Squat Update
It's been a very full day at 950 Main Street.
Yesterday a good group of people went in after the photo shoot at the 'Countdown to Homelessness Clock' - cleaning up brush and clearing spaces to put up tents and a big meeting space under a large tarp. The police came by and chatted to Dave to let him and the others know that if the City asked them to clear the site they would have to ask them to leave.
This morning arrived and so did the media. Friends at the site said Dave was talking from 7:30 am to 3:00 pm. At one point during the day the word came that they would be asked to leave and so the community gathered together to think through their strategy. When the City representative did arrive he told them the city would take no action till Friday morning.
Keep an eye/ear on the news - there have been some good reports!
Check out our new Flickr site for some photos.
Several groups and individuals have come by to lend their support which has been greatly appreciated. People at the squat would be encouraged with a visit from any of our Streams of Justice folks. Also if you are clearing out your old sock draw and you have some good socks, bring them with you when you visit.
Thanks for continued prayers and support.
Much grace and peace...
Al McKay
1 comments:
Keep up the good work.
I have been publishing information about the 2010 driven homeless issue in Vancouver since 2004.
Recently, Wired magazine, in conjunction with a NEW MEDIA experiment called Assignment Zero, used one of my articles as a lead in to their story about "Citizen or Crowdsource Journalism" (which is how your blog here is defined).
The following is what I wrote, and they published regarding marginalized people and the homeless in Vancouver respective of 2010. It has been read by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people around the world.
This too should be your goal.
Think local and act global.
It is not enough that local citizens see your struggle.
The world must see it too.
Here's what I wrote;
"The homeless issue in all Olympic regions escalates rapidly when wealthy developers move in and leverage "Olympic frenzy" in an effort to artificially increase property values, which results in skyrocketing taxes and rents. The outcome is that the entire Olympic region becomes gentrified, which is a fancy way to say, we are increasing the rents, kicking marginalized people out, and preparing to show the world how wonderful it is in Vancouver. It happens like this in every single Olympic region, and very rarely do civic leaders intervene to protect the community. This time, they have no choice, because if they don't do something, citizen journalists, following my lead and others like me, will tell the world.
Practically, most people think, as I did too, that all you have to do to turn public sentiment is to inform citizens. Unfortunately, nothing is that easy. We quickly learned that local mainstream news media have more to lose than they have to gain if they change, or allow the process to change. Local news media company owners like it the way it has been managed for decades, and they make a fortune off the Games on the back of the community.
We quickly discovered that the local news companies that had the most to gain economically from the Olympics would go to great lengths to discredit our research. Our initial plan was to roll out our information quickly, apprise the community of the reality, engage Olympic organization in responsible dialogue, and evolve the business model to become a working solution that more fairly represented the community. Instead, what happened was that the most powerful news media company in the region, they own major newspapers and television stations, started to publish contradictory information that was based on emotion, not substance, in a subtle effort to undermine our message.
Surprisingly, combined with the infusion of information from our citizen journal campaign, all it did was confuse the community, and they sat on the fence. Unfortunately, this "also" works for Olympic organizations because for them, time is critically important. They have made an art of "stalling" and know that if people sit wide-eyed and watch, they aren't campaigning or working against them. It's not an ideal position for Olympic organizations to be in, but it is the lesser of two evils and they are making the most of it."
If you are interested in EXACTLY what you are up against respective of VANOC and local news media, read my article here; http://zero.newassignment.net/filed/interrupting_revenue_stream_oligopoly
... you can also find more information at my blog regarding the role local news media play respective of the homeless in Vancouver.
You might be surprised that newspapers and television, which are owned by the same parent company, and who are PAID HUGE SUMS to boost the 2010 Olympics, are not as supportive as you think.
http://www.olyblog.com/f/06/ShawLeeF09282006.shtml#INQUIRY
Do not underestimate the power of your blog. It scares the IOC more than you know. Scare them enough and they will force VANOC and our civic leaders to take action.
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