Passive Genocide ?

I come from a white world. For a long time, I bought into the notion of the "white oppressor." I now believe that the very notion of the "white oppressor" is a form of scapegoating, which helps maintain ethnic "leaders" in a position of power over their own communities.

Slave trade existed before the new world was discovered. Inter-tribal wars have existed forever, and there have always been winners and losers. Losers have been kept in submission (or killed), and when cultures collided, losers could be traded like merchandise. One tribe subdued another and could reap profits by selling their conquests; this practice was accelerated when advanced tools of submission are introduced. White men did not scour Africa herding slaves, they traded guns and other goods to local "leaders" for slaves (please correct me if I'm wrong here). This is not to minimize the treatment of those who went from being prisoners-of-war to slave-trade merchandise.

Fast forward to modern San Francisco. There are pockets of the city where building codes are not enforced and overcrowding exists. Where is this ? Primarily in areas dominated by new immigrants -- the Asian and Mexican communities. The city takes a hands-off approach, letting the communities take care of themselves in their own cultural ways. What does this mean ? It means that legal and safety standards taken for granted by long-time citizens do not exist in these communities. The standards are those of the communities from which the community has emigrated (or slightly better?).

What groups will have the most casualties when a large earthquake strikes ? The communities where building codes and overcrowding health standards are not enforced. And who will be blamed ? Ultimately, the city will be blamed for not enforcing building codes, but the city is *not* enforcing codes as a "favor" to ethnic landlords. Some building and health codes are seen as racist, because they make living costs higher, and disproportionately affect ethnicities living in less expensive, substandard conditions. The challenge is drawing the line between safety standards that truly save lives, and safety standards that are merely additional burdens on the poor and ethnic groups. (Republicans would argue that all standards are a burden on free enterprise). Higher density living can be safe with appropriate ventilation and escape routes. Lack of enforcement in poor neighborhoods ultimately means the poor do not benefit from laws designed to protect everyone.

San Francisco Money & Politics

hmmm...

Matier & Ross take a look at where the money is coming from... or is it ?

http://tinyurl.com/lcerj

Shopping Cart redesign

The nation's pediatricians are warning parents today against putting children in shopping carts.

"Parents are strongly encouraged to seek alternatives," says the American Academy of Pediatrics, which reports that shopping carts were involved in injuries to more than 24,000 children last year, mostly when a child fell out or a cart tipped over.
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...and as long as they're redesigning them, maybe they should make them more useful for homeless people to live in ? Larger wheels... security lockbox... movement alarms...

Corporate Hell

Suddenly, the perfect storm has converged. I have become wedged between three giant corporations, and the corporate bureaucracy that makes peaceful life impossible.

Corporation 1: CitiApartments, Skyline Realty (and numerous other shell names of the same obnoxious entity) who make money buying rent-controlled apartments and driving out the tenants. Well, they've just began construction / renovation of two apartments adjacent to mine and the one above. Crushing toilets with sledgehammers, tearing out walls, oh, and they posted a "WARNING: LEAD WORK" on everyone's door but mine.

Corporation 2: Earthlink. Sorry, they're not big enough to take on the giant telecoms. My Earthlink "trueVoice" service has been out since July 12, and I believe I've spoken with people on 3 different continents. They sent a guy out who wanted to drill holes in my outside wall and install a new line. Very poor trouble-shooting skills, but what can you expect, when you're trying to coordinate people on three continents ? Bottom line, it's probably the line they're leasing from SBC, now AT&T or whatever the monolith wants to call itself at the moment.

Corporation 3: Does AT&T have any incentive to fix that line ? Earthlink's lawyers may bankrupt the company litigating that one, or... maybe it's just the bastards tearing apart my building. The line was screwed up before the hammering began. Does CitiApartments have any incentive to cooperate with Earthlink or AT&T ? No. They're trying to get rid of us tenants. Welcome to the world of paying for services you can't get. Where civilization is deconstructed by workers paid for by the people whose services are getting obliterated.

More killing

This is outside the "smoke shop" where everyone's always smokin' crack or lookin' for crack to smoke. Two days ago, a first, a guy didn't even try to hide his crack pipe when I walked by -- he was arrogantly displaying for all that it's legal to smoke crack on the streets in this town ! ...but shooting people ? That's where I draw the line.
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Police say the first shooting occurred Wednesday at 7:46 p.m. on the 400 block of O'Farrell Street at Jones Street. Two men began arguing and, when one of them started running away, gunfire erupted.

A stray bullet shot and killed Eric Lindsey, 52, who was nearby being pushed in his wheelchair by his fiance.
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You can't expect crackheads or dealers to have good aim ??