[Leica] Was Re: calling on the LUG to do a good deed (OT)

[Gary Elshaw <godard@hotmail.com>]

I tried resisting, but failed. I agree with Karina on this too. I was there
in the midst of the bubble in March of '99 and was amazed at the level of
homelessness I saw. Honestly, I figured there was a homeless person every
50-100 metres in the centre of the city. The other thing that amazed me was
the number of folks I met who justified the homeless population's plight
with some bizarre urban myths. The roommate of the friend I was staying with
told me that a lot of the homeless were ex-company CEO's who made more money
begging on the streets than they did as corporate execs. And she believed
what she was saying. My friend told me that the reason SF had an enormous
number of homeless was because the climate in SF was so good. Of course it
was less than 5 degrees outside while he was telling me this...I could go on
about the number of elderly, and obviously mentally impaired, homeless folks
I saw being beaten by the cops in San Diego in the brief 3 days I was there
too. 

The most frustrating thing was, I felt, after a while, that I was the only
one seeing half this stuff. I felt, and still feel pretty disturbed by some
of the stuff I saw at 4am in San Diego.

I too ended my trip in South Africa and found the homelessness less obvious,
but perhaps that is all it was--less obvious.

Part of the thing with the U.S. for us tourists is the discrepancy between
the images we have of the U.S, which are mainly film and TV--these images
are a far cry from the reality. Sheesh, who woulda thunk it, a discrepancy
between the representation and the thing itself.

I should also mention that I loved my visit and can't wait to go to SF
again. Loved Berkeley, Palo Alto, Stanford Campus, North Beach, the Haight,
and if the opportunity arose to keep me in the meagre style to which I've
become accustomed to, I'd move in the blink of an eye.

Cheers,
Gary



> B.D.
> 
> My experience was merely an observation - and there appeared to be a big
> gap in my mind as to what I was expecting and what I found in reality.
> I have seen poverty in its extreme - like you said South Africa would be a
> good example - I was prepared for that - I was, however, not prepared for
> what I encountered in San Fran.
> 
> I think it would be fair to say that of lot of Americans live really well
> but it would be equally correct to say that just as many do not.
> 
> My daughter was giving me the statistics on wealth distribution for the US
> and those figures confirm a high rate of poverty.
> 
> If you think your standard of living is great in the US - I would love to
> drive you around our "poor areas" in Perth - it will make yours look like
> a third world country.
> 
> Karina
_____________________________________________________________
"The difficulty now is that unexceptional adults believe the loss of
youthful dreaming is itself "growing up," as though adulthood were the
passive conclusion to a doomed activity and hope during adolescence."

                                            The Uses of Disorder
                                      Personal Identity and City Life
                                            -- Richard Sennett

OO  
[_]<| 
 /|\
Gary Elshaw 
Film and Media Studies
Victoria University
New Zealand
http://elshaw.tripod.com/
_____________________________________________________________

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