted at Appletree)

America's Woes Won't Stop Worsening: Recession, Depression, Implosion, Complete Collapse Or What?

As Christmas 2007 rappidly approaches it appears that hardly any one is getting fat across the Atlantic any more -- apart from the already infuriatingly fat (by too far), infamously favoured few fat-cats and their completely contemptible close knit clan of crooked cohorts, flunkies, families and friends and their ilk.

Detroit's woes augur ill for US

By Adam Brookes -- BBC News, Detroit

Americans are worried that hard times lie ahead. But in Detroit, Michigan, they have already arrived, with a vengeance.

Michigan, by some calculations, has lost 400,000 jobs in the past seven years. That's in a state whose population is only 10 million.

Detroit is seeing unemployment running at nearly 8%, twice the national average.

The number of homes in the city "foreclosed" - or repossessed by mortgage lenders - is among the highest in the country.

The city's charities are getting busier, a sign of economic distress.

(snip)

"This is ground zero when it comes to poverty," Augie Fernandez says.

"Here we are in the capital of manufacturing and we're just seeing it dissipate away."

Coming soon to a city near you?

"To find myself in a position where I couldn't afford a gallon of milk, I couldn't afford a loaf of bread - it was very humbling," he says.

"For want of a better term it made me feel like a loser, like I wasn't able to provide even the basic things for my family, let alone anything beyond that."

I ask Daniel and Cynthia if they thought of themselves as middle class. They both answer yes. I ask if they still think of themselves as middle class.

"I think we're on the poverty line right now," says Daniel. He wonders if he will be able to hold on to his house.

Read the rest of this very worrying report.



Of course there are still some who can't quite understand what all the fuss is about.

Nor can any among those self same, self serving, self satisfied sobs yet see the writing on the wall.

Which, upon further reflection, may not be all that bad a thing.

Since when the fast approaching, almighty avalanche of shit finally hits the fabled fan they certainly won't see it coming.

And when it does, as it soon surely must, they'll never know what hit them.

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Plight Of Britain's Poorest Pensioners ...

Sometimes there are some who say we're anti-American.

You know, some sort of obsessive compulsive US bashers.

But believe us, those who say (or think) that's so, are wrong.

They're dead wrong.

What we completely unashamedly and unapologetically are, is devoutly anti-injustice -- wherever it be evident.

We're nothing more and nothing less.



Here's a couple of pieces of proof.

Today we're giving good old Great Britain a bashing, or rather the top-dog and/or fat-cat Brits (along with their bought & paid for political enablers cum apologists), who damned well deserve to be bashed.

How's this for a couple of horrible headlines?

UK 'worst EU state pension system'

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Elderly 'can't afford to heat home'

And it's not Gordon Brown alone who needs beating about the head with a bloody big stick in order to be brought to book. His despicable prick of a predecessor Tony Blair, wasn't anywhere near such a 'one off' self serving schmuck as it once was all too easy to (initially), imagine.

Plenty of previous British governments share the blame for bringing about the sad & sorry state so many of our poor, elderly and infirm folk currently find themselves in.

And, all such selfish politicians who we've had to suffer should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

But you know what?

We'll bet a blooming big clock that they're not.



Whenever, however and where ever we can, we should always 'Help The Aged'.

All of us should.

Especially, our politicians.

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Israel's Shameful Indifference Toward Some Special Old Israelis ...

Bloody brilliant isn't it?

Same old, same old as far as the wealth gap goes. The rich get richer at the expense of the poor who get poorer still.

The government of Israel, like the government of the United States and the government of the United Kingdom, has plenty of dosh to dish out so long as it's in the direction of and for the benefit of, certain selected sectors of their respective citizens.

And the government of Israel, just like the governments of both the United States and the United Kingdom definitely do not deem some of the most deserving (and vulnerable), members of their so called civilized societies worthy of (completely affordable), special support -- no matter how dire their present predicaments, nor no matter the urgency of their needs.




Shown above is sick old Leopold Rosen.

Holocaust victims living in poverty

By Jacky Rowland

The Israeli government has been criticised for "severe shortcomings" in its treatment of elderly holocaust survivors.

A report from the state comptroller's office blamed red tape for preventing effective assistance being provided and urged action to help the ageing victims.

Leopold Rosen measures the world by the pipe that connects him to his oxygen machine. He suffers from several chest complaints dating back to when he hid from the Nazis in a forest in Poland.

The German government pays him compensation every month and he gets a small pension from Israel, but he can barely pay for both his drugs and his food.

"I was born of the 5th of June, 1922. Do I have time to wait for help from the government? There are a lot of people in the same position. They don't have time to wait," he told Al Jazeera.

Holocaust survivors have been trying to embarrass the Israeli government into action.

At a recent event, protesters wore symbols from the Nazi-era to drive home their point.

There are about one quarter of a million Holocaust survivors in Israel and official figures say that one in three of them live below the poverty line.

We think that last sentence is worth repeating -- so repeat it we will.

There are about one quarter of a million Holocaust survivors in Israel and official figures say that one in three of them live below the poverty line.

Read the remainder of this shameful story right here.

Then read this closely related report by 'The Jewish Chronicle', published earlier on this year.