Mashup

February 1st, 2006 | News

Some bloggers I read regularly haven’t updated in a looong time. Today they have, and I thought it worth a mention and a link.

Christopher Allbritton of Back to Iraq, a reporter for Time magazine in Iraq, and Salam Pax, an Iraqi blogger. Neither has posted in months, so this is a somewhat momentous occassion to see them back online.

In other news, Hamas says the possibility of EU and US aid being cut if they don’t say something about not trying to kill Israelis is ‘unfair’.
“I mean, come on guys, that’s what we do!”
Interestingly, the EU contributes about $600million and the US $400 million per year in aid to the Palestinians according to that story. And Israel? Well they don’t say explicitly, but if you take half a second to work out $50 million per month they give to the Palestinian Authority - let’s just say Israel’s $600 million per year is looking more than generous.

I realise this is quickly becoming an I-really-can’t-be-bothered-so-it’s-all-going-in-one-post … post.

William Montgomery (whoever he is), has written a short piece about Rugova’s death. It’s up at the B92 (Serbian TV/Radio/Music) site and might be of interest to anyone who read my Rugova post and can bring themselves to read any more.

And lastly, the Brisbane City Council Homelessness survey, of which I am one of the 956 respondents. The survey says it closed 1 October, 2003, but I’m sure they have the year wrong.
A majority (59%) of people think the homeless aren’t well looked after by either the government or welfare groups, and 72% think more support programs are needed to help the homeless. Almost everyone (87%) agrees that homeless people are at a great risk of being victims of violence

While showing some concern, the actual impact of homelessness on our local neighbourhoods, according to respondents, seems to revolve around people who are not homeless and the fact they would rather forget it. I’m one of those people. It’s not how I would have responded on the survey. It’s not how I would talk to you if we discussed homelessness, but it’s how I feel. I would rather forget it. Not because I don’t care, but because I feel defeated. I’m dragged down by the thought of, “Seriously, what will one person do?”
61% of people think it’s not okay for a homeless person to sleep in public spaces, and that’s because we don’t want to be confronted by the problem. We need to be confronted by what makes us uncomfortable if we’re going to force a change, either in ourselves or what we’ve been watching happen around us.

And yes, this is my bleeding heart liberal, unrealistic optimism speaking.

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