The urge to write about the following topic has been high in my agenda for say six months, all I have been waiting is the right amount of voltage to spark all of my cylinders to life. Well just yesterday the 23rd of July 2011 a quaint rally amidst a city under-siege by a heat wave just brought about that right atmosphere that I was seeking at the least to supply some needed material into this blog entry.
The setting of this rally was at Allan Gardens at that city block defined by four streets namely Jarvis St at the west, Carlton St on the north, Gerrard St East at the south and Sherborne St at the east flank. This park is set right in the middle of a very diversified community which represents a snap shot of a very Metropolitan city aptly named the Hog town. To break down these communities who reside within say kilometer radius from this epicenter you will find the ultra-chic Yorkville on the north west where you find the Toronto version of the Range Rover shopping center whereby in the recent past the most expensive condo in Canada was sold for $26M, the west you will find Yonge St and a block further Bay St the Canadian version of Wall St. On the North east in the neighborhood found on the north east quadrant of Sherborne St and Wellesley St you find the low income families predominantly welfare recipients. Lastly to the west you will find another low income neighborhood Regent Park which is undergoing transformation from majorly government held to now a hybrid of condos and some full market rent government housing. This transformation has led to pushing out these quasi homeless people from formerly subsidized housing to now shelters and street corners near the epicenter where the rally was being held.
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| The head of the snaking line-up. |
So on the said Saturday I was driving northwards on Sherborne St and I saw this long line snaking through the park and right at the head of this snake was a BBQ bellowing some thick smoke up in the air at the same time spreading the sweet aroma of grilled meat allover the park. I figured out its probably one of the movie outfits which routinely set up movie and TV sets just showing some appreciation to the local folks for constantly intruding into their lives. So I kept rolling by until one banner crossed my view and hit me like an exploding airbag!
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| The free BBQ Line-up |
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| The line-up Continues |
The banner read "STOP THE WAR ON THE POOR" and to my mind I was Yes! at last people are waking up to the new era reality. Since 1950's slowly and steadily the voice of middle class has muffled up, in the period coming up to 1970's then is when most of the current working standards were bargained and entrenched in our current labour force. What happened after that slowly the intellectuals slowly moved away from these Labour groups to safeguard their trades by forming monopolies through labour groups where new additional requirements were established that one had to clear before joining the fraternity. So just the old notion of just signing a card and presto becoming a member of these Labour groups was no longer a standard form of showing affiliation and there by enjoying the benefits of these associations. Lets name these associations so one can appreciate where I am coming from; teachers, lawyers, engineers, surveyors, nurses, doctors to name those at the top of my head. These intellectuals realised the importance of their trade be recognised by the governments mostly through acts of the legislature. From all these separate groups mind you the bulk of the middle class came different ideologies and therefore different ways of dealing with social issues. In most of my conversation with old timers it has always come to the Nostalgic " back in the days " phrase where mostly the consensus is that the general populous had power in getting their views represented in their respective governments. Mass action albeit in form of the labour movements was the standard way of getting things done. No political party would ignore these groups during campaign time and subsequently when forming the governments.
But that way of doing business was never a good model for the capitalistic corporations since these labour unions stood in the way of extracting maximum mega profits off the workers. When you hear these executives whining about productivity this is exactly what they are talking about. Squeezing the max out the poor little workers. So corporations in turn implemented the good old tactic of divide and conquer by firstly infiltrating the democratic process of electing our leaders by introducing the politics of money whereby the biggest fundraising machine got elected. Secondly for them to de-lever the leverage the unions had they started pushing for free trade agreements favoring labour fertile countries. Slowly the corporations started shifting their manufacturing portfolios out of the reach of the unions. Now fast forward to the recent times with all the uncertainty in the global markets, food prices are highest levels, terrorism at its peak, record swings in climate activity, inflation raising with no hope of curbing it, political gridlock in all parliaments and to cap it all levels of un-employment at the peak the number of the very poor in our society keeps growing because all the factors keeps on eroding the middle class and pushes them into poverty. Yet when the financial systems falter its not the capital sitting on the fence that is required to fix these problems but the same poor society is called upon to bail them.
The only positive out of this span of growing anxiety is the rapid development of information transfer. People are now more connected to each other and the state no longer has the reigns on what the populous is tuning to. Information is being streamed by the seconds to mobile handheld devices which have become the source of mass mobilization. In Thomas P.M. Barnett book The Pentagon's New Map he listed a few things that will drive the 21st century and beyond. Two things that resonated with me are one follow the flow of money and two the flow of information. Now the poor have a tool to mass communicate and mobilize themselves in form of social media.
Now on to the real premises of this entry, the gap between the rich and poor is widening and the number of the poor is exacerbated by the current recession where people on the marginal edges of the middle class are being tipped back into poverty. Prolonged periods of un-employement are putting enormous pressures on individuals and their frustrations are being just compressed. Cutting back of social programs by the governments does not help the situation either. So slowly people have started mobilizing themselves and just like in the case of the Arab Spring movement in the Middle East and recent spat of violence in London a small spark will ignite the very combustible situations all over the globe. All the regions have some region specific catalysts and for whatever the reasons the Governments are weary of what would happen if they experience the push backs from the population. Especially for the developed regions where they have supported these social media activism what will be the response when they have these actions in their backyards.
The spring is heavily loaded and tightly coiled and by Newton's third law for every action there is a reaction, so the question is; if the governments keep loading the spring and assuming the spring obeys Hooke's Law will the spring break or will it just re-coil? I am scared!
Will they shut down the sites or will they infiltrate them just as like current ongoing Chinese crack down?
