With the disasters that have hit Pacha Mama in the last couple years, it seems to affect poor people the worst--from the earthquake in Haiti, to the oppression in Egypt and the Middle East, violence in Mexico and now in Japan.
I was not surprised of the little coverage devoted by mainstream media to those most affected by the tsunami in Japan--Poor people. The Majority of the people who live on the coastline of Japan are Poor people who depend on fishing as survival to eat and sell. This doesn’t happen only in Japan but in other so called “Third world countries” so when tsunamis, hurricanes and storms occur, poor people who live on the coastline suffer the worst compared with middle and upper class people who live in the downtowns or higher grounds.
Poor people who don’t work in factories like Honda, Toyota, or in the technology industries which require some kind of education, end up as fisherman or living in poor areas next to coastlines.
In a Article I read recently released by the BBC, it was mentioned how climate change will impact “underprivileged” the most.
"It's the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
• 75-250 million people across Africa could face water shortages by 2020
• Crop yields could increase by 20% in East and Southeast Asia, but decrease by up to 30% in Central and South Asia
• Agriculture fed by rainfall could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020
• 20-30% of all plant and animal species at increased risk of extinction if temperatures rise between 1.5-2.5C
• Glaciers and snow cover expected to decline, reducing water availability in countries supplied by melt water
From Africa to Japan over and over poor people are on the frontlines of disasters. It is sad that even in so called independent media, little is mentioned of the suffering of our poor people, the houseless, landless, jobless the elders.
The elephant in the room that few want to confront is the Class issue. I remember hearing stories of Katrina and how people got stuck in New Orleans because they did not have a car to leave. It seems we poor people are destined to die.
Corporate media and Governments want to keep us silent but at poor magazine we resist, fight back, speak out, and shout.
By any means possible,
Being poor is not a crime
Then why get criminalized, brutalized,
For breathing
Left behind by society
All we trying do is to make a living
Is not about the color of your skin
Is about the class you belong
So I shout am brown proud
And love my poor gente