...what did we expect? Same thing everywhere the elite go. This week, Brisbane will be trying its hardest to schmooze the G20 leaders, with wall-to-wall pampering, and the best that money can buy. To be honest, Im appalled. Id rather we spent the money helping the homeless than spend a single cent on the likes of Vladimir Putin or some of our other visitors. However, this week the homeless are not welcome in Brisbane. This week, Brisbane will be trying its hardest to schmooze the G20 leaders, with wall-to-wall pampering, and the best that money can buy. To be honest, Im appalled. Id rather we spent the money helping the homeless than spend a single cent on the likes of Vladimir Putin or some of our other visitors. However, this week the homeless are not welcome in Brisbane. Advertisement The G20 organisers have even gone so far as to offer them money and GoCards to go somewhere else. As early as last week, the homeless were being moved on by police from places like West End and New Farm Park, and told they would be arrested if they were there this week. Apparently, we dont want such people cluttering the streets and parks. To me that is offensive, and unworthy of a country like ours. I am certainly not foolish enough to think that solving homelessness is easy. There are many reasons why people find themselves on the streets, but the one thing I do know is that most people who end up there didnt intend to do so. People can become homeless because they lose their job, or get divorced, and just dont have the money to rent a house. Some people have mental health problems. Some are just kids who ran away from home, and cant find a way back. The homeless deserve our attention because they are people just like us, they are our fellow Australians, and because they are in need. The irony is that where G20 is happening is ground zero for Brisbanes homeless problem. Roby Curtis of Blind Eye Ministries cares for the homeless in the area. He says there are at least a couple of hundred in the West End area, but you have to also consider the whole of Spring Hill, Fortitude Valley and CBD. Sadly, the G20 organisers think that we need to pretend to the world we are some fantasy nation where problems like this dont exist. How absurd. Hiding our homeless, or locking them up, is the sort of thing that happens in places like North Korea, or Mr Putins Russia. I fail to understand how heaping more misfortune upon the unfortunate can make anyone think we are a good country. The true measure of what sort of a country we are is not how well we suck up to the rich and powerful, but how well we look after our own citizens who have fallen on hard times. Roby Curtis agrees: Part of our Australian culture is how we care for our fellow brothers and sisters. You dont have to be Christian to have that heart. Its an Australian thing to do, he says. With all the money being spent on G20, we could have set aside just a tiny fraction to give our homeless some decent accommodation, a clean set of clothes and some wholesome food. Instead weve given them GoCards. Every host nation for the G20 gets to set the agenda. We have chosen to make the priorities things like tax evasion and international investment. While they are important issues, we have missed the opportunity to show the world how a truly decent nation behaves. If it had been left to me, instead of gift bags, visiting dignitaries would have received a simple letter saying a donation had been made in their name to help the poor and homeless. Now that would be a G20 message theyd never forget. m.brisbanetimes.au/comment/the-hermit/g20-handling-of-the-homeless-appalling-20141111-11kng1.html
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:13:48 +0000
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