Ball of confusion

I’m sitting here at the computer screen, wondering how to write about the plight of so many Canadians.  Housing and food costs are continuing to put people on the streets and lining up at the food bank.  Nothing has changed from 12 months ago; if anything, the situation has worsened.  According to The Star, as of March of this year, there were over 200 tents up across the city, compared to just over 80 a year before.  Then there are the thousands seeking refuge in shelters. 

The government actively keeps an eye on the encamped, as it also shuffles people off the streets into the shelters.  According to the article, almost 6000 people were referred there last year, while almost 900 campers traded a tent for a shelter.  All these efforts, while a valiant effort to help those in critical need, are just the usual stopgap solutions.  The real problems, such as the ever-increasing gap between rich and poor and the deceitful inflation numbers that don’t really tell the true story, continue unhindered and unquestioned.  Canadians wanting answers turn to populists who tell them what they want to hear, blaming mostly immigration and crime for the problems.  I say this because in conversation with people there, the first thing on their mind is the onslaught of new immigrants and refugees flooding the country.  This is obviously understandable, but these people, although possibly straining the system, are not to blame for the manner in which we are all governed.

They’re doing what people have always done, except in seemingly greater numbers, but the despair is not just from lack of basic needs, many are fleeing for their safety.  We’ve been kept consistently distracted by all kinds of other problems, many of them important in their own right, and I would like to know why there isn’t an honest attempt to march toward a solution.  Of course, if you ask a politician, he or she will tell you the all of our concerns are of equal importance to them, and that they will fight for answers, but they don’t really, do they?  Not the serious concerns, because those are out of their hands, as are most of the more pressing problems.  Hell, even the top tier of government is toothless.  Those who can help to transition this polarized society into an open and more balanced one are the very ones feeding off our misery.  Without our misery, they might have to do unthinkable things like fend for themselves, or, dare I say it, eat at the same table with the likes of us.  Up until not long ago, we tolerated the rich, but now that they are the ultra-rich, it seems like the disparity between us is actually causing a lot of pain and a lot of suffering.  Ironically, many of the most ultra are passing themselves off as great thinkers for humanity, they know the solutions, and they’re convincing many people, many disillusioned people, who will side with anyone who pretends to listen.

I know some well-off people that are honest and caring, and I also know many broke people who are honest and caring.  I wish we could shake that notion that people who are wealthy are automatically more intelligent than the rest.  It goes way back when only the rich had access to an education.  Today, we all have access, but even in learning there is a class system, and the disparity there is just as great as everywhere else.

Fiquem bem,

Raul Freitas