I had to link to this, post by Whatever (John Scalzi), that I found at This woman's work. Don't forget to look at the comments, they go beyond what he wrote, and bring on even more poignancy and real life stories with other "being poor is" statements (discounting a few critics).
This all I can do here as my belated reaction to Katrina. We don't have cable, and we don't really watch TV, but the little I saw, the few minutes of NPR I listened to made incredibly upset.
I come from Brazil, and I know about poverty and need, but I just didn't expect to see a tragedy this disconcerting here in the U.S. Hopefully Americans will be more aware now of what has been happening under their noses (poor people without a way out), but maybe not. I can't believe how hard it is for people who don't know about "being poor" to understand what "being poor" entails. The other posts and links by John Scalzi about Katrina are worth reading as well. That someone could say those who stayed are partly responsible for their situation now? U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E!
And I fall silent. I can't even believe I ever thought of writing about class and blogs or something like that. I'm glad I didn't. What do I know about being poor, really?
Thanks for the links, they were very interesting! I have to fall silent as well when it comes to filling in the blank "Being Poor means ...". I've encountered poverty only as an outsider, as a "voyeur," in Ecuador. It disturbed me deeply and it made me realize how privileged a life we led, even though in European standards we were not that "well off" at that time.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've been thinking a lot about is the problem of street kids, in Ecuador as well as Brasil. I saw this movie once, Pixote, I think it is spelled ... which shocked me so much I still didn't quite recover from it, lol.
Do you know it?
If you are bored and looking for a topic to blog on: I'd love to read something about the socio-economic conditions in Brasil, from a Brasilian's pt of view ... ;)
Lilibeth, Katrina me inspirou na última sexta-feira. Observei que americanos pilhando, matando e estuprando provam que o ser humano é o mesmo ontem, hoje e, espero, não serão pra sempre. Quer dizer que Poncius esteve aqui, é? Em que universidades ele andou? Unicamp e Federal do Paraná? Alguma perspectiva mais palpável? A gente vai orando. É ótimo saber que vcs estão se movimentando pra voltar. Tinha ficado com a impressão de que vcs tinham se acostumado com essa dieta à base de donuts daí. Besos!
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