This report presents the results
of a survey of 22 of the citie
s whose mayors serve on The U.S. Conference
of Mayors’ Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness. Officials wer
e asked to provide information on the
extent and causes of hunger and homelessness in their cities, a
nd the emergency food assistance and
homeless services provided between September 1, 2014 and August
31, 2015. They also were asked for
their assessment of the demand
for services and the resources available to them in the year ahead. This
year’s survey found continuing increases in demand for services
and continuing shortfalls in meeting
service needs. Among its key findings:
Hunger
Sixty-six percent of the survey cities reported that the number
of requests for emergency food
assistance increased over the past year. Across the survey citi
es, emergency food assistance
increased by an average of 2.8 percent.
Among those requesting emergency food assistance, 67 percent we
re persons in families, 42
percent were employed, 23 percent were elderly, and 10 percent
were homeless.
Low-wages led the list of causes
of hunger cited by the survey
cities, followed by poverty, and
high housing costs.
City officials […]
1 Comment
Thursday, December 24th, 2015
Robert Fantina, - MInt Press News
Stephan: The other day I ran a piece by Colonel John Alexander about ISIS as a superorganism. Here is a companion piece discussing how the U.S. created ISIS, funded it, and unintentionally armed it. The whole story is a study in wrong assumptions, ignorance, hubris, and just general incompetence. And, as our current election cycle makes clear, there is very little promise that much will change.
KITCHENER, ONTARIO — Out of nowhere, it seems, Daesh, also commonly referred to as ISIL or ISIS, spontaneously formed, a group that perverts aspects of Islam for its own violent ends, and threatens, we are told, all that the civilized world holds dear.
The “war on terror,” governments inform their citizens, has a new front. And that front is Daesh.
Let us not be too hasty. Things are not always what they appear. Daesh is well-financed, and that money must be coming from somewhere other than a ragtag band of malcontents. Daesh soldiers have advanced weaponry and sophisticated communications methods. They have tanks and Humvees. None of these can be obtained without significant funding. Though the source is quite illusive, there is some evidence that will lead to a trail.
First, we must look at Daesh’s origins, and even that is not easily discernable. Writing for The Guardian in August 2014, Ali Khedery suggests:
“Principally, Isis is the product of a genocide that continued unabated as the world stood back and watched. It is the illegitimate child born of pure hate and pure fear – the result of 200,000 murdered Syrians and of […]
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