Encounter #22: World of Things (A City of Extremes)
This month's Encounter is a Demi Encounter. For this Encounter, I am sharing my original song entitled, World of Things (A City of Extremes). World of Things is a song from my first ever music album,#demisongs, which I will be releasing this April so stay tuned! A big thank you to my sister and my friends, Al and Matt, at The Loft Recording Studios for helping me bring this song to the next level. If you enjoy reading, I encourage you to check out the story behind my song below.
And now, without further ado, I present to you, World of Things. Enjoy! (P.S. If you would like to skip my intro, the song begins at O5:07).
If you live in a city, chances are, that at some point in your day today, you passed by someone who was homeless.
Sitting at the corner, on the sidewalk, on a park bench. Sleeping in a subway car.
How did it make you feel? Wanting to help but feeling helpless? Scared? Sad? Angry? Guilty? Or did the scene not even register with you because it is a scene that, unfortunately, you have become too accustomed to?
This is what my song, World of Things, explores. It has been my way of diving into my emotions and thoughts on this issue of poverty in the United States; something that I witness everyday. World of Things is my message on an issue that is too prevalent, and an issue that we can solve if we sidestep greed and truly honor the fact that, We All Matter.
For this post, instead of a story, I want to share data. To raise awareness, which in turn is the first step towards actionable change.
Before we become obsessed with new virtual realities, let’s first fix the problems in our current one.
Excerpts from “Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on his mission to the United States of America”, Human Rights Council, United Nations:
“[In the United States] About 40 million live in poverty, 18.5 million in extreme poverty, and 5.3 million live in Third World conditions of absolute poverty. It has the highest youth poverty rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)…”
“The United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries…in 2018, the United States had over 25% of the world’s 2,208 billionaires…The share of the top 1 percent of the population in the United States has grown steadily in recent years. In 2016, they owned 38.6% of total wealth.”
“The United States now has one of the lowest rates of intergenerational social mobility of any of the rich countries. Zip codes, which are usually reliable proxies for race and wealth, are tragically reliable predictors of a child’s future employment and income prospects. High child and youth poverty rates perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of poverty very effectively, and ensure that the American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion.”
“In 2016, 18% of children [in the United States] (13.3 million) were living in poverty, and children comprised 32.6% of all people in poverty…Contrary to stereotypical assumptions, 31% of poor children are White, 24% are Black, 36% are Hispanic, and 1% are indigenous.”
“On a given night in 2017 [in the United States], about 21% (or 114,829) of homeless individuals were children.”
“[In the United States] The official point-in-time estimates of homelessness in 2017 show a nationwide figure of 553,742, including 76,501 in New York, 55,188 in Los Angeles, and 6,858 in San Francisco. There is ample evidence that these figures underestimate the actual scale of the problem.”
“Sleeping rough, sitting in public places, panhandling, public urination, and myriad other offenses have been devised to attack the “blight” of homelessness. The criminalization of homeless individuals in cities that provide almost zero public toilets seems particularly callous. In June 2017, it was reported that the approximately 1,800 homeless individuals on Skid Row in Los Angeles had access to only nine public toilets. Los Angeles failed to meet even the minimum standards the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees sets for refugee camps in the Syrian Arab Republic and other emergency situations.”
“[In the United States] Poverty is frequently treated as a form of “child neglect” and thus as cause to remove a child from the home, a risk exacerbated by the fact that some states do not provide legal aid in child welfare proceedings.”
“In both Europe and the United States, the richest 1 percent earned 10% of national income in 1980. By 2017 that had risen slightly in Europe to 12%, but massively in the United States to 20%. Since 1980, annual income earnings for the top 1 percent in the United States have risen 205%, while for the top 0.001 percent the figure is 636%. By comparison, the average annual wage of the bottom 50 percent has stagnated since 1980.”
“High inequality undermines sustained economic growth. It manifests itself in poor education levels, inadequate health care, and the absence of social protection for the middle class and the poor, which in turn limits their economic opportunities and inhibits overall growth.”
“Health care is, in fact, a human right. The civil and political rights of the middle class and the poor are fundamentally undermined if they are unable to function effectively, which includes working, because of a lack of the access to health care that every human being needs.”
“…there are indispensable ingredients for a set of policies designed to eliminate poverty. They include: democratic decision-making, full employment policies, social protection for the vulnerable, a fair and effective justice system, gender and racial equality, respect for human dignity, responsible fiscal policies and environmental justice.”