Homelessness in the USWritten by Susan Dunn, MA, Emotional Intelligence Coach
In 2000, 11.3% of US population, 31.3 million people, lived in poverty. Here's most current information on homelessin US. For ways to help, scroll down.1. Since 2000, number of people living in extreme poverty has increased. 2.According to 2003 report from National Coalition for Homeless (NCH), Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles and Atlanta are top five “meanest” cities in US for poor and homeless people to live in; California is “meanest” state, followed by Florida. 3.Examples? ”In Milwaukee, a church has been declared a public nuisance for feeding homeless people and allowing them to sleep there. In Gainesville, police threatened U. of Florida students with arrest if they did not stop serving meals to homeless people in a public park. In Santa Barbara, it is illegal to lean against front of a building or a store, and no one can park a motor home on street in one place for more than two hours.” 4.Families with children are by far fastest-growing sector of homeless population. Children alone compose about 39% of homeless. 5.In median state, a minimum-wage worker would have to work 89 hours a week to afford a 2-bedroom apartment at 30% of his or her income, which is federal definition of affordable housing (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2001). 6.For disabled, in 1998, on a national average, someone receiving SSI (Supplemental Security Income) had to spend 69% of their monthly income to rent a 1-bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent. 7.Loss of single room occupancy housing (SRO) exacerbates problem. From 1970-mid 80s, an estimated one million SRO units were demolish (Dolbeare, 1996). New York City lost 87% of its $200 a month or less SRO. Chicago experienced total elimination of cubicle hotels. By 1985, Los Angeles lock more than half its downtown SRO. San Francisco lost 43%, Portland lost 59% and Denver lost 64%. [Data is here: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/causes.html]
| | Who is John Doe in Spain? in Russia? in France?Written by Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach
Funnyname.com has compiled a really interesting list of what other countries use for US “John Doe” or “Joe Blow” - http://www.funnyname.com/anonymous.html . Here are some of entries people have sent in. I direct you to site for others, and to add ones not there! I thought it was really interesting how some of people mentioned series of 3 names. What’s that like in US? Larry, Curly and Moe? 1.Afrikanns (South Africa): In Afrikanns, an indigenous language of South Africa derived mainly from Dutch, anonymous person is most often “Koos van der Merwe". Koos is short form of Jacobus, which is a variant of Jacob. -- Courtesy of Hans Pietersen 2.English (Australian): Fred Nurk, as in “afraid not” in a deep Aussie accent. Joe Farnarkle is another, a farnarkler is a b****** artist. - Courtesy of Jeremy Ham 3.Italian: The Italian equivalent of John Doe is Mario Rossi. It is most common name, so it is often used to indicate an average person. To refer to unknown people, we use Tizio, Caio and Sempronio. Tizio is always first one, and you use other two (in that order) if you need more than one. A bit like Fulano/Mengano/Sultano in Spanish, I guess. Some use Filano (obviously related to Spanish Fulano) together with other three. Another generic name is Pinco Pallino, although this would never be used in formal situations. -- Courtesy of Stefano J. Attardi 4.Malay: Si Anu. "Anu" has same connotation as British "thingy" as in word "thingamajig." "Si" is a word used in front of a first name, which is used in street talk when referring to someone, e.g. "Si Ahmad", "Si Nora" etc.-- Courtesy of Jas Emmar 5.Russian: In Runet (that's how we call Russian Internet) informal name for an anonymous person is Vasya Pupkin, pronounced in English like vARs'a pOOp-kinn (' indicating a soft consonant); if I transcribed surname for a French-speaking one, I'd write "Poupkine". Vasya Pupkin is also a name for a 'lamer', a tech-ignorant but very pretentious young hacker. Also, a traditional way to list a group of anonymous people is "Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov" (three common surnames, pronounced like EE-vah-nuf, pEEt-ruf, sEEduh-ruf). This tradition precedes Internet by many years. -- Courtesy of Kirill Manucharov
|
