NOVEMBER 28, 1969

CHARLOTTETOWN, E. l.

PAGE 3

Neutrality Impossible For Poor-Says Burke

Alex Burke is a man with an idea. He wants to end the neveree'nding cycle of pover- ty and. W e l f ar e prevalent among his friends in the Charlottetown slums. He feels that present welfare schemes are only stop-gap measures, and that only the poor can effectively improve their con- dition, as they are the real experts in' the field.

_ He has begun to put his ideas into action. November

. 27, he gave this speech to a citizens’ meeting held at Bas- ilica Recreation Centre. Here, then, is Alex Burke’s declara- tion of the poor’s war on poverty:

“Fear is perhaps the great- est weapon that one man can

use against another. F ear '

can be conveyed through in- timidation. Intimidation can come through forms such as slashed ti re s, threatening phone calls, and physical at- tempts to deter one from his purpose. These are things

. which have happened to me > ‘ in the past few weeks in the course of my attempts to get .

this poverty committee off the ground. Unfortunately, for those who have been the authors of the threats, it has not deterred me from my

purpose; in fact, it has made

me even stronger in my con-

victionsr I came‘to the 'real- ' .ization’ that what I am doing \

must bear decent course, oth- erwise there would be no rea- son to threaten me. Obvious- ly, my.-research, so far, must be uncovering a lot of truths about this community which a number of people would not - like to see made public. And yet, as far as I can see, I have only scratched the sur- face, and seemingly a lot more must lie below. Perhaps

All's Fair —and

/ By Don Ross

It is all too common know— ledge that‘ this fair city suf- fers from that common dis- ease associated with urban- ization, known commonly as “insufficient housing”. It is not uncommon to see adver- tisementsin the local paper under “apartments wanted” outnumber those ti tled “apartments to le ”. If you doubt extremity of the pro- blem, just call one local reign- ing landlord and ask him if he has a waiting list on his dog kennels. As you may have sensed it is these ty- rants I wish to expound upon.

They own the typical 30-50 year old house converted in- to a 6-10 apartment building.

I’m not talking about the ‘

newer modern “true” apart menzt building, which on. the whole are well facilitated al- though you need a $6,000 job and a string of references a mile long to get in one, not to mention: you have to' get your name in six month s ahead, unless one of the ten- ants has a party and is asked to move on. No, it is that God—fearing, humanity loving gentleman owning the older, converted homes I wish to speak about.

One particular apartment building I’m acquainted with offers a typical example. The furnace finally blew up this summer, so a literal 2 x4 gas

this is what these people know and'fear worst.

It is unfortunate, to my way of thinking, that most of the surveys and research have been done on the poor; people like you and I. How- ever, one important thing has been left out. We must All recognize the fact that cer- tain people in. this commun- ity are capitalizing on .our condition. We are being ex- ploited for. their personal gain, and in the process, we are being raped of our per- sonal dignity and pride. If

' we were not poor and disad-

vantaged educationally, these people would be unable to rent us their slummy dwell- ings which are infested with rats, cockroaches, and bed- bugs. As long as we remain separated, these conditions will prevail and this will be the inheritance that we will

' pass: on 'to our children.

It has been said that the poor are inarticnlate — un- able to communicate their desires to- the rest of society. This "is true in part, but it is also true that many ‘of those whom we are trying to reach don’t want to hear us anyway. The Senate Com- mittee on poverty was a case in point. These people are afraid that we do posses-s the solutions, and that these solu- tions will upset the vaunted status quo. Howaver, as long as we remain undisciplined and uncoordinated in our ef- forts, the people to whom we are appealing can very easily choose to ignore us and our present condition. In fact, they can even convince us that it is honourable to be poor because of the fact that someone has to be poor any-

how. This seems to be a to- tally ridiculous situation for any man to believe in, and yet we are duped into deliev- ing this kind of garbage. How can this be acceptable when we recognize the over- whelming fact that we live in one of the wealthiest coun- tries i nthe world. The pro- blem is that the wealth of this country is consolidated and controlled by a very sel- fish minority who is unwill- ing to divide more equally the riches of this country. We, as Canadians, all work to make this country rich,’ and consequently we a re thereby entitled to share in that wealth. If the selfish minority are unwilling to share it, then we must for- cibly take our rightful share. This reasoning is shared by all countries, including Can- ada, which signed the De- claration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948.

Let us now move closer to home and address ourselves to our condition in P.E.I. One of the things to keep upper- most in Our minds is the fact that depressing economic con- ditions force people to feel trapped and hopeless. We

live in a sour atmosphere of

poor health and bad housing

which, breeds defeat, aliena- .

tion, and dispair, and often, tragically, these attitudes are inherited by the next and succeeding generations. Fur- ther to this, I would like to point out the fact that pov- erty costs everyone some- thing. Its most grievous cost are those felt directly by the poor themselves, but it also imposes very large costs on the rest of society. These include the cost of crime, de- linquency, disease, and poor

In Love And War Renting .Alpar‘tments

furnace was installed to keep the radiators warm in the 3 storey, 7 apartment bnilding. There is one thermostat in the entire building located on the ground floor in the smal- lest apartment. Presently, this thermostat is held at 85 degrees :to keep the rest of the apartments at 60 degrees. Did you say winter is com- ing? The building has a hot water heater that honestly fills one tub and is out of warm water for an hour, and then only if everyone avoids using the "water for foolish things like washing dishes. How much is the rent you ask? Oh —— a reasonable $90 -$125 a month, depend- mg upon your extracurricu- lar activities.

Why don’t these pe opl e complain you ask? Why don’t they move out? I will at- tempt to answer the first question first. Most of these occupants wouldn’t even dare to ask for better facilities little alone put forth their right and demand them, sim- ply because they may be answered by such sympathe- tic [empostulations as, “Well if you don’t like it, all you have to do is give me a months notice; I have people crying for apartments.” It’s true, they do have people cry- ing for apartments, but does this mean that they should be able to exploit people in this manner? Why are they

allowed to exploit h 11 man

beings, or being haumbler, how can. they knowingly do this to satisfy financial gains, when it comes to such a basic human requirement as “shel- ter”. We realize these peo- ple have money invested, and deserve a dividend for their “risk”, but this is just too much. We don’t spite their dividend, but be fair.

To answer that s e c o n (1 question —— why not move? Where to? _ It’s a vicious circle where you keep running into yourself. You might get an unfurnished, undecorated, half-house, on Elm Street

with no central heating. Only v

$75 a month, though!

I realize the average home- owner may think I have grossly overexaggerated, but I have not: as well as I rea- lize, no action will come of this. I only hope that it may spark a sudden revolution among all department dwel- lers to stand up and . . . take it standing up. You are all middle classed, exploited idiots who tell yourself you

are lucky because it could be ‘

worse. But don’t weep, oh helpless ones", maybe, just maybe, this paper will ignite a small spark in the black- ened souls of such hypocri- tical tyrants to make them feel one pound of sympathy

-— one ounce? — one gram?

May you “freeze” in hell!

‘ we see

ALEX BURKE

education. They include the cost of low productivity and low output. Subsequent so— cial unrest and tension which is associated with gross in- equality is pacified and smo- thered by our welfare pro- grams which are merely at- tempts to disguise the fact. that we have failed to find more fundamental solutions to our problems. Now we— the real experts—must band together and bring solutions to these problems. We can no longer wish for change; we must'will it by actively directing our energies toward rooting out the causes and’

' intelligently applying applic—

able and Viable solutions as them. Remember, welfare keeps people poor; it only breeds f u t i l i t y and apathy.

It is most important to keep in mind that no one will do it for us — the obligation rests with us alone. The time has come when we must dis- pose of our leaders and false prophets and begin to believe in a new kindof leadership. This is a leadership that can— not fail nor frustrate us. This leadership is in the hall to-

LET THE POOR PROSPER'

night, and will be in the streets and in the slums to- morrow. What is it? — Who is it? Is it the Messiah or a Martin Luther King? No! It is you — it is me! Togeth- er we cannot be defeated by bureaucracy, politicians, or clergy. We will set down our goals and we shall achieve them. Let us not forget that God helps those who help themselves. Keep in mind that the child that you rock in your arms tonight will grow up someday. And when he grows up, will he be able to stand up proudly in this community and say, nay, shout, “My parents helped me in the best way they knew how; they stood up for their convictions and made this community the kind of place where ‘everyone’ can stand tall and take their rightful place.” This is the purpose to which I pledge myself, and to which I hope, with all my heart, that you too will pledge yourselves. My faith is cap— tured in this simple saying: “Keep your fears to yourself

and share your courage with

others.”

—Alec Burke

DON’T FORGET — JOURNALISM ’99

at The Cadre Office, this Sunday at 8 pm. 285 Kent Street All Cadre Staff and other interested parties please attend.

NEXT

WEEK

announcing

ented film makers.

An International Festival of New Film

The First American Showings Of 26 Short Films from 9 Countries

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O I I

a distinguished series of three programs presenting the new- est achievements in creative cinema by the world's most {at

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Program I Sun, Dec. 7th 7:30 & 9:30 pm.

THE DUFFY AMPHITHEATRE, MALPEQUE CAMPUS

Program 11 Fri., Dec. 12th 7:30 & 9:30 pm. SINGLE ADMISSION: Faculty and general public $1.50

U.P.E.I. Students $1.00 — Other Students $1.25

Program III Sun., Dec. 14th 7:30 & 9:30 pm.