Australian poverty, part 2.

I wrote a post a while back on the issue of poverty Australian style, and how it can be a very different creature to anything seen in places such as India or Vietnam.

Id like to expand on a few more points I’ve become aware of in my job as provider of goods to the “poor”.

I’ve long assumed at least pert of the reason poor people had trouble getting ahead was the lack of ability to purchase quality goods. After all no-one expects a lot from a $200.00 fridge. But a poorer person replacing a fridge every couple of years would be a considerable burden on their finances, preventing them from being able to purchase quality goods designed to last a decade or more.

I have been in places this bad before.

I don’t assume that anymore.

This is not a blanket statement, but probably correlates to somewhere around 50% of my clients.

They have no quality goods because they live like pigs.

Harsh? No way. Heres a few examples from the last few weeks.

$1400 Westinghouse fridge freezer, about 8 months old, found left on the verge for rubbish collection. It cost $600 to repair, the basic cause of the shorted out motherboard? Cockroaches.

I had to dismantle and reassemble every panel in the machine to kill the thousands of roaches living INSIDE the fridge.

Washing machine, $500.00reasonable brand, rooted within 3 months due to massive cockroach infestations shorting out the electrics again.

I went to a regional town to chase a lady for money (shes in jail, but that’s another story), her mother is a customer and asked if I could take a look at a CD player. I went in the house (its 9.00 in the morning), its filthy, it stinks of dope smoke ( the breakfast of champions) and I can see roaches wandering on the floor between the mattresses, piles of clothes and lounge chairs. The dogs have free run of the house and one of the kids obviously has scabies along an arm and shoulder.

I can’t find the fault with the stereo, so I ask the lady to bring it in next time she comes to town. (there’s a reason I ask her to bring it in). Today she brings it in, and as the boot of the car is popped I see hundreds of roaches which have come from the stereo and speakers in there. I just take the main stereo, and after she leaves spray/remove well over 100 cockroaches from the guts of the machine.

I have had 3 computers, all less than 6 months old returned jammed up with, you guessed it, cockroaches.

I have had to replace a main woofer for a Kenwood surround sound system, not roaches this time, but the wiring on the inside was corroded from rat faeces. They didn’t have a pet rat.. I have replaced a Wii at the same address from roaches as well.

Heres a few suggestions for our political masters.

1: Remove children immediately from these environments. Their parents may say they love them, but unless they meet certain minimum standards of cleanliness they are manifestly unfit.

2: Compulsory birth control for those deemed unfit to parent. If they want to rejoin society and meet certain minimum standards the birth control can be  removed.

3: No more  increases in spending on higher education until  every child capable of doing so reads/writes, and understands basic budgeting and hygiene before they leave primary school.

4: People living in public housing are to be compelled, by whatever means, to meet minimum standards of hygiene.

The following outcomes could be expected.

1: Far fewer hospital admissions for filth caused illnesses.

2: Far fewer children born to those least likely to provide for them.

3: Far lower crime rate, from

 A: Fewer children born into dysfunctional “families”

B: Far more people educated to be useful members of society.

4: Massively reduced welfare rolls, welfare should be a stopgap, not a life sentence.

It would take a politician with balls of steel to propose any of these things, the cries of “racism” from vested interest groups would be deafening. But i ask you what good is an advocacy group if it doesn’t tackle a parent who allows children to live in filth? That sees a child who dies from malnutrition and scabies (as witnessed by a copper mate of mine) , its nappy full of cockroaches, written off as a “cot death”?

Heres a story from a customer of mine. She described how bad the roaches were in her house. She was having trouble sleeping because whan she rolled over in bed she was crushing roaches in it with her.

She blamed this on “the roaches are bad here”, rather than the filth and degradation she and her kids were living in.

I’m angry this happens in my town, in my country. I can’t influence this in any way, I have written letters to Homeswest (the WA government department that supplies state housing)  asking for sprays to be carried out in certain properties, and to their credit they have usually done so. But these properties are supposed to be inspected by the department, how can they turn a blind eye to drug abuse, filth, damage and vermin infestations of near biblical proportions?

How can children’s services leave kids in environments like this?

How can doctors and the health profession not speak about the filth caused admissions and illnesses which can be eradicated with basic hygiene?

The parents are responsible, if they are unfit then the children MUST be removed. Quite frankly I don’t care if they end up in racially segregated institutions to maintain cultural background, but they must be told their parents love drugs/drink/filth, more than they love their children. It’s the truth.