Hi gemma thanks for the article I realized in the province life is more kind and forgiven there is no squatter in the cemetery.
Posted by gemma
On my way home from work last Friday afternoon, I saw a motley group of adults and children camping on the steps of an abandoned bike shop on Taft Avenue, at the fringes of the Department of Tourism.
They had lined the cold cement floor with flattened cardboard boxes. Some were huddled in a corner with their backs to the traffic as if ready to sleep, others were staring aimlessly at passersby. They had nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
It is perturbing that there are hundreds like them who are not "illegal dwellers" strictly speaking, but are worse off for they are totally homeless and occupy any available convenient space in the city.
By chance, I came across a scholarly article by Mr. Hideo Aoki that classifies them as "street homeless." Director of the Institute on Social Theory and Dynamics of Hiroshima, Japan, Mr. Aoki is also a researcher at the Institute on Church and Social Issues in Quezon City. He said that since the 1980's, a new type of homeless has emerged in industrial cities and towards the end of the 1990's, homelessness grew at alarming rates in developing countries, like the Philippines. But, because "street homelessness" is usually confused with "squatter homelessness," it is not viewed as festering social problem in itself. Mr. Aoki said the "street homeless" are becoming "a peculiar social group" in Metro Manila. Who then are the "street homeless"?
Mr. Aoki describes them as "...people working in the street who have been evicted from squatter areas, who recently arrived from the provinces, ethnic minority groups of people who work as seasonal laborers, and street children and their families...The street homeless are people who do not have permanent and fixed homes, who do not have relatives with whom they can live, and who live alone or in a family unit on the streets...They have to find on the streets the basic necessities of life in order to survive..." Because they have to stay "where goods constantly circulate" in areas of dense human traffic. Like Mr. Aoki, we have all seen "street homeless" groups in downtown and market areas, bus terminals, parks, and cemeteries. In Metro Manila, they occupy spaces in Quiapo, Santa Ana, Cubao, Baclaran, Malate, Divisoria, Navotas, Luneta/Rizal Park, the Mehan Garden, streets in Quezon City, and cemeteries. Let us add the people I saw last Friday at the entrance of that ex-bike shop at the fringes of the DoT on Taft Avenue. Strikingly, Mr. Aoki connects all this to wanton globalization. To be continued. (From "Globalization and the Street Homeless in Metro Manila," Philippine Studies, Ateneo de Manila U., 2008 gemma601@yahoo.com
