Two different Cities but two different Countries?
In the late 80s, I began to work at the shipyard in Saint John. It was 10 years of good money and a very high standard of living.
A few workers would take the bus to work and we would say - You take the bus??? With all that money you make???
I remember a few workers couldn’t understand the reason that some of our taxes would go towards the welfare system!
The good old days came to an abrupt end on July 19th, 1996.
The Shipyard closed its doors and many workers received a rude awakening. Carolyn McNaulty at Romeo House < Soup Kitchen > received many phone calls from many former shipyard workers in need of help.
It was a very difficult financial adjustment.
The days of going to the restaurants were over and months afterwards, many would instead go to the Soup Kitchen.
Saint John always had their share of poor citizens but after the closure of the Shipyard? The numbers grew.
On June 17, 2003, I began my six months tent protest in front of the Legislature and quickly learned there’s a big difference in attitude between the City of Saint John and Fredericton.
The Loyalist City has a Blue Collar attitude therefore more open minded than the Capital.
During my first evening, I heard someone shouting at an individual.
The reason? He was going through a garbage bin collecting empties.
Of course, in Saint John this would be a normal picture and no one will condemn the act.
On July 2nd, I decided to go to Officer’s Square and watch the morning sunrise.
While walking near a dumpster someone popped their head out like a Jack in the box. He had a cardboard box over his head.
He was collecting empty bottles from the celebration of the evening before. He said that he makes only makes $264.00 an month and that’s not enough to survive on.
He came by my tent and told me that he collected $92.00 in bottles and went home happy!
It’s called –Survival!
I would soon found out there was a Soup Kitchen located in the Western Part of the City.
Every evening, I would make my little walk to this needy place.
Once there, I notice that the volunteers were very friendly and George Pierse is really in charge of the going on around the Kitchen.
They served two meals a day and I might add you can eat all your stomach can take.
While in Saint John, The soup Kitchen would serve you one meal a day between 10:00am and 1:00pm! Even poor people do get hungry in the evenings.
I might add that the St-Andrew-St-David Church serves dinner once a month and the place is full of poor people. Many would ask for seconds to take home.
The summer of 2003, I read in the paper that former Mayor - Shirley McAlary announced that the opening of the Harbour Passage was a huge success because they gave away 500 to 800 hotdogs!
Excuse me? PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY!!!
Why do some poor families go hungry in one City while the other is full? That’s the emotional question?
I would soon find out the Shelter and the Soup Kitchen are the area of the less Fortunate. The poor souls can do their drugs or alcohol around the building.
No one will bother them as long they stay in that area!
Compare to Saint John this is a good idea. It’s their property and the Police won’t bother anyone.
I would soon find out that the Transit system is very bad in the Capital compare to Saint John.
I heard a sad story of a young woman who had an interview for a job but she couldn’t attend because she had to wait 3 hours for the next bus!
Of course, the attitude must be the same of my shipyard days?
They must say- You take the bus??? What’s wrong with you? Don’t you have any bureaucratic friends?
The bus system is much better in Saint John.
The Food bank in the Capital is located in a high class neighborhood.< never been
there >
In Saint John these helpful locations are located in the area of the poor population.
In the Capital, the homeless have no place to go so they can escape the cold winter winds.< except the shelters >
In Saint John, the Salvation Army has a place where these poor individual can have a coffee or play some pool!
Once a person is evicted from a mall? There’s not too many place a person can go.
The Salvation Army in Saint John would charge $7.50 a night for accommodation compare to the Capital who will take someone free of charge for a few
evenings.
In the Capital, if a person is down on their luck, They have to lower their pride and asked the Government for assistance.
They have open cubicles at the Family Services building where everyone can hear your personal business compare to Saint John were these private conversations are done in a private atmosphere!!
I could go on and on.
Yes! We do live in two different Cities and we have our different way of the matter the poor are too be treated but from the point I see it?
It sure looks like we’re living in two different countries!
7 comments:
you worked at SJSB charles?,did you live in fredericton back then to?,or you just moved up there since?.
I moved to Fredericton 11 days after my protest ended on December 17, 2003!
I truly appreciate the fact that there is a decent place where the homless and also, those who are on aseverely fixed/low income such as welfare or, Canada Pension Plan can go every non and again at 5:pm in the late afternoon or evening to get some neutritious and sustaining food in their stomaches to help them through the day. There is even a BarBeque every Wednesday evening starging at about 7:pm behind the Kitchen by the Aquatic Centre. A couple of fine christian gentlemen named Roy And Gordon, make hotdogs ready with either bottled water or pop for the folks once a week. this is in the Capital City of Fredericton.
Thank God for the Church's, the Shelters, the Community Kitchens, and even some Church's who make life for the homeless, and the less fortunate a little easier to bare. I forgot to mention that there is a Church called the Meeting Place that provides a sandwich run for probably about 100 or more every two weeks. May god Bless them all.
makes me so mad charles every time i see those 1902 piece of crap subs we just bought from the U.K..
we should have built brand new subs right here in canada & at SJSB like we did our frigate's,but instead they buy old junk deathtrap's that cant even patrol our north west passage,not to mention we dont have anything other then chostguard icebreakers to guard canada's sovereignty up there.
& now if its not bad enough we have forign subs spotted every year in our NWP,now even denmark is trying to take hans island from us. time to get your heads out of the snow department of national defence & start defending our border's.
So what is the value of human life ? $ 240.00 a month ?
I caught a preview of an article on t.v the other day , didnt see the full feature , but just the preview was enough to make me think .
The story line was one of a man or family , whom had locked up a daughter for whatever reason in a room for 13 or 14 years . Well I can only speculate that this person now , being cut off from society , for so long , had not the social skills needed to fit into modern day society . In fact , I would think that if this person could in fact even talk , her skill would be so low , that comprehension of todays language would be minimum at best . Think about it , if a man in his 20s fell into a coma for 15 years and then awoke ( dead zone ) . Even he would have a hard time to communicate , just what is a computer ? , fax machine ? whats that ? . connect to a modem . huh ? But this girl , well she wasnt asleep for 15 years , she was forced to endure hours and hours of endless solitude , with maybe only a bug or mouse to communicate with . Totally cut off from society , she had no access to a telephone , couldnt catch the news on the t.v. . Keep up with current events by reading the newspaper . I would think this person prolly would be a dull date , let alone a poor candidate for a job in todays market . In fact , she would probably be scared as hell to even leave her solitude and comfort zone .
Now you would have to ask . Just what kind of a person would do such a thing ? What kind of a person would not allow the growth of mind by eleminating the means of learning proper communication skills ? What kind of person would alienate another by not allowing them access to modern technology so they may learn to accept these devices instead of fearing them ? What kind of a person would create an enviourment so as another would lose there self worth and esteem ?
What kind of a person would throw a room around another and say , thats all you have , make do ?
Now just what do we call such a person who would do such a thing ? A beast , a monster , a bunch of swear words ? Would you invite such a man into your life . Would you trust your children with such a person ? Would you allow such a person to make decisions for you ? Would you pay him handsomely to create and enviourment for you and your neighbours to grow up in ?
Well to me , ( this beast or monster , or whatever name you would want to give him ,) has alot of similarities to a government giving $ 240.00 a month to a man in todays society to live on . I'm no phychitrist , ( poor on spelling too ) , but a man makeing $ 240.00 a month can barely afford a room to live in , let alone some of todays technology that has become part of everyday life for most . I would think , that after a period of time , he too would lose his modern communication skills . This man may learn to fear technology instead of embrace it . He may lose his self esteem and self respect as to sink into a know nothing , be nothing , comfort zone .
Until modern day government , can prove to me that there is enough jobs out there , in proportion to the masses , allowing for thier creation of a 2 income society . Then they are the monsters putting people to be locked up in there rooms . There may be hundreds of reasons , people do not work , can not work , cannot find work , or maybe even will not work . But these people are human . I cannot find many reasons to deny them enough to live on , with the basic essentials and the technologies of knowledge so they , one day , may in fact snap out of thier comfort zone . I personally think , allowing these persons enough to maintain and be part of society , would do our economic system better justice and allow for a less violent and addictive society .
P.S. better find me a job Charles , or I may become a regular blogger just to ease my solitude .
Hey? It works for me!!! Thank God for this blog!!!!!!
Hey Charles, just for the record, the Fredericton Food Bank may be in a middle class neighborhood but, it is run and has always been run by members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a non-profit organization, my mother was the director there for years and years, and trust me, she was no middle age, middle class, middle of the road feminist who didn't know what was what.
My mother lived being poor in living colour for most of her life. She was a tireless advocate for poor people in this city until she had a tragic accident in the very dooryard of the foodbank, breaking her ankle. This was late 2003. She is severely diabetic and the fracture resulted in her having to get her leg amputated. She was working long after the doctors told her to stop. Nobody understood the lives of people on and off the system, the working poor, the students like my mum...
My mum knows what it is like to carry water to boil to drink and for your kid's bath once every other week or so, to have no power, to choose whether to buy milk or dishsoap at the store, one or the other, even though you need both desperately, because you don't have enough money for both, to buy or otherwise get shoddy hand me downs for her kids and then sew them till the look half decent, she knows what it is like to have nothing but oatmeal to eat for a week til check day, she knows what it is like to wash clothes in freezing cold water in winter in an old wringer washer because she absolutely has to and then hang them all over the house to dry, she knows what it is like to put stuff back at the store because she didn't have enough money to pay for everything needed to feed her children...with the help of her church, in that same middle class neighborhood, got a better life for herself and her children...the FFB does good work, and more than a small part of the reason they do is because of my mother, Sharon Ferguson...
This being said, don't judge a food bank, or the folks who run it, by it's neighborhood...
If you have had a poor experience, I am sorry...
Post a Comment