poverty in Australia

I thought I'd write you all a letter,
I don't think things are any better
Today, all day is New Year's day
So I'll reflect and have my say.

Has my lot improved in this past year?
Let's look at things, perhaps shed a tear.
My shares are down, there's no more growth
(a thing of which we've often spoke, )
Although I'm rich I'm getting poorer
Could I end up the sewer?

I saw a man down at the shops
with a cardboard cup, one of his props.

He arranged himself right by the door
Begging for coins outside the store
This man was young and tall and strong
Or so he seemed as I came along
To a woman I heard him say
(as she asked if he'd seen better days )
"the government just will not listen
as I approach them they seem more distant
My plight is clear for all to see
My needs persist and nothing's free."

This kind of scene is commonplace
we come across it face to face
Unknown in Melbourne in 84,
Poverty should be against the law

The day is bathed in warm sunlight
It's quiet, peaceful as though at night,
No breeze disturbs the tepid air
A distant bird sings his song with flair
In many ways its like back then
If I pretend the man was not there when
I went to Coles to do my shopping
Hoping I would not be stopping
To concern my self with someone else
Never seen before, not like myself
And there we'll go but for God' s grace
if we can't make this a better place.

Ads are now appearing on the internet, asking people to sponsor an Australian Child. They are from the Smith Family charity. https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/sponsor-a-child They talk about how difficult it is for families to pay Australia's [world highest] rents, food and bills, then how difficult it is to finance the necessities for education. "One in seven Australian children and young people are growing up in poverty,[1] where even the bare necessities are hard to come by. In a family where there is no regular income, money goes on food, rent and bills. Finding money for a school uniform, proper shoes, textbooks or the next school excursion is often impossible."

"You can change the life of a disadvantaged Australian child

For $48 per month you can make a lasting difference to the life of one of these children.

Because it takes a big caring family to raise a child, each student is paired with two sponsors. This ensures your sponsored child receives life-changing, comprehensive support as long as they are at school, and enables them to acquire the skills they will need to create a better future.

Together, we can give some of Australia's most vulnerable children the support they urgently need."

Tales of the 'One In Ten', published on you tube in 2014, is a skilful and enthralling animated web series based on the real stories of Australian children from disadvantaged backgrounds who struggle daily with the effects of financial hardship. The menu for the series is here: https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/stories/tales-of-the-one-in-ten

It is absolutely horrific that Australia's politicians, corporate think tanks and mainstream media, have allowed it to come to this, with marketers like Bernard Salt anointed as informed commentators, continuously painting rises in housing prices as a great thing and claiming that Australia needs more and more people. And the professional Greens and the various faux-socialists in Australia, funded by Soros, posing as 'revolutionaries', yet disdainful of civil rights, falsely treating their own countrymen as rich and undeserving, totally focused on identity politics and open borders, uninterested in the causes of war or the consequences of population stampede.

Candobetter.net has been publishing on these problems for years now. Blind Freddy could see them looming, then rushing towards us, running us down. Our leaders are guilty, guilty, guilty.

NOTES

[1] Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016. Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families, June 2015 Data, Released August 2016.