You are not Your Physical Body; You are Not the Physical Matter: You are Energy! And Everything what happened to You, happened for One Good Reason: to Merge Your Energy with the Energies of Others, with the Energies of Earths, with the Energies of Universes! The Mixed Energy is the Final Product of all Universal, Galactic and Planetary Games. Don't be afraid to mix your Energy with other Energies: the more - the better!
The Culmination of this Blending Process for this Universe will be in December 2013: the Final Stage of the Universal Shift!

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http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2010/02/20/Commercial_flights_touch_down_in_Haiti_431162.html

The first commercial flight to arrive in Haiti since the January 12 earthquake has touched down in Port-au-Prince.
The American Airlines flight from Miami came to a stop at the terminal on Friday with 132 passengers onboard and with one of the pilots waving a Haitian flag from the cockpit window.
A band playing Creole music in the terminal greeted their arrival - as had been the case regularly before the quake - but the passengers were bussed to a separate building to pass through immigration because of damage to the airport.
The airport has been an aid lifeline for the devastated country in the wake of the January 12 earthquake that killed more than 217,000 people and left more than a million homeless.
Officials said resuming commercial traffic would inject crucial revenue into Haiti's crippled government.
'It's good for the reconstruction of Haiti,' said American Airlines spokesperson Martha Pantin. 'We were the last ones out; we are the first ones in.'
But amid the celebration there were stark reminders of the innumerable tragedies that have befallen the Haitian people.
Passenger Marie Ange Levasseur, 45, began to cry as she spoke of how her cousin, who died in the quake, used to greet her at the airport when she would visit.
Levasseur now lives in Miami but still has family in Haiti.
'The first destination I want them to take me to is my cousin's grave,' she said as she waited in line at immigration. 'It's very sad, this trip. I've never had such a sad trip like that.'
Jean Eddy Porche, 49, who also lives in Miami, arrived with his wife to check on family members and the house he still owns here. He had been told it was damaged and was not sure if it could be repaired.
Homes belonging to his mother and sister were completely destroyed, he said.
'I have friends who are dead; cousins,' said Porche, adding he felt 'completely traumatised' when arriving here.
Family members waited outside under the sun behind yellow caution tape for the passengers to emerge. Some embraced as they saw each other, while others seemed weary and simply turned and walked down the street together.
Since the earthquake the country's largest commercial airport has resembled a military base, with over a hundred armed forces and UN flights passing through each day when traffic was at its peak.
Thousands of tonnes of food and medical aid along with disaster relief personnel have poured into Haiti via the hub, which at times has been overwhelmed, forcing officials to turn away some aircraft.
US embassy spokeswomen Elizabeth Detmeister said the resumption of commercial routes would mean that US evacuation flights would now be phased out.
American Airlines will offer two flights a day from Miami and one from nearby Fort Lauderdale. A flight from New York's JFK International Airport will operate four times a week, the airline said.
From March 12, the airline's American Eagle service will start a new daily route to Haiti from Puerto Rico, and two flights through two Dominican Republic cities, Santo Domingo and Santiago.
Haitians also lined up to fly out to Miami on Friday morning, including Jean Durand, 45.
He had come to Haiti some five days ago from Philadelphia, first landing in neighbouring Dominican Republic, then paying $US400 ($A444) to cross the border by car. He came to check on family members, two of whom were killed.
Durand arrived at the airport at 4:30 am to make sure he could fly back to the United States, but he said the airline had somehow lost his ticket. He had worked out the hassles and waited in line under the sun to enter the terminal.
'But if I had known it was going to be like this, I would have gone back to Santo Domingo,' he said
Saturday, February 20, 2010 » 07:16pm

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Politics/2010/03/11/Situation_in_Haiti_still_dire-_Obama_438695.html

US President Barack Obama said the situation in Haiti is still 'dire' and warned that a second humanitarian disaster was possible.
After talks with Haitian President Rene Preval at the White House, Obama said that the looming spring rains in Haiti could pose a severe threat to 1.3 million people left homeless, almost two months after the monstrous earthquake.
'The situation on the ground remains dire and people should be under no illusions that the crisis is over,' Obama said during a joint appearance with Preval in the White House Rose Garden.
The president said that there was a 'desperate need' for humanitarian aid in Haiti, describing the quake which killed more than 220,000 people as 'one of the most devastating natural disasters ever to strike our hemisphere.'
'The challenge now, is to prevent a second disaster,' Obama said, hours after former president Bill Clinton, now a UN special envoy to Haiti, warned that a new wave of deaths could be caused by poor sanitary conditions.
Obama described his Oval Office talks with Preval as 'very productive' and said the Haitian leader had provided him with an update on the 'awful scale of Haitian loss.'
'No nation could respond to such a catastrophe alone,' Obama said, adding that an international donors conference for Haiti later this month at the UN would allow the world to keep its commitment to help Haiti rebuild.
'This pledge is one that I made at the beginning of this crisis, and I intend for America to keep our pledge,' Obama said. 'America will be your partner.'
Clinton delivered his warning in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations committee, saying his biggest worry was that unsanitary conditions would 'lead to a second round of deaths' when the rainy season comes.
Preval used his joint appearance with Obama to thank the American people for a swift and massive response in the wake of the January 12 quake, and offered condolences to Americans who had lost loved-ones in the disaster.
And he also delivered a stark warning that the lessons of his country's disaster must be recognised, arguing that global warming could cause similar humanitarian catastrophes in future.
'We must draw the lessons from what occurred in Haiti. These are lessons for all of mankind,' Preval said.
'The massive, spontaneous, generous help was a good response to the disaster. However, its effectiveness must be improved, because effectiveness depends on the quality of coordination.'
Preval said that donor funds gathered at the United Nations conference in New York at the end of the month should be administered by one single authority to ensure they were spent wisely.
And he pleaded for help to offer Haitians health care, jobs and education, to forestall a possible wave of migration to the cities which could worsen the humanitarian situation.
Obama also said he was 'extraordinarily proud' of each member of the US armed forces who flocked to Haiti in the aftermath of the disaster of help with the relief effort and provide much-needed security.
'They saved lives, countless lives, of men and women and children,' Obama said.
The Pentagon said that the Comfort naval hospital, which is leaving Haiti on Wednesday, treated 871 patients during its seven-week mission and performed 843 surgeries.
The Comfort has spent the past two weeks helping Haitians for ailments unrelated to the earthquake, with the last person treated for earthquake injuries discharged on February 27, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
The naval doctors also delivered 10 babies onboard the ship, he said
Thursday, March 11, 2010 » 12:48pm   
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2010/03/05/Haitis_homeless_to_suffer_wet_season_436348.html

Haiti's coming tropical storm season will brutally lash most of the 1.3 million people left homeless from a January quake despite the best efforts of aid groups, relief workers say.
That grim assessment came as international efforts coalesced towards a joint strategy to rebuild Haiti, with a series of meetings being planned from March 15 culminating with a March 30 conference in New York.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), overseeing aid efforts on the ground, says the emergency phase of relief operations is over, with food, water, health and makeshift shelters having been distributed.
But those advances are now threatened by the Caribbean rainy season, which is looming in the form of dark clouds and occasional downpours, one of which caused flooding that killed 13 people last weekend.
By the end of April, daily prolonged storms will turn Haiti's roads into fast-flowing rivers, trigger mudslides and contaminate clean water sources with sewage and the remains of the thousands of unrecovered corpses decomposing in the rubble of buildings.
Mounting concerns have forced aid groups and the crippled Haitian government to change tack and advocate the voluntary resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people from the crowded tent camps, most of which sit on low-lying fields that will turn into expanses of mud.
Kristen Knutson, spokeswoman for the UN's OCHA, said moves were being made to clear rubble and set up sanitation facilities in five locations outside the capital for the new settlements.
'This is just one of a multitude of solutions for people to consider,' Knutson said, explaining that residents who were able to return to their shattered neighbourhoods were also being encouraged to do so.
At the same time, the Red Cross was spearheading plans to provide more durable cover to the homeless.
Next week, it will start bringing in wood-and-plastic-sheeting dwellings called Emergency Core Shelters from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, Red Cross spokesman Alex Wynter said, likening them to 'small houses.'
But he cautioned that only 3,000 are expected to be available by the end of May - when the storms hitting Haiti are expected worsen as the hurricane season begins - which means 'they are not a solution to the rainy season.'
'We can't put all the people in them in six weeks,' he said.
Malaria, which spikes each rainy season in Haiti because of mosquito breeding, is likely to prove one of the biggest challenges.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report Thursday that the deadliest form of malaria posed a 'substantial risk' for residents and relief workers alike in Haiti.
It noted that 11 people who had gone to the United States after spending time in Haiti following the January 12 earthquake had already been diagnosed with malaria.
Seven were US emergency responders, including six members of the US military; three were Haitian residents who travelled to the United States, including one adoptee; and one was a 'US traveller.'
Haiti reports 30,000 confirmed cases of malaria each year to the Pan American Health Organisation, but the real incidence of the mosquito-borne illness is probably as high as 200,000 cases, the CDC report said.
Against the backdrop of those worries, governments and organisations are trying to come up with a joint, coordinated international strategy to get Haiti's economy and society functioning again.
The core nations involved are Brazil, Canada, France, Spain and the United States, in conjunction with the European Union, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the Inter-American Development Bank.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking to reporters in Paris on Thursday, said he hoped the plan would be forged with Haitian government input in time for a big international conference in New York on March 31.
But, he admitted, 'all that is not easy.'
A small meeting to prepare for the New York gathering will be held March 12 in the Dominican Republic, a French government official involved in Haiti's reconstruction, Pierre Duquesne, said.
On March 15, a business meeting will take place in Haiti under the aegis of the Inter-American Development Bank.
That will be followed the next day by a meeting of the core countries and organisations in another location, then on March 17 by a larger grouping of 40 to 50 countries.
On March 22, in Washington, the Haitian diaspora will hold talks.
On March 23, two other separate meetings will be held, one in the French Caribbean island of Martinique and the other in Brussels.
Friday, March 05, 2010 » 11:46am

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/World/2010/02/13/Rains_is_problem_for_Haiti_homeless_428306.html

A top UN official in Haiti says many of those made homeless by the earthquake one month ago are unlikely to be provided 'good shelter' before the rainy season.
While the United Nations and other organisations involved in aid efforts are aiming to provide some sort of shelter material before the rains begin around May, the deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti said the challenge will be immense.
'I think it's almost certainly going to be the case there are going to be a lot of people without good shelter by the time the rains really come,' Anthony Banbury said.
Officials debated whether to distribute more sturdy shelter that could better withstand the elements but that would take longer to provide and reach fewer people, or work to hand out something to everyone.
'I think for obvious humanitarian reasons, the decision was to give something to everyone,' Banbury said.
'It's going to be a challenge to even achieve that goal - not easy, but that is the objective.'
He said even if the aid effort is able to do that by providing items such as tarpaulins for all of the more than one million sleeping in the streets since the January 12 quake, those homeless will still face difficult circumstances.
'No one should be under any illusions that all million people who have lost their homes are going to be living in comfortable, sturdy shelter by May 1. That's just not going to happen.'
Haitian government officials and aid organisations have warned that the coming rainy season poses a major threat to the homeless.
Conditions in makeshift camps throughout the capital have already become a major health concern.
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed an estimated 217,000 people.
Meanwhile, the White House warned the situation in Haiti 'remains dire' ahead of potentially disastrous rains in the coming months.
'The situation remains dire... the need for food, shelter, medical supplies and basic security is enormous, and the coming rainy season will pose new challenges,' press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement from Washington.
Gibbs paid tribute to the thousands of military and civilian-led responses to the disaster from the United States.
'Having reopened the main airport and port to enable a massive international humanitarian effort, our servicemen and women are supporting the distribution of urgently needed food, water, medicine and shelter until these functions can be fulfilled by the rapidly-expanding civilian operation and the United Nations.'
Producers of the revamped We Are the World say the full seven-minute version of the music video will air simultaneously on 53 domestic and international television channels in the US on Saturday (0600 AEDT, Sunday).
The video, filmed by Oscar winner Paul Haggis, shows some of the 85 artists who gathered in Los Angeles this month to re-record the charity anthem.
Fans can download the song online. All proceeds will benefit earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti.
Saturday, February 13, 2010 » 04:36pm

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/World/2010/02/08/Haitian_aid_effort_rushes_out_tents_426247.html

Aid workers in Haiti are rushing to provide tents with the coming rainy season threatening further misery and anger building among the desperate population.
While officials say food distribution has finally moved into high gear, more Haitians protested on Sunday, saying the government had done nothing for them as the one-month anniversary of the January 12 devastating earthquake approached.
Meanwhile, the case of 10 Americans charged with kidnapping children in the wake of the disaster took another turn, with their Haitian lawyer saying he had quit after being accused of seeking to bribe the judge.
Another hearing on the case is expected on Monday.
Haitians have warned that temporary housing for the tens of thousands of homeless is vital ahead of the rainy season that arrives in the coming weeks since huge numbers of people are sleeping on the ground.
Some one million people have been left homeless by the quake.
French aid group Doctors Without Borders handed out nearly 2,000 tents over the weekend, a spokeswoman said.
'In two days we have distributed 1,800 tents to refugees,' Caroline Livio said at a clinic operated by the organisation.
'If more people need it here, we'll provide it. We have more tents now.'
The United Nations announced last week that more than 10,000 family-sized tents had been distributed with some 16,000 in stock.
On Friday, the UN estimated that 460,000 people remained in makeshift camps throughout Port-au-Prince, while seven 'organised settlements' had been set up for 42,000 people.
The UN has warned that sanitation is becoming a serious problem in makeshift camps and that an increasing number of children are falling ill.
Desperate Haitians have protested in parts of Port-au-Prince in recent days, including on Friday during ex-US president Bill Clinton's visit, when a couple of hundred people gathered outside the complex where he met Haitian President Rene Preval.
Clinton, the UN special envoy for Haiti, said several thousand tents would be arriving soon as well as a hundred trucks.
'I'm sorry it's taken this long,' Clinton said. 'I'm trying to get to what the bottlenecks are, part of it is just shipping the volume of food in here that is necessary.'
On Sunday, about 100 people who said they were living in a camp marched in Petionville, claiming they had been given nothing since the quake.
'People aren't getting anything from the food distribution,' said Louis Willy, a 35-year-old father of two
Monday, February 08, 2010 » 09:39am

http://www.bigpond.com/news/breaking/content/20080622/2282033.asp

June 22, 2008 - 1:00PM
Source: ABC
In the last couple of months, the global food crisis has led to protests and riots in some countries.
In Russia, they may not be taking to the streets, but most are suffering financial hunger pangs due to rocketing prices.
A new study suggests that household budgets are being bitten so hard, that nearly half of the Russian population is having to cut back on food.
Maria Zeleranskaya is shopping in a Moscow supermarket, negotiating the narrow aisles with a pram holding her six-month-old son, Pavel.
But the manoeuvres are not nearly as tight as those required to balance the family budget, when there is one more mouth to feed and food prices are rising sharply.
"Baby formula for example, it was like less than 20 bucks five months ago and now it's almost 30," she said.
"It's like I use to spend say 500 roubles every time I go to a store, now it's not enough."
Since the start of the year, food prices in Russia have jumped by 11.6 per cent - that is almost four times the average in European Union countries.
And while Russia may have a reputation for being the land of the potato, its people are having to pay dearly for vegetables, in particular; they have gone up by 51 per cent since December.
"If one thing cost more than it use to a year ago, you'll think it's fine. But if the difference is big in a month; now you start worrying," she said.
Economists point out that these are not normal times. On top of food demand and prices increasing around the globe, Russia's economy is growing rapidly, and so is the country's inflation rate.
For the first five months of this year, it averaged 7.7 per cent. But chief economist for Merrill Lynch in Moscow, Yulia Tseplyaeva, says there are compensations that soften the pain on the hip pocket nerve.
"Wages and incomes are growing faster than inflation. Definitely people are complaining about inflation but they're becoming better off," she said.
Yet for those not earning an income, the impact can be dramatic.
Many older Russians reminisce about the good old cheaper days of the Soviet era, when prices barely moved and a loaf of bread was the equivalent of less than 10 cents - compared to more than $1 now.
Increasingly, more muscovites are digging their way out of a budgetary hole.
Many have small summer houses, known as Dachas, on plots of land just beyond the city fringes.
Here muscovites - such as semi-retired couple Anatoli and Natalia Rezchikov - grow their own fruit and vegetables to beat the rising prices.
"Roughly speaking, it helps us save about approximately 20 per cent of the family budget," Anatoli Rezchikov said.
But if many Russians are tightening their belts, economist Yulia Tseplyaeva doubts that the Government will do the same with its fiscal policies to ease inflationary pressure.
"Food prices, inflation may continue in the year 2008, and what we see now is just a first wave of this inflation," she said.
And that forecast will leave an empty feeling in many Russians' stomachs as they ponder just how much further their budgets can stretch.

Based on a report by Moscow correspondent Scott Bevan for Saturday AM.
s have staged a party while the Government is duping us with its ineffective measures to contain rising prices," president of Greece's largest labour confederation, Yannis Panagopoulos said.
But Germany and other European Union states said they would reject a fuel tax break plan sought by France to cushion rising oil prices.
A senior French official said President Nicolas Sarkozy would ask EU peers to back a reduction in value-added tax on petrol across the 27-nation bloc.
In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Parliament: "In our view, financial policy intervention, which is being discussed again and again ... should be avoided."
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt went further and told reporters that Europeans should work longer hours and pay less income tax to cope with rising prices.
"I am asking myself ... that we might ease up on income taxes to make work pay even further, so that people could react to the fact that an increase in the petrol price could be met by working some extra hours," Mr Reinfeldt said."
- Reuters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eastasiapacificblog/sets/72157621005546963/comments/

There’s no capital city anywhere in the world with a housing problem like Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In a city of one million people, 60 percent of the population live in settlements without water, sanitation or basic infrastructure – often in traditional Mongolian felt tents, known as gers.
Many residents of the ger districts eventually build small houses out of wood, concrete or brick, but still suffer from a lack of services. They still have to buy their water from a water station and carry it home. Their homes are usually poorly built and not energy efficient, leading to even higher heating costs and worse pollution.
So what’s being done? Fortunately, the issue is drawing more and more attention.

Read more on Dave Lawrence's blog, at eapblog.worldbank.org

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/9/1167/76508/497/706312

President Hoover refused to take legislative action to deal with the crisis because he believed it would make people more reliant on the government. Instead he tried to encourage public-private partnerships, which failed miserably. Secretary Mellon had the highest tax rate reduced from 77 to 25 percent, reduced the estate tax, and cut government agency budgets to "improve efficiency in government." Do those policies remind you of a certain party's recommended solutions to the current economic crisis?

Homeless encampments dubbed "tent cities" are springing up across the US, partly in response to soaring numbers of home repossessions, the credit crunch and rising unemployment, according to a report.
Nearly 61 per cent of local and state homeless organisations say they have witnessed an increase in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, the Washington DC-based National Coalition for the Homeless study says.
And the problem has intensified since the report was produced in April, along with rising repossessions, soaring energy and food prices and job losses, the group says.
"It's clear that poverty and homelessness have increased," Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the coalition, said.
"The economy is in chaos, we're in an unofficial recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future."
Homeless groups and government agencies from Seattle, in Washington state, to Athens in Georgia, report the most visible increase in homeless encampments in a generation.
"What you're seeing is encampments that I haven't seen since the '80s," said Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, an umbrella group of homeless groups in west coast cities.
In Reno, Nevada, the state with the nation's highest repossessions rate, a tent city recently sprung up on the city's outskirts and quickly filled up with about 150 people. Many, such as Sylvia Flynn, 51, who came from northern California, ended up homeless after losing their jobs and home.
Officials say they do not know how many homeless the city has. "But we do know that the soup kitchens are serving hundreds more meals a day and that we have more people who are homeless than we can remember," Jodi Royal-Goodwin, the city's redevelopment agency director, said.
In California, the upmarket city of Santa Barbara is housing homeless people who live in their cars in city car parks while Fresno, has several tent cities. Others have sprung up in Portland in Oregon, and Seattle, where homeless activists have set up mock tent cities at city hall to draw attention to the problem.
Meanwhile, new encampments have appeared, or existing ones grown, in San Diego, Chattanooga in Tennessee, and Columbus, Ohio.
A recent report by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development noted a 12 per cent drop in homelessness across the nation, but the latest figures – from 2007 – predates the current housing and economic crisis.
I reckon that most Americans rarely look beyond the filtered and spun version of reality presented to them by the U.S. media to see how the rest of the world views us.
If they did, they might be left with more than a few doubts about whether they still live in “the greatest country on earth.”
In fact, I reckon that the following report from Britain’s Daily Mail, “Pictured: The Credit Crunch Tent City Which Has Returned to Haunt America,” would probably leave some wondering what planet they were on.
A century and a half ago it was at the centre of the Californian gold rush, with hopeful prospectors pitching their tents along the banks of the American River.
Today, tents are once again springing up in the city of Sacramento. But this time it is for people with no hope and no prospects.
With America’s economy in freefall and its housing market in crisis, California’s state capital has become home to a tented city for the dispossessed.
Rich and poor: The tents and other makeshift homes have sprung up in the shadow of Sacramento’s skyscrapers
Shanty town: The tent city is already home to dozens of people, many left without jobs because of the credit crunch
Those who have lost their jobs and homes and have nowhere else to go are constructing makeshift shelters on the site, which covers several acres.
As many as 50 people a week are turning up and the authorities estimate that the tent city is now home to more than 1,200 people.
In a state more known for its fantastic wealth and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the images have shocked many Americans.
Conditions are primitive, with no water supply or proper sanitation.
Many residents have to walk up to three miles to buy bottled water from petrol stations or convenience stores
Ben Cardwell, carries supplies to his tent at a homeless settlement
Tammy Day, a homeless woman, cooks potatoes on a campfire at the site
At other times, charity workers arrive to hand out free food and other supplies.
Joan Burke, who campaigns on behalf of the homeless, said the images of Americans living in tents would shock many.
‘It should be an eye- opener for everybody,’ she said. ‘But we shouldn’t just be shocked, we should take action to change things, because it’s unacceptable.
‘It is unacceptable that in this day and age we have gone back to a situation like we had during the Great Depression.’
Authorities in Sacramento, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has his office,
admit the sight of families living in such poverty is not pretty.
But faced with their own budget crisis and a £30billion deficit, they have had little choice but to consider making the tent city a permanent fixture.
The city’s mayor Kevin Johnson said: ‘I can’t say tent cities are the answer to the homeless population in Sacramento, but I think it’s one of the many things that should be considered and looked at.
Shanty towns sprung up during the Great Depression as people lost their jobs and homes
Migrant Mother: Dorothea Lange’s famous photograph from the Great Depression features Florence Owens Thompson, 32, a mother-of-three who had just sold the family’s tent to buy food
As America’s most powerful state California had the same gross domestic output as Italy and Spain, but it has been among the hardest hit by the recession and housing crisis.
Foreclosure rates last year rocketed by 327 per cent, with up to 500 people a day losing their home.
Coupled with massive job cuts that have seen one in ten workers laid off, many people who once enjoyed a middle class existence are now forced into third world conditions.
Former car salesman Corvin and his wife Tena are among the newest residents of the tent city.
Tent city residents queue up to receive supplies handed out by a local charity
The couple, who are in their fifties, lost their home and jobs around the same time.
With homeless shelters full in Sacramento, they had little choice but to use what savings they had left to buy a tent.
The couple admit they have yet to tell their grown-up children about their hand-to-mouth existence.
Tena said: ‘I have a 35-year-old son, and he doesn’t know. I call him, about once a month and on holidays, to let him know that I’m well and healthy.
‘He would love me anyway, but I don’t want to worry him.’
The shame of Sacramento’s tent city was given a much wider airing after it was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show which is watched by more than 40million people a week.
Many of those who have found themselves homeless worked in the building trade.
But with no new home builds and as many as 80,000 people losing their job every month, there is little chance of employment. Governor Schwarzenegger last month approved a budget to address the state’s deficit, ending a three-month stalemate among lawmakers.
As well as increasing taxes, he has imposed drastic cuts in education, healthcare and services that will affect everyone living in the state.
Many of those living in the tent city are pinning their hopes on President Obama’s $787billion stimulus package which is aimed at rescuing the economy and creating jobs.
The President has also announced plans to save the homes of nine million people from foreclosure by restructuring their mortgage debt.


The US recession began as a crisis of homeowners defaulting on mortgages and now spreads to every part of the economy. Around 650,000 Americans' jobs were lost in February, and unemployment climbed to a 25-year peak of 8.1 per cent.
That's more than the population of the state of Pennsylvania. And this rapid poverty-epidemic is spreading just as fast into Canada. Both countries also have the largest number of top-educated people on the planet put together. Yet half of American families now are only two paychecks away from homelessness and starvation.
The result is a proliferation of tent cities, from Sacramento, to Florida and even Edmonton, in Alberta Canada. California, with its milder weather, has always attracted its fair share of people living on the streets and empty lots.
But the Golden State is now being hit hard by the recession. In February it had the highest number of repossession filings - 80,775 - of anywhere in the US, up 51 per cent in a year according to the website RealtyTrac. Auction sale notices almost tripled to 18,831. Thousands of families now are out on the streets, with no place to go, and find themselves setting up tents wherever they won't get chased off in a hurry - empty parking lots, public parks, beaches.
See this tent city which arose in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: -- the authorities fenced it in and were planning to move these people 'out of sight' - however where can these people go, who will feed the children, where can they go to school? see
In Los Angeles alone, some 60,000 houses were repossessed - and families now are living out in the streets, in tent cities, reports the BBC. (see video above).
Especially top-educated, middleclass American families have become poor so rapidly that it's a full-time job just keeping up with all the tent-cities which are mushrooming all across the United States as these families take their camping equipment and turn them into permanent homes - where-ever they can find an empty spot.
see
Also see the tent city in Ontario, California here and the shanty town in Miami, Florida here There are dozens of YouTube movies of these tent cities, and new ones added each day.
A particularly vicious incident happened in St. Petersburg, where Florida resident Tiny May filmed police officers with box-cutters, who showed up and proceeded to carve up these families' only roofs over their heads.
The cops slashed their tents to the ground as residents watched in shock.
see
Right now, all these hundreds of thousands of homeless people still are reasonably well-fed and healthy. Two more months of this lifestyle, and the rib-cages will start showing. I've seen it all before -- all over Africa.

Since foreclosure mess, homeless advocates report rise in encampments
Homeless encampments are springing up around the country, including this one next to the homeless shelter in downtown Reno, Nevada.
RENO, Nev. - A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer.
Then others appeared — people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy, or newcomers who had moved to Reno for work and discovered no one was hiring.
Within weeks, more than 150 people were living in tents big and small, barely a foot apart in a patch of dirt slated to be a parking lot for a campus of shelters Reno is building for its homeless population. Like many other cities, Reno has found itself with a "tent city" — an encampment of people who had nowhere else to go.
From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.
Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening.
"It's clear that poverty and homelessness have increased," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the coalition. "The economy is in chaos, we're in an unofficial recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future."
Caught by surprise
The phenomenon of encampments has caught advocacy groups somewhat by surprise, largely because of how quickly they have sprung up.
"What you're seeing is encampments that I haven't seen since the 80s," said Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, an umbrella group for homeless advocacy organizations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore. and Seattle.
The relatively tony city of Santa Barbara has given over a parking lot to people who sleep in cars and vans.
The city of Fresno, Calif., is trying to manage several proliferating tent cities, including an encampment where people have made shelters out of scrap wood.
In Portland, Ore., and Seattle, homeless advocacy groups have paired with nonprofits or faith-based groups to manage tent cities as outdoor shelters.
Other cities where tent cities have either appeared or expanded include include Chattanooga, Tenn., San Diego, and Columbus, Ohio.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently reported a 12 percent drop in homelessness nationally in two years, from about 754,000 in January 2005 to 666,000 in January 2007. But the 2007 numbers omitted people who previously had been considered homeless — such as those staying with relatives or friends or living in campgrounds or motel rooms for more than a week.
In addition, the housing and economic crisis began soon after HUD's most recent data was compiled.
"The data predates the housing crisis," said Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for HUD. "From the headlines, it might appear that the report is about yesterday. How is the housing situation affecting homelessness? That's a great question. We're still trying to get to that."
In Seattle, which is experiencing a building boom and an influx of affluent professionals in neighborhoods the working class once owned, homeless encampments have been springing up — in remote places to avoid police sweeps.
Tourists vacationing in Miami have a disturbing addition to their view of the beach: a growing population of convicted sex offenders have been residing under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. With over 60 offenders living in the tiny space, the community is now spilling out into plain view. Forced by law from living anywhere near congregations of children, they were actually encouraged by the city to live under the highway.
Interestingly, for those who follow the court’s offer to live under the bridge, they find a close knit and remarkably civilized community. There is a village of shacks made from driftwood, thatch, and scavenged junk furnished with twin beds, sofas, DVD players, TV’s, and microwaves and each week everyone pays $2 to fuel the camp’s generator. There’s even an enforced 10pm curfew. In addition, many members care for each other and respect each other’s personal space, especially after a woman joined their ranks.
But tent cities are not only for criminals, drug addicts and the chronically homeless. Although numbers vary in different communities, increasing numbers of former lower-middle class workers who have lost their jobs and homes are erecting tent cities across the country. In Sacramento where there are 1,200 homeless throughout the city, Loaves and Fishes provides the homeless with a place to stay, meals and help getting them back on their feet. But such charities have seen their shelters overwhelmed and have been building tent cities in nearby church parking lots.
Dignity Village in Portland Oregon is perhaps the most sophisticated tent city, complete with all the signs of civilization, including 50 permanent wooden structures, city council, curfew, and even recycling. But other tent cities, such as New Jack City and Taco Flats in Fresno, CA, are notoriously violent, and drug riddled. Since the homeless are for the most part nomadic, quantifying the “newly” homeless is difficult and the support they can hope to find varies widely.
Former truck drivers and electricians, unable to find work, have also taken residence under a freeway bridge in Fresno, California. According to Michael Stoops, the executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless “these are able-bodied folks that did day labor, at minimum wage or better, who were previously able to house themselves based on their incomes.” In Pinellas county, Florida Jim Marshall, a former Detroit autoworker, now homeless, confessed he was terrified his first couple nights being homeless: “Where am I going to sleep tonight? Where do I eat? Where do I shower? “
Homelessness cannot be summed up in a single statement because it is a symptom with many causes. But this diverse segment of society, haunted by daily questions about where they can live, have shown great strength and intelligence in forming their own structured communities. In order to meet the needs of the homeless, their individual stories must be heard and understood. Joan Burke, advocacy director for Loaves and Fishes, said to reporters flocking to get coverage on the new homeless resulting from the recession, “Why do we care so much for people who suffer for a short time versus those who suffer for a long time? What is that about?”Sosa, one of the many dogs living in Tent City, watches over the tent home of Cowboy, his owner. Cowboy has been in Tent City in Nashville, Tennessee for five years.
Several paths and trails surround and intermingle through the encampments. Different camps are spread throughout the area along the Cumberland River next to the rail tracks. Here, BJ (left) and Rick make their way back to their camp to start a fire before nightfall.
Like a lot of their neighbors, Brandon met his significant other while living in a homeless shelter in Nashville. The couple says the camp has more of a home feel to it than any shelter they ever lived in
Colby Green, 41, took his step-daughter, Anastasia, 12, right, to the tent city to fish. Cowboy (left) stopped them along their way back to the rail road tracks to tell them when the fishing was good around the area
Rick Cole and Theresa Gordon share a kiss while they have company over to their camp
Mark May, 47, broke his back and both of his arms during a work-related accident. When he left the hospital, he came here with no money and no place to stay. Theresa Gordon and Rick Cole offered him a place to stay and since then he has been contributing whatever he can. Sometimes that involves going to market dumpsters to retrieve discarded produce and any other foods
Camp fires are used for cooking, bug repellent, and, of course, heating. Ted, who’s been at the camp for two years, warms his hands
Jerry Mackey, 43, came to camps after being the victim of violence and theft at one of the crowded Nashville shelters. “I was tired of getting spit on everywhere I went, here they took me in and gave me a place to lay my head,” said Mackey
One of the services provided to the people who live in the camps along the river is a food and goods truck that comes a few times a week. The trucks come with food, water, and other necessities like a fresh pair of socks
Jerry Mackey and his new girlfriend, “Little Bit,” say they are a good match for each other because neither really had a place to call their own. Recently the couple moved into a tent given to them by a friend

Rick “Papa Smurf” Cole didn’t know what to expect when he first arrived to the camps. After a short while he and his girlfriend took comfort in calling Tent City a home. “I don’t think I ever want to live in a house again, I feel comfortable here,” said Cole
Despite Jerry Mackey’s financial and health problems, he says he is happy where he is in life. He says the people in the camps made him change his negative attitude into a positive one. Here, Jerry takes in the sunset along the Cumberland River and waits for the skyline of Nashville to light up. “Beautiful place, isn’t it?” said Mackey
All Charges Dropped Against Tent City Ten in New York City
Picture the Homeless
At 100 Centre Street this morning, all charges were dropped against the Tent City Ten -- homeless/community activists arrested in Picture the Homeless's July action liberating land & fighting for housing for all.
It seems like neither the public sector nor the private sector entities concerned wanted to push it with PTH and the movement we are part of -- from July through October, thanks to all of you for supporting the ten arrestees, and participating in the housing justice movement.
The Tent City Ten and everyone at PTH say: Onward! Stay tuned, be in touch... Love, PTH
Youtube has a “mini-documentary” on Tent City IV which is more a melange of images than a real story, but it’s a good place to see what a typical encampment looks like and hear some voices from it.
And here’s a post from a blogger’s visit to Tent City IV in Kirkland last November. It’s a comprehensive post, with interviews with two residents and the all-important first-hand impressions: “The place seemed safe and organized.” There’s also a good summary of homeless data from King County and an extensive list of sources.
Finally, there’s a good NPR piece on Tent City 4 that you can find in an earlier post. the comments on that post- there have been many- show the healthy ongoing debate on Tent City 4 moving to our community.
Picture The Homeless Tent City - Part 1: Case Study
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4lyLuuJeyE
FRESNO, Calif. — As the operations manager of an outreach center for the homeless here, Paul Stack is used to seeing people down on their luck. What he had never seen before was people living in tents and lean-tos on the railroad lot across from the center.
They just popped up about 18 months ago,” Mr. Stack said. “One day it was empty. The next day, there were people living there.”
Like a dozen or so other cities across the nation, Fresno is dealing with an unhappy déjà vu: the arrival of modern-day Hoovervilles, illegal encampments of homeless people that are reminiscent, on a far smaller scale, of Depression-era shantytowns. At his news conference on Tuesday night, President Obama was asked directly about the tent cities and responded by saying that it was “not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours.”
While encampments and street living have always been a part of the landscape in big cities like Los Angeles and New York, these new tent cities have taken root — or grown from smaller enclaves of the homeless as more people lose jobs and housing — in such disparate places as Nashville, Olympia, Wash., and St. Petersburg, Fla.
In Seattle, homeless residents in the city’s 100-person encampment call it Nickelsville, an unflattering reference to the mayor, Greg Nickels. A tent city in Sacramento prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to announce a plan Wednesday to shift the entire 125-person encampment to a nearby fairground. That came after a recent visit by “The Oprah Winfrey Show” set off such a news media stampede that some fed-up homeless people complained of overexposure and said they just wanted to be left alone.
The problem in Fresno is different in that it is both chronic and largely outside the national limelight. Homelessness here has long been fed by the ups and downs in seasonal and subsistence jobs in agriculture, but now the recession has cast a wider net and drawn in hundreds of the newly homeless — from hitchhikers to truck drivers to electricians.
“These are able-bodied folks that did day labor, at minimum wage or better, who were previously able to house themselves based on their income,” said Michael Stoops, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group based in Washington.
The surging number of homeless people in Fresno, a city of 500,000 people, has been a surprise. City officials say they have three major encampments near downtown and smaller settlements along two highways. All told, as many 2,000 people are homeless here, according to Gregory Barfield, the city’s homeless prevention and policy manager, who said that drug use, prostitution and violence were all too common in the encampments.
“That’s all part of that underground economy,” Mr. Barfield said. “It’s what happens when a person is trying to survive.”
He said the city planned to begin “triage” on the encampments in the next several weeks, to determine how many people needed services and permanent housing. “We’re treating it like any other disaster area,” Mr. Barfield said.
Mr. Barfield took over his newly created position in January, after the county and city adopted a 10-year plan to address homelessness. A class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of homeless people against the city and the California Department of Transportation led to a $2.35 million settlement in 2008, making money available to about 350 residents who had had their belongings discarded in sweeps by the city.
The growing encampments led the city to place portable toilets and security guards near one area known as New Jack City, named after a dark and drug-filled 1991 movie. But that just attracted more homeless people.
“It was just kind of an invitation to move in,” said Mr. Stack, the outreach center manager.
On a recent afternoon, nobody seemed thrilled to be living in New Jack City, a filthy collection of rain- and wind-battered tents in a garbage-strewn lot. Several weary-looking residents sat on decaying sofas as a pair of pit bulls chained to a fence howled.
Northwest of New Jack City sits a somewhat less grim encampment. It is sometimes called Taco Flats or Little Tijuana because of the large number of Latino residents, many of whom were drawn to Fresno on the promise of agricultural jobs, which have dried up in the face of the poor economy and a three-year drought.
Guillermo Flores, 32, said he had looked for work in the fields and in fast food, but had found nothing. For the last eight months, he has collected cans, recycling them for $5 to $10 a day, and lived in a hand-built, three-room shack, a home that he takes pride in, with a door, clean sheets on his bed and a bowl full of fresh apples in his propane-powered kitchen area.
“I just built it because I need it,” said Mr. Flores, as he cooked a dinner of chili peppers, eggs and onions over a fire. “The only problem I have is the spiders.”
SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- The homeless men and women shuffle across the frozen ground of the tent camp and surround a steel drum burning wood. They use the flames to cook food and to stay warm
The tents they live in are small, covered by tarps and plastic sheeting to keep water out. Several tents are collapsed under the weight of a recent snowfall.
For Bruce Beavers, however, this camp is just about the best place in the world he could be living right now.
"This is a place for people who lose their jobs, lose their houses, to have some kind of structure and for them to get back out in the world," he says.
Set up in the parking lot of a church near Seattle, Washington, the camp houses anywhere from 50 to 100 homeless people each day.
Residents call it Nickelsville. The name takes a page from the infamous "Hooverville" shantytowns of the Great Depression that were named for a president many thought did not care about their economic hardships.Some residents here say they blame Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and a system they believe makes it difficult to escape homelessness.
"In shelters, if you don't get there in time enough, you don't have your bed no more 'cause there are so many people trying to rush in to get it," Beavers says. "Got a lotta people losing their homes. You don't want to go all the way to the bottom. Nickelsville is kind of a catch in between."
Like many of the other Nickelodeons -- as the people who share this church parking lot call themselves -- Bruce Beavers never expected to be homeless. He managed warehouses and hardware stores, had a 401(k) plan and owned his home. But Beavers said he lived beyond his means and eventually lost everything.
Beavers and other homeless say they were tired of a shelter system that often splits up families into different housing, does not provide a place for people to keep their possessions while they look for work and offers too few beds. So they say they decided to try their own way.
They formed a camp where the homeless living there would know they had a guaranteed place to stay. There would be around-the-clock security to keep people from having their things stolen, the tents would be built from donated materials, and alcohol and drugs would not be permitted. It would be a place for people trying to get out of homelessness.
Evan Balverde is a plumber who came to Nickelsville after an accident forced him to stop working.
"We don't just take in everybody," Balverde says. "We'd like to, but the thing is just a lot of these people out here are mentally incapable or they're drug addicts or alcoholics and stuff, and that's why they are on the streets. We don't put up with that.
"We're here for people in rough times and homeless, but if you are doing it to yourself, then this isn't the place for you."
The dubious legality of the camp set the organizers on a collision course with the city, and several times police have moved the Nickelodeons off the land on which they were squatting. An invitation to relocate the camp outside a local church gave Nickelsville a reprieve, at least for the time being.
Johnny Turner, a homeless man who helped found the camp, says he would like to see Nickelsville grow into a permanent shelter that could accept more people needing a place to go.
Al Poole of the Seattle Human Services Department says the city spends nearly $8 million a year on the homeless. Still, there aren't always beds available for every person needing one, and sometimes families do need to be placed in different shelters.
While tent cities might fulfill an immediate need, Poole explains, they also can have the negative effect of turning people who live near the camps against the homeless.
Walking around the neighborhood that borders Nickelsville, it is hard to imagine that many residents are happy that their homes now face a homeless camp.
And many residents were upset, says homeowner Roland Bradley, when the camp first arrived at their street."

These are sites you can visit to see a bigger picture:

www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Pictured-The-credit-crunch-tent-city-returned-haunt-America.html -
www.dailymarkets.com/.../pictures-of-sacramentos-tent-city-unfiltered-and-unspun/
www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/.../20090326-TENTS_index.html
www.flickr.com/photos/eastasiapacificblog/.../72157621005546963/
therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/.../when-do-we-see-obamaville-shanty-towns-the-real-questions-are-how-many-and-for-how-long/
www.nme.com/artists/shanty-town
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooverville
www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic_pdf.php?topic_id...
weallbe.blogspot.com/.../another-30s-throwback-shanty-towns.html
www.businessandmedia.org/articles/.../20090309161346.aspx -
www.jossip.com/californias-shantytown-the-new-depression-20090327/ -
BBC NEWS | Americas | Tent city highlights US homes crisis
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7297093.stm
www.newser.com/story/.../tent-cities-sprout-across-us.html
Shanty houses of Manila - Boing Boing
blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/03/tent-cities-pop.html
Nevada tent cities rise in shadow of casinos - thestar.com
17 Oct 2008 ... These tent cities have been compared to Depression-era Hoovervilles, the shantytowns of the homeless named for the president of the era, ...
www.thestar.com/Columnist/article/519057
shantytowns" Photos - Mixx
Most of the Iraqis displaced by violence who remain inside the country are struggling to survive in tent communities and shantytowns. ...
www.mixx.com/tags/shantytowns_photos
Stock Photography of A shanty town with the wealthy Bandra ...
A shanty town with the wealthy Bandra district behind, Bombay, ... clip art images, clipart pictures, background graphics, medical illustrations, and maps.
www.fotosearch.com/IST517/1245411/
Mongolia's Shantytowns: the Ger Districts - a set on Flickr
Mongolia's Shantytowns: the Ger Districts. Thumbnails Detail 1 comment ... basic infrastructure – often in traditional Mongolian felt tents, known as gers. ...
www.flickr.com/photos/eastasiapacificblog/sets/.../comments/
Tent cities of middleclass families mushroom in US, Canada
14 Mar 2009 ... Also see the tent city in Ontario, California here and the shanty town in Miami, Florida here There are dozens of YouTube movies of these ...
www.digitaljournal.com/article/269211
UPDATED X3: Bushvilles: The new Hoovervilles, rapidly expanding."

2 years ago I was travelling by car alone around 7 States in USA and I saw a lot of abandoned, lifeless parts of cities in America. So the pictures below are not surprising for me: the same happened in Russia and other counries. We all are wrapping up, preparing to vacate this planet and move in different directions.

Posted on Wednesday January 13th by Melissa Lafsky

http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/01/13/what-should-we-do-with-a-semi-abandoned-us-city/

We’ve never had a situation quite like Detroit in modern American history: A major U.S. city — once the fourth largest in the country — losing over half of its population in a few decades, following the collapse of its principal industry. Just how bad has it gotten? Unemployment in the city has hit 27%, and houses are selling for an average of $15,000.
Then there’s the future: Even if the U.S. car market does rebound to pre-crisis levels (and there are plenty of reasons to think it won’t) it’s unlikely that the city will ever return to its former population, particularly given the incredible crime and poverty that has pervaded Detroit in recent years. In fact, experts estimate that Detroit’s population will bottom out — and possibly remain — at around 700,000 people, all in a sprawling metropolis that can hold three times that number.
So what should we do with all that empty space?
One option, according to some groups, is build farms. Fortune reports that a movement is growing to turn Detroit into an urban agriculture experiment:
[T]here’s the problem of what to do with the city’s enormous amount of abandoned land, conservatively estimated at 40 square miles in a sprawling metropolis whose 139-square-mile footprint is easily bigger than San Francisco, Boston, and Manhattan combined. If you let it revert to nature, you abandon all hope of productive use. If you turn it over to parks and recreation, you add costs to an overburdened city government that can’t afford to teach its children, police its streets, or maintain the infrastructure it already has.
Faced with those facts, a growing number of policymakers and urban planners have begun to endorse farming as a solution. Former HUD secretary Henry Cisneros, now chairman of CityView, a private equity firm that invests in urban development, is familiar with Detroit’s land problem. He says he’s in favor of “other uses that engage human beings in their maintenance, such as urban agriculture.” After studying the city’s options at the request of civic leaders, the American Institute of Architects came to this conclusion in a recent report: “Detroit is particularly well suited to become a pioneer in urban agriculture at a commercial scale.”
Farms in the middle of Detroit? The idea may not be so far fetched, according to money manager and Detroit resident John Hantz, who is developing an ambitious city-farm project:
Hantz’s operation will bear little resemblance to a traditional farm. Mike Score, who recently left Michigan State’s agricultural extension program to join Hantz Farms as president, has written a business plan that calls for the deployment of the latest in farm technology, from compost-heated greenhouses to hydroponic (water only, no soil) and aeroponic (air only) growing systems designed to maximize productivity in cramped settings.
He’s really excited about apples. Hantz Farms will use a trellised system that’s compact, highly efficient, and tourist-friendly. It won’t be like apple picking in Massachusetts, and that’s the point. Score wants visitors to Hantz Farms to see that agriculture is not just something that takes place in the countryside. They will be able to “walk down the row pushing a baby stroller,” he promises.
Crop selection will depend on the soil conditions of the plots that Hantz acquires. Experts insist that most of the land is not irretrievably toxic. The majority of the lots now vacant in Detroit were residential, not industrial; the biggest problem is how compacted the soil is. For the most part the farms will focus on high-margin edibles: peaches, berries, plums, nectarines, and exotic greens. Score says that the first crops are likely to be lettuce and heirloom tomatoes.
Of course, there’s the matter of cost: Hantz is talking about putting up $30 million of his own money to finance the project, and it’s unclear how long it would take before he could expect to turn a profit. Most of the food-growing gardens would be very small (around a quarter of an acre) meaning that mass production and distribution could be a logistical nightmare. Still, as Hantz told Fortune, “That’s the beauty of being down and out…You can actually open your mind to ideas that you would never otherwise embrace.”

 

Abandoned Chernobil, Ukraine. There are a few Portals to other Parallel Earths, created by the Explosion at Chernobil's Nuclear Station
http://englishrussia.com/?p=1540

Abandoned Varosha, Cyprus

Abandoned Craco, Italy

   

   

  

This info you can find on the site called  English Russia :  http://englishrussia.com/?p=6458

"There is so much written about supernatural things like ghosts, aliens etc. As I think being human sometimes there are some suspicious factors, which creates suspense in mind. So that suspense or fear makes us to know about that factor and that’s the thing which filmmakers used in movies to have good business. In my view curiosity is human nature we want to know unknown things. There is plenty of literature about ghosts and also so many movies made on same topic. But what’s the reality, where is the ghost city, and how that populated place became a ghost city?
Well there are factors that lead the populated towns or cities to become ghost cities or abandoned places for humans. There are plenty of ghost towns in America especially in southern and central states. According to a survey report there are 6,000 abandoned sites of settlement in Kansas alone. There are so many factors for not having population on those places anymore like lack of natural resources, no linking roads and no railway bypassing. But major factor for that can be a disaster, natural or human made. It was happened with Pattonsburg town. This town was founded in 1845, and till 1993 the town was flooded over 30 times. The residents were tired of floods so with help of Government they rebuilt new town 3 miles away that is now known as New Pattonsburg, leaving old Pattonsburg behind as a ghost town.
This topic is really interesting for me that’s why I listed my top 10 most interesting abandoned places on the planet hope to bring some real facts about the ghost cities which are totally fictional for other people. So here are the 10 most abandoned places of earth.
1 – Craco, Italy
Craco is called ghost town in Italy. This town was built on a hill, which allow for the farming of wheat and other crops. Archbishop Arnaldo, Bishop of Tricarico in 1060 A.D, owned Craco’s land. That religious relation with church had influenced the inhabitants so much throughout all the ages. The population of Craco in 1891 was 2,000 people. And it was having so many problems like poor agriculture that made life hard to live there. So from 1892 to 1922 more than 1,300 people migrated from the town to North America. The major factor for such a large number of migrations of people was poor farming, earthquakes, landslides and adding fuel to fire the War. From 1959 to 1972 Craco got so much earthquakes and landslides. Now original Craco is left alone with no human being living there.
Craco is located in the Region of Basilicata and the Province of Matera. About 25 miles inland from the Gulf of Taranto at the instep of the “boot” of Italy. This medieval town is typical of those in the area, built up with long undulating hills all around that allow for the farming of wheat and other crops. Craco can be dated back to 1060 when the land was in the ownership of Archbishop Arnaldo, Bishop of Tricarico. This long-standing relationshop with the Church had much influence over the inhabitants throughout the ages. In 1891, the population of Craco stood at well over 2,000 people.
Between 1959 and 1972 Craco was plagued by these landslides and quakes. (The signs of a Portal, LM).
In 1963 the remaining 1,800 inhabitants were transferred to a nearby valley called Craco Peschiera, and the original Craco remains in a state of crumbling decay to this day.

2 – Pripyat (Chernobil), Ukraine
Pripyat is located in the Zone of alienation in Kieve Oblast, Ukraine near the border with Belarus. Its population was 50,000 and most of home in city was of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers. In 1986 because of the Chernobyl disaster the place was abandoned due to threat of radiation. Now that place is like a museum showing past glimpses of soviet life. But this place was looted heavily in beginning of 21st century even the toilet seats were stolen.
However after that Chernobyl disaster the place will not be safe for habitation of humans for several years, even after so many years it will be hard to consider it a healthy place to live there. When Chernobyl was going to be built, it was planned to built it just 25 km away from Kiev city afterwards the concerns were voiced at its closeness to the city so after a long debate it was build along Pripyat 100km away from Kiev that decision became wise later on which saved a larger city of Kiev from disaster.

3 – Yashima, Japan
In northwest of Takamatsu Yashima is located, Takamatsu is second largest city on Shikoku which is one the Japan’s major islands. This place is having a part in history of Japan; the famous battle of Genpei in 22nd March 1185 took place here. From so many things of Yashima at its top there is the Yashima Temple, which is well known Shikoku pilgrimage. That is the only thing there because of which so many people go to this strangely neglected geographical irregularity. But it was not like this always.
In mid eighties during the rise in Japanese economy the people of Takamatsu decided that the Yashima plateau was an excellent place to encourage tourism so they started investing their money on development of this sacred land. Six hotels, an aquarium, so many parks and trails were made there. Later on people realized that Yashima plateau was not an attractive place because of views of nearby rock quarry. So in result visitors numbers dropped and there was a loss of millions of Yen on inflated real estate deals, all hotels and shops were forced to shut down and also the cable care which used to transport to Yashima heights.
4 – Centralia, Pennsylvania
In 1841 Johnathan Faust opened Bull’s Head Taverns in Centralia, as Centralia was given the status of borough in 1866. The hard type coal was major industry for employment of the community till 1960s. In 1962 an exposed vein of coal got fire, which spread out rapidly underground, which lead the so many companies out of business. All attempts to extinguish fire were gone in vain and it continued to burn throughout 1960s and 1970s. Because of that continuous coal burning underground affected the health of people living there.
The inhabitants realized the problem that how serious it had been in 1979 when a gas station reported fuel temperature of 172 degrees Fahrenheit. In 1981 an incident provoked a widespread attention when a 12 years old boy almost plunged to his death as a 4 foot wide and 150 foot deep sinkhole suddenly opened beneath his feet. $42 million were spend for the moving of residents to the nearby Mount Carmel and Ashland in 1984. There were more than 1000 residents in Centralia in 1981, now only few left from them most are the priests. Underground fire is still burning and according to experts it will be continuously burning to next almost 250 years.
5 – Katoli World Taiwan
Katoli world is located in Dakeng Scenic area just outside of Taichung, Taiwan. This theme park was opened in mid eighties and it got a moderate success as being one of the few theme parks on the island of Taiwan. This park was closed because of a massive earthquake on September 21st, 1999. That quake was occurred after opening hours of the park, thousands of people were died in that quake but none was died inside park and larger area of park was destroyed. Later on that park was forced to close. Now that place is turning to rust now.
6 – Balestrino, Italy
About Balestrino there is no authentic information is available which can be found that when it was established. The records before the 11th century shows that the Benedictine abbey of San Pietro dei Monti owned Balestrino. On the upper part of the town there is a castle and on lower part a parish church. According to 1860 records about Balestrino population shows 800-850 people lived there. Most of them were farmers who farmed olive trees.
Numerous earthquakes struck the North West coast of Italy in the late 19th century. In 1887 a major earthquake destroyed some villages in that area but there is official record, which can show that quake affected the Balestrino also. This town was abandoned in 1953 because of geological instability and the population was transferred to a safer place to the west. Balestrino is completely abandoned place from last more than 50 years, now there are plans undergoing for redeveloping it.
7 – Gunkanjima, Japan
Hashima Island that is also called Gunkanjima is located 15 km away from Nagasaki. Its one among the 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1890 Mitsubishi bought this island for industrial purposes and started a project to retrieve coal from bottom of the sea. Japan’s 1st concrete buildings were build for the first time on this island in 1916. There was a block of apartments, which were made for the workers who work on that island.
The population grown so bigger in 1959 that the population density level got so high, 835 people per hectare for the whole island and 1,391 per hectare for residential district, that’s one of ever-highest densities ever, recorded worldwide. In 1960s petroleum replaced coal in Japan, because of that coal mines were closed all over Japan so as Hashima was closed also Mitsubishi in 1974. Now this island is having no population just empty down falling buildings, travel to the island is prohibited currently. The 2003 film “ Battle for Royale II” was having this island as location.
8 – Varosha, Cyprus
Varosha is located in Famagusta, Cyprus that’s the Turkish occupied city. Before invasion of Turkish forces in 1974, Varosha was a modern tourist area and was decorated as one of most luxurious holiday destinations. But after invasion citizens left the island with expectation that they will return after few days. The Turkish army wrapped barbed wire all around it and controlled it completely. No one is allowed to go there except from Turkish military or UN personnel.
There was the Annan Plan for return of the Varosha to Greek Cypriot control but Greek Cypriot voters rejected that plan with out realizing the actual fact. But its not ended yet Governments are planning together to make Varosha beautiful as it was before. Till now three concept hotels are designed by Laxia Inc. in 2010 it will be opened for the tourism by Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
9 – San Zhi, Taiwan
San Zhi is located in the North of Taiwan. This futuristic pod village was planned and built for the luxurious treat for the rich. But during its construction some deadly accidents happened which caused halt in its construction work, because of lack of money and willingness work there was stopped permanently, leaving the alien like structures as it is in memory of those who lost their lives there. There was rumors also afterwards in surrounding areas that place is occupied by the ghost of those people who died there. So in result Government also haven’t taken any interest about this matter and kept the distance from bizarre happenings. As it seems that this project will never start again. May be they thinks that destroying homes of spirits is a bad thing.
10 – Bodie, California
Bodie is a truly American ghost town, it was founded in 1876 in beginning a small population there but later on mines from nearby area there attracted thousands and only after four years in 1880 its population became almost 10,000. There was 65 saloons in the main street of the town and also there was a Chinatown with hundreds of Chinese residents.
But with passage of time as the resources started reducing, that reduced the prominence of Bodie also. Almost for most of the 20th century Bodie was having permanent residents living there even in 1932 there was fire, which ravaged the much of town. Now there is no one living in Bodie. In 1961 it was designated a National Historic Landmark and in 1962 it became Bodie State Historic Park.
Most part of town had been decline today; only a small part of the town still survives. The interiors still remained the same as they were left. The visitors can walk in town streets its opened all of the year but the only road to Bodie remains mostly closed in winters due to heavy snowfall the whole road is covered with thick layers of snow, so perfect time to visit there is summer season."


http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2010/02/10/Dubai_tower_shut_after_elevator_broke_426955.html

It must have been a terrifying moment for visitors to the world's tallest tower, which only opened last month.
They heard what sounded like a small explosion, then saw dust that looked like smoke seeping through a crack in an elevator door 124 floors above the ground.
Inside an elevator, 15 people were trapped for 45 frightening minutes until rescuers managed to pry open the doors.
Outside on the observation deck, about 60 more people were stranded and some began to panic.
Shortly after the drama unfolded on Saturday evening, the half-mile-high tower that was supposed to be one of Dubai's proudest achievements shut down to the public one month after its grandiose opening.
It was the latest embarrassment for the once-booming Gulf city-state that is now mired in a deep financial crisis.
Witnesses who were on the 124th floor observation deck at the time and a Dubai rescue official recounted on Tuesday the chain of events that led up to the shutdown in interviews with The Associated Press.
Emaar Properties, the state-linked company that owns Burj Khalifa, has said little about the incident and nothing at all about an elevator malfunction.
It had no comment on Tuesday. It remains unclear what caused the elevator to the observation deck - the only part of the building that was open - to fail.
Michael Timms, 31, an American telecommunications engineer who lives in Dubai, was on the observation deck with his cousin Michele Moscato when the ordeal began.
'It almost sounded like a small explosion. It was a really loud bang,' Timms said.
About 45 minutes later, rescue crews arrived and pried open the elevator door, he added. The faulty elevator was caught between floors, so rescuers hoisted a ladder into the shaft to help those trapped inside crawl out.
Abu Naseer, a spokesman for Dubai's civil defence department, confirmed the incident. He said the call for help came in around 6.20pm on Saturday evening.
Emergency crews used another elevator to reach the observation deck and were able to rescue all 15 people stuck in elevator unharmed, he said.
Emaar, which owns the 2,717-foot (828-metre) building, has not responded to specific questions about the incident or made anyone available to speak despite repeated requests by the AP.
Local newspapers reported the shutdown of Burj Khalifa on Monday but it is still not clear exactly when the building was closed.
The company issued a brief statement on Monday saying the viewing platform was temporarily shut for 'maintenance and upgrade' because of 'unexpected high traffic'.
It also hinted at electrical problems, saying 'technical issues with the power supply are being worked on by the main and subcontractors'.
Emaar has made no mention of problems with the elevators, angering some of those involved in the incident.
'What just kind of shocks me is that they were going to brush this under the rug to save face. If it broke, at least tell people it broke,' Timms said.
'I was really starting to get upset, getting really nervous,' said Moscato, 29, a nurse visiting from Columbia, South Carolina. 'I started crying.'
She said she and Timms - along with other visitors, some in raised voices - asked to use the stairs because they felt uncomfortable taking the elevator back down, but were told that was not allowed.
Moscato said one of those trapped in the elevator told her later that the lights went off and the car began to fall before the brakes kicked in. It was not possible to independently verify the account.
The $1.5 billion Burj Khalifa opened with a lavish fireworks display and other celebrations on January 4 after being beset by a series of delays.
Only the observation deck was being used for now as work continues on the rest of the building's interior. The first tenants were supposed to move in this month.
The tower more than 160 stories, though the exact number is not known. The tapering, silvery tower ranks not only as the highest building but also as the tallest freestanding structure in the world.
The observation deck, which is mostly enclosed but includes an outdoor terrace bordered by guard rails, is located about two-thirds of the way up.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 » 05:35am

 
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Environment/2010/02/09/Cold_winter_killing_Mongolian_animals_426697.html

Up to 20 million farm animals may die in Mongolia before spring as the fiercest winter in living memory grips the country, International Aid Agencies are being warned.
Half the entire country's livestock could be wiped out, local experts have told the Red Cross.
In remote regions in Central Mongolia cattle, goats and sheep can be found frozen to death across the plains, with some herds almost completely wiped out.
Outside her traditional home in Central Mongolia, grandmother Hotont Suon weeps as she looks at the carcasses of her herd lying on their backs.
Their legs in the air, they are frozen to death. In the pens, sheep huddle together from the bitter cold.
Dogs and goats gnaw from the carcasses of the dead animals strewn outside the traditional 'gurs', the herders' circular tented homesteads.
'Our hay is all gone now. As our goats die we sell the hides and buy more fodder, but it only lasts a few days,' she said.
It's called the 'Dzud' - a multiple disaster with a summer drought followed by one of the coldest winters on record.
It has left millions of livestock dying from a combination of exhaustion and starvation - some herders report that their cattle perish at the rate of 50 a night.
Some families have even been reduced to sharing their small tented home with the surviving animals.
Inside a gur, a three-month-old baby played with a black wet-faced calf.
The baby's mother, Otgon Jargal, broke down in tears.
'We have no skills. Our lives depend on our livestock. How can I look after my child when all the animals have died?' she cried.
The Mongolian government has appealed for food, medicine and animal food to combat one of the country's worst natural disasters.
The poorer herding families are left with insufficient food supplies to last out the winter. Many have taken out high interest loans to pay for animal fodder which they can't meet.
Fears are also growing for thousands of herders who live in remote mountain regions in soutwestern Mongolia.
There has been no word from thousands of people cut off in their villages by the heaviest snow fall in decades, prompting Mongolian air force helicopters to launch search and rescue operations.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 » 11:24am

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/World/2010/01/09/USAs_cold_snap_disaster_for_wildlife_415657.html

Iguanas dropping from trees, manatees huddling around waters warmed by power plants and marine turtles being whisked away to shelters - Florida's unusual cold snap is a deadly one for tropical wildlife.
The cold front sweeping in from the Arctic, with temperatures below freezing in parts of the southeastern state, is killing many animals accustomed to a temperate climate that sends droves of tourists swarming to enjoy yearlong warmth in the 'Sunshine State.'
The cold-blooded iguanas' comfort level begins at 23 degrees Celsius and they positively thrive at 35 degrees.
When temperatures drop below about 15 degrees, they become less able to move around. Below about five degrees, they become completely immobile due to a lack of blood flow. Unable to hold on, the mohawked lizards, which shelter in tree branches and crevices, drop to the ground.
Iguanas and other tropical wildlife are bearing the brunt of the severe Arctic weather in Florida, where Miami's subtropical beaches have been left all but deserted this week with temperatures plummeting to around zero degrees Celsius.
'Cold weather impacts iguanas severely and many are killed,' said Gabriella Ferraro, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
'That is not a bad thing. It's a good thing, because iguanas are an exotic animal, they don't belong to Florida. This seasonal kill helps us to manage the population.'
Travellers from Mexico, Central and South America originally introduced the creatures to Florida in the 1960s.
Although suffering from the cold, python snakes, which abound in particularly large numbers in Florida's Everglades swamp reserve, can survive in cooler temperatures.
'The good thing is that the cold weather brings the pythons out of the vegetation. They need warmer bodies and they come out to get some sun and so it is easier for hunters to find them,' Ferraro explained to AFP.
Manatees and sea turtles are the most vulnerable during the cold weather, she added, noting that some of the animals had died in central Florida.
Known as sea cows for their bulky frame -- adults are an average of three metres long and weigh between 360 and 540 kilograms -- manatees abound in Florida's warm waters close to river mouths and can die from prolonged exposure to low temperatures.
When water temperatures drop, manatees gather in warm-water habitats, such as discharge canals at power plants, canal systems or springs to avoid a deadly 'cold stress syndrome.'
With thermometers dropping to record lows, large groups of manatees huddled in recent days seeking the warmth of power plants in Riviera Beach, north of Miami, and Apollo Beach, near Tampa off the Gulf of Mexico.
The FWC says it has rescued about 250 sea turtles so far and placed them in special shelters where they can rest while waiting for the sea to warm.
The seemingly lifeless iguanas can be revived, however. Passersby can usually bring them back to life by picking up the lizards and setting them in the sun. After a brief warm-up, most will scamper off into the bushes.
Florida's exotic creatures may have to brace for worse, with forecasters saying a new polar front could sweep in over the weekend in the state
Saturday, January 09, 2010 » 04:56pm

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Environment/2009/03/30/Hundreds_of_penguins_found_dead_317088.html