Listen to the story.

According to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture report, the recession is taking a toll on the most basic of human needs: food. About 16 percent of all Americans – that’s 49 million people – lived in “food insecure” households in 2008, up from 12.4 percent in 2007. Sheilah takes a look at hunger on the ground in Maryland with Deborah Flateman, CEO of the Maryland Food Bank.

Reporter Erin Sullivan’s City Paper article on strained social services

New York Times: One in eight Americans — and one in four children — on food stamps

24。
沒想到原本期待已久的感恩節假期莫名的就只剩下四分之一（其實就是一天）。

放假前心中幻想要完成的計畫, 完成度大概只有30%（怎麼會…）。好像什麼事也沒做假期就離我而去, 能拿來說嘴的大概只有去了Flushing, 還有連Hoboken都去了一下。 而且也沒補到什麼眠（怎麼會…）, 加上一放完假緊接著就要迎接惡魔般的十二月（至少在17號之前都是）。

接下來的19天（對, 我算的非常精確）可能都會在怨念及莫名的焦慮中度過。最近發現打從心裡的偏見大概就跟相由心生的道理差不多, 是藏不住的。

[FYI]
照片是位在SOHO的La Colombe。

While walking the Freedom Trail in downtown Boston this week, Kerri and I stumbled across a memorial to Irish immigrants who struggled during the potato famine. Photo by Christopher.

The other day, I asked Kerri if she thought it was too late to have our publisher change something in our upcoming book. I was prompted to ask because of a recent report released by the USDA which stated that 49 million Americans (1 in 7 households) are currently in need of some type of food assistance; a number that in August hovered around 36 million. In the second part of our book we talk in depth about SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program), formerly known as food stamps, and as it stands now, when our book is released we will have drastically understated the scope of the problems people are facing.

Then yesterday, a shocking projection was revealed across the newswires: nearly half of all children in the United States will eat on food stamps during some part of their childhood.

The study was published earlier this month in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and was conducted by sociologists from Cornell University and Washington University in St. Louis. They based their projection on 30 years of national data, and said their results, “show U.S. kids face a substantial risk for experiencing poverty, which poses a serious threat to their health and well-being.”

The article by Lindsey Tanner of the Associated Press goes on to do a fairly good job of embracing the nuances of food security issues, but what was most surprising (and predictable?) was the comment from Robert Rector at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Apparently, Rector sees no need to sound the alarm about this issue as he explains that many in this situation, “have comforts like televisions and air conditioning receive food stamps for short periods of time when a parent is laid off.”

I cannot eat my television when I’m hungry, or get enough nutrition from cold air, and I’m assuming that the people he’s talking about can’t do so either. (The callousness of this response prompted today’s accompanying photo)

Rector’s comments seem to stem from the same place that many libertarian economic philosophers do, one of “every man for himself” and “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” rhetoric that does little to account for the contexts or the individual situations that people face. When your research is aimed from a certain philosophical gun, it’s pretty easy to hit the target you’re aiming for. The Heritage Foundation has such an arsenal, and uses it frequently on issues of social spending.

Meanwhile, local food pantries and charities keep plugging away while the need for services climbs, and resources diminish. While the work of these groups is essential, it is not enough, and on its own will never come close to getting at the roots of these problems. That being said, we would like to ask you once again to do what you can to help others, either through donating to those in extreme poverty abroad, or to those facing food insecurity in your community (or both).

While we were in Boston this past week, Kerri and I were humbled by the depth of our nation’s history, and by the efforts of those working to help others. While on the red line train we saw an ad for a Catholic charity, that asks people to throw a party where the entrance to the event is a bag of boxed and canned foods for donation. We thought it quite clever, and will most likely use this idea for our own efforts in San Diego. Thankful for your continued help of others…

- Christopher

http://wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/food-n28.shtml

By Tom Eley
28 November 2009

As the holiday season begins, charities across the US are reporting unprecedented demand for food assistance. Driving the increased demand is the unemployment crisis, the charities say. They also cite state budget cuts, the foreclosure crisis, and the ineffectiveness of the federal-state food stamp program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Feeding America, a national food assistance organization, recently released details of an economic impact survey of some of its 63,000 member food charities. It found that between summer 2008 and summer 2009, demand for food assistance increased by over 30 percent nationally. Ninety-nine percent of participating charities reported an increase in demand and 92 percent witnessed an increase of newly unemployed workers seeking assistance.

Food banks and food pantries are reporting that those seeking assistance describe themselves as “middle class” or say that “never thought they would have to ask for help.”

“We’re hearing from more and more middle class who have never in their life gone to a food pantry,” Diane Doherty, director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition told the Associated Press. “They’re very, very frustrated and angry.”

Ninety-one percent of food banks report unemployment as a primary cause in rising demand, while another 79 percent report underemployment—those working short hours—as a contributing factor to increased hunger, the survey reveals.

In contrast, in May 2008 43 percent of food charities reported unemployment as a critical factor, while 90 percent reported the high price of fuel and food.

The survey concludes that the nation’s food charities are not able to meet the needs of the hungry. Fifty-five percent of surveyed charities report that within the last year they have had to turn away those seeking help, and one in five did so “frequently.” Over three fourths say that they have had to reduce the quantity of food they give away, and about a third report that they did so often.

The shortfall comes in spite of a record number of volunteers and a record distribution of food between July of 2008 and July 2009. Feeding America’s network distributed 2.63 billion pounds of food in that time span, an increase of about 21 percent over the previous year.

Feeding America reported a similar 30 percent increase in demand one year ago.

The new report comes on the heels of a recent US Department of Agriculture (USDA) study revealing a record 49.1 million Americans in 17 million households lacked dependable access to adequate food in 2008—even before the full onset of the economic crisis. The Feeding America report suggests that the level of hunger in the US has risen rapidly since then. (See: A record 49 million Americans faced hunger in 2008.)

The Obama administration has responded to the mounting evidence of mass malnourishment in the US by calling on Americans “to help feed their neighbors.”

Obama will modestly increase the appropriation for the food stamp program by $4.3 billion and that for school lunches by $1.9 billion this year. These sums, which no one expects to reverse the growth in hunger and malnourishment, are minuscule compared to the trillions of dollars Obama has doled out to the finance industry and the estimated $1 trillion his proposed “surge” in Afghanistan will cost over the next ten years.

“[T]he money is just part of it,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack sanctimoniously declared. “It is important for people in communities across the country to understand that this is a problem in their community.”

Responses to the Feeding American survey from local charities make clear that the scourge of hunger has spared no region of the country. They paint a portrait of a nation in the throes of a social crisis without parallel since the Great Depression.

The Harry Chapin food bank of Fort Myers, Florida, reported that it is serving 130 percent more people than two years ago. “Most of these clients are what the media describes as the ‘new poor,’ people that never had to ask for help before,” it reports. It blamed unemployment and the inadequacy of the joint federal-state food stamp program for the increase.

“Our pantries report they are serving more ‘working’ people,” a Peoria, Illinois food charity wrote. “The problem is by the time they pay their basic bills, such as gas bill, electric, clothing, etc., there is no money left for food.”

An Oklahoma food charity reported a 50 percent increase in demand. “Our rural areas are being particularly hard hit because of plant closings, layoffs, downturn in drilling in the energy sector and crop prices,” it wrote. “People are teaching each other how to build fire pits in their back yards to cook because their utilities are turned off.

Families are finding themselves needing food for the first time in their lives and our partner agencies’ resources are being stretched to their limits.”

Gleaners Community food bank of Detroit described a desperate situation. It calculates that a staggering 600,000 residents of Southeast Michigan “are believed to be at risk” of hunger, and fears that 250,000 children will go hungry next summer after the school year ends—and with it free and reduced-price lunch programs. Gleaners estimates that area charities can now feed fewer than 90,000 of these children. “To compound the crisis, in December an estimated 90,000 residents in Southeast Michigan will see their unemployment benefits expire,” it added. “The non-profit sector is asked to be the safety net for increasing numbers of people in crisis.”

Second Harvest food bank of Duluth, Minnesota said unemployment was the biggest factor in increased demand for its services. “The Iron Mines throughout Northeast Minnesota have laid of hundreds of workers,” it explained. “Duluth based companies such as an aircraft design company and those working with them have also laid off workers. Our increase is primarily unemployment and underemployment.”

A similar report came from a food charity in Maine. Describing the cause of increased hunger, it listed “Mill layoffs in Millinockett, Ashland closure, Marsadis layoffs, Baileyville layoff, Old Town layoffs, Washington County has high unemployment rate and no new jobs.”

And this from Montana: “Several lumber mills, railroads and oil refineries [have closed] since January of 2009. Many of the families displaced by the closure of those businesses are new to the emergency food system in Montana. All three industries provided decent living wages to families and have left them with nothing. Due to the vast area of our state and our relatively low population, individuals and families find it difficult to relocate or seek alternative forms of employment. It was only recently that minimum wage was raised from $6.15 to $6.90. This is what most individuals can expect to earn, if they are fortunate enough to secure employment at this time.”

A food bank in Elizabethtown Kentucky reported it was struggling to feed the hungry in its area, citing unemployment and a 66 percent falloff in corporate donations. “Agency managers report daily how their demand is increasing every day; a demand that they are not able to satisfy with the dwindling food bank product we have available to provide them,” it wrote.

Demand for food relief increased sharply in California and Nevada, where local charities coupled joblessness with the foreclosure crisis as the main culprits.

Food charities in Los Angeles and Orange country reported 30 percent increases in demand. Further down the coast in
San Diego, the increase was more marked. “In Summer 2008 we served 46,000 individuals,” Feeding America San Diego wrote. “In Summer 2009 we are serving 109,822 individuals, this is a 138% growth.”

A Fresno, California, food bank saw a doubling of its clients. “We are experiencing higher than national average unemployment, nearing Depression era rates upwards of 40 percent,” it wrote. “This year a severe drought impacted the West side of Fresno County where over 600,000 acres were left fallow as a result. Thousands of our clients each week stand in line for hours at a time in triple digit weather just so they can have something to feed their families because their agriculture related jobs have disappeared and their communities lack meaningful employment alternatives.”

Las Vegas saw an increase in demand for food assistance of between 121 and 168 percent. A local charity described the situation in the following terms:

“Las Vegas has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, and Nevada now has the third highest unemployment rate of all the states…Much of the housing assistance that has been passed doesn’t help homeowners here…For a family to lose a job, then not be able to pay for the mortgage, then lose the house…all these factors can be crippling to families who otherwise would be getting by…The situation is just very bad here. Unemployment continues to rise, property tax values are poised to go down (reducing revenue for county social services), the expected wave of commercial property foreclosures has yet to hit, construction will soon be finished on the last major Strip property undergoing work, there’s talk of a special State Legislative Session to cut the budget yet further.”

The Fredericksburg Area Food Bank of Virginia noted the foreclosure crisis as a prime cause of hunger, and pointed out that the Obama stimulus package had done nothing to help. “Challenges include foreclosures, unemployment, and homelessness,” it said. “Some people are just trying to keep the roof over their heads and need food to make ends meet. School just started and agencies are getting calls all the time for everything, including school supplies.

Foreclosures are still very much on the rise and people are being forced into hotels and whole families, even employees, are living in one hotel room. There is no help for these people in the economic stimulus package, no one is helping these people to keep their homes.”

A New York City food charity, the Community Kitchen and Food Pantry of West Harlem, reported that 250 of the 1,000 people who come each day are first time users. “The line has grown so long that when you walk outside, it’s overwhelming,” said Jesse Taylor, senior director at the pantry, told the Associated Press. “A lot of people are coming out in suits, they’re carrying brief cases.”

Thanksgiving, a holiday associated with food bounty, saw reports from across the US of long lines outside food pantries.

Hundreds lined up at food banks in the central Washington towns of Richland and Kennewick. “If this is any indication of the volume of individuals we’ll have during Christmas, it’s going to be a real challenge,” John Neill, deputy executive director for the Tri-Cities Food Bank told the tricityhearld.com.

A Hartford, Connecticut soup kitchen, Loaves and Fishes, was full ten minutes after it opened its door on Thanksgiving, with a line outside. “Everyone is feeling the effects,” Cynthia Hudson, who was at the soup kitchen with her brother, told the Hartford Courant. “It’s bad. It’s really bad on the poor.”

“We’re seeing people come in who normally wouldn’t be using our services,” said Judy Hart, Hartford coordinator for the Salvation Army. “It’s getting to a point where this is their survival.”

In west Texas, the Andrews Food Pantry was able to provide a Thanksgiving meal box for all comers. Some in nearby towns were not so fortunate.

“We have one agency that had to close because they couldn’t handle the need, they served 21 in January, and it went up to 92 in August,” Executive Director for the West Texas Food Bank, Hyta Folsom told a local news station. “Need has exploded this year.”

from “Association in Poetry” by Carl Phillps in his essay collection The Coin of the Realm. Emphasis is mine.

Part of the point in the associative poem is that the reader should be unsettled, should not know at first what to make of what has been read. As poets, when we liken X to Y—unless we are resorting to cliche—we are presumably the first to have made such a connection. Which means it may not be immediately intelligible to the reader—but it should be eventually accessible. Otherwise, we are guilty of a self-indulgence that, it seems to me, mars much contemporary American poetry, producing work that calls itself oblique or mysterious or vatic, when in fact it is merely obfuscated, not very well thought-out, is suspicious of meaning, and privileges the arty over art itself. However, when applied successfully, the associative method makes for a poetry that demands—both of poet and reader—that the mind be athletic, not just able to negotiate the leaps, but able to find in such leaps restorative vigor that is among the pleasures of reading great poetry.

“As a child I had a dream, a marvelous dream, in which I saw a wild place in the country. Dirty children were pouring down the road. The dream gave me the idea for my lifework…the Sanitarium. Everything here has behind it one ideal: biological living to improve the American race.”-John Harvey Kellogg

Emblazoned across the box of Kellogg’s Cocoa Krispies earlier this month (Coco Pops to anyone in the UK or Australia): “Now Helps Support Your Child’s Immunity!“.

Crikey.

Hang on! Where is my childhood breakfast time companion Coco the Monkey? And why do Americans get the correct spelling of “Cocoa” and the three brats from Rice Krispies (Crispies?) on the cover instead? Are Americans really more trusting of three young white kids with pixie ears and big scary eyes (the effects of a century of puffed rice laced with high fructose corn syrup) over a spritely brown big-eared monkey? I guess nutritional health claims carry more scientific weight when they’re introduced by magical singing elves Smack, Crack and Pot.

Are we naive enough to believe that cereal can increase immunity? Why, a box of cereal certainly works out cheaper than visiting the Doctors nowadays. A chocolatey spoon of puffed rice is also undoubtedly more tasty than a metal needle stabbing you in the upper arm. Why not just include a ‘free’ vial of the H1N1 vaccine (syringes sold separately) so we can all shoot up with a healthy dose of mercury and squalene before we “eat”? It may reduce the need for people to go a-rushin’ to their nearest clinic (amidst the “Oh-my-God-we-are-running-out” shortages and “God-save-us-in-the-scary-pandemic” type alerts). There you go ‘, that’s one from me. Keep it. Use it. Go on.

Apparently, the City Attorney of San Francisco, US, Dennis Herrera sent a letter to Kellogg’s and to the Food and Drug Administration in the US asking Kellogg’s to prove its claim:

“I am concerned the prominent use of the immunity claims to advertise a sugar-laden chocolate cereal like Cocoa Krispies may mislead and deceive parents of young children.”

No. Really?

Interestingly, in the same year as our friend Monsieur Kellogg (1852-1945), inventor of the cornflake, began selling cereal commercially (1906), he also founded the Race Betterment Foundation to help stop the “propagation of defectives.” Our Kellogg was also on the Advisory Council of the American Eugenics Society.

It seems that Kellogg was convinced that poor dietary and moral habits were leading America down the path of ‘race degeneration’. His solution was eugenics, not merely as a set of policies, but as a quasi-religious ideology. As you do, when you are the business of fashioning flattened flakes of corn.

Kellogg’s’ reveled in his role as defender of scientific efficiency in the realisation of power to control global breakfasting habits. Build up the monopoly; get kids hooked on sugar, playful characters and free toys and then pump whatever ‘immunity boosting’ elements you like into the boxes. For example, there are heaps of interesting articles on Folic Acid in cereal (and now we have it as mandatory for wheat flour – and therefore bread- in Australia). The ridiculousness of the entire situation is that the very target market for folic acid fortification is young women and mass medication is simply not good public health policy. [however, unlike the fluoride in the water, one does have a reasonable element of choice in what we eat for breakfast]. Like most things that get approved by food standard agencies and departments across the globe, there are too many unresolved issues and questions around safety and efficacy- nevermind the issue of the immorality of ‘mass medication’. I say: If in doubt, leave it out. But Kellogg’s insists that once we wake up we all (well, particularly impressionable young children) need to shovel down our mouths:

Rice, Sugar, Chocolate (4.5%), Cocoa Powder, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Malt Flavouring, Flavouring, Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin B2, Thiamin B1, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12.

“Kellogg’s Krispies cereals provide consumers with 25 percent of their daily value of vitamins A, C, and E, which play an important role in boosting immunity according to peer-reviewed, published, scientific research” says Kellogg’s.

…Come on.

[Coco Pops are also 40% sugar by weight.]

In his work Plain Facts, Kellogg even prohibits those with contagious ‘urban’ diseases, such as tuberculosis, and cholera, from marrying and reproducing offspring, essentially targeting immigrants, and those whom he collectively labeled “the lower classes”. According to Kellogg, “a few generations of such a degenerating process would exterminate the [white] race, and drive it back to Darwin’s ancestral ape.” Kellogg even compared the product of miscegenation, “hybrid” humans, with mongrel dogs: “Different varieties or races of the same species may form a fertile union, the result of which is a mongrel — a cross between its two parents, possessing some of the qualities of each. All the varieties of dogs are produced by crossing different races, and so are mongrels.

One newspaper said Dr. Kellogg and Dr. Burbank were trying to make the United States into a great stock farm, by breeding for human efficiency.

“I wish we had the power to do that very thing. It would not be such a bad idea,” he continued, “it certainly would be a great deal better than to have the United States a great stock farm, breeding mongrels-which is what we are doing now.” – John H. Kellogg

Very important Americans supported this idea, from Roosevelt, Carnegie, the Rockefellers and the Kellogg family:

“Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind…. Some day we will realize that the prime duty, the inescapable duty of the good citizen of the right type is to leave his blood behind him in the world, and that we have no business to perpetuate citizens of the wrong type” (1913- Roosevelt, Theodore)

Now, this is where it gets particularly interesting…

Apparently, Kellogg was a big anti-sex/anti-masturbation activist. You’ll find that he was actually on such a far end of the spectrum that he didn’t have sexual intercourse with his wife even once in their 40 years of marriage (he worked on his book “Plain Facts” on their honeymoon). It would make sense that a self-proclaimed eugenicist would want to limit the reproductive capabilities of the ‘degenerate’ population who consume the highly processed GM foodstuffs in cartoonised cardboard boxes?[ See Porn Flakes Kellogg, Graham and the Crusade for Moral Fiber]

He said (in Plain Facts):

“A plain and healthy diet, with only two meals a day, among other things, would reduce sexual feelings”

So clearly John Kellogg thought there’s link between a person’s diet and his sexual desires. Could the eugenics ideology of today’s global elite NWO have infiltrated our breakfast options by design?

Anyway, don’t let me put you off your cereal. Chew away. But please check the ingredients in “Special K” before you swallow too much…

[Me? I had fruit toast this morning. If you are interested.]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111001/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvey_Kellogg

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-11-02-cereal-immunity-claim_N.htm

http://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/The-Big-Picture/Swine-flu-prompts-Kellogg-to-quit-Rice-Krispies-immunity-claims

http://www.xomba.com/cocoa_krispies_fights_swine_flu_kellogg_claims_cereal_helps_immune_system

http://www.amazon.com/Plain-Facts-Young-Harvey-Kellogg/dp/0554368749

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/38/wellville1.htm

http://www.nndb.com/people/018/000133616/

http://en.allexperts.com/e/j/jo/john_harvey_kellogg.htm

http://infowars.com.au

http://truthmovementaustralia.com.au

http://www.prisonplanet.tv

Snap *Kopfwackel*: “Giiiiiiiiiiiiiirl….”

This universe was not made for you.
You are unallocated in list of
Participators and only consume… and we’ve entirely forgotten about you.
You do nothing.
You deserve an even smaller potion of happiness than the
Everything you neglect,
A unit so close to zero, it can only be limited to
The lowest number you can squeeze out of
your tube.

Most of the doors are shut at your approach, and we’re
Glad to see your nose close, but far
From the other side of plexi.

If they destroy you, and when they will –
Nothing will happen; you’ve allowed the science
And majesty of prediction to take the place of
Sweet, unreasoned faith.

Die, fruitless laborer. Crumble into your dry skin and
Rot.
Snap your femur with the flat plate of head-bone
Before you go,
And limp… limp into the dark underworld you hardly deserve,
But where else can they put you?

20.
東村。

天氣好的時候, 總是會忍不住抓著相機然後到處拍拍走走。

三十件事裡, 如果沒有東村就不會完整了。

那你眼裡的東村呢？

Ice MC! Hahaha!!! Jag hade glömt bort att man lyssnade på det här…. letade egentligen efter en helt annan låt men sprang på den här gamla godingen så jag var bara tvungen att lägga upp den….

Egentligen var det den här låten jag letade efter. Har ett minne av att jag hade den på mitt “favvoband”… minns några av kändisnamnen han “sjunger” i låten och har letat efter låten i flera år! NU äntligen hittade jag den! I mitt minne var det en skitbra låt. Jag tyckte verkligen det!! hahaha! Tänk vad smaken kan förändras!!

Året var 1990. Båda dessa låtar fanns på favoritkassetbandet som gick hett i freestylen… det var tider det….
Här är fler låtar som fanns på samma band….

Stax – Mary Had A Little Boy

Det här är en lite intressant låt på många sätt. Den släpptes nämligen i två versioner, dels under namnet Stax och dels under vingarna av gruppen Snap. Men det är samma gäng som ligger bakom båda versionerna, varför det blev så här har jag inte riktigt koll på även om jag har för mig att jag läste om det i nån DJ-tidning för länge sen. Synd bara att minnet ska vara så risigt att man inte kommer ihåg historien bakom det hela.

Snap – Mary Had A Little Boy

Får nog säga att min favorit av de två versionerna är den under namnet Stax, den har lixom mer klipp i sig. Tjejen som sköter sången heter för övrigt Pennye Ford och hon är halvsyster med den framlidna Sharon Redd. Pennye frontade Snap som kvinnlig vokalist  under åren 1990-1991. Därefter tog en tjej som heter Niki Haris över och hon är även känd som en av Madonnas dansare och bakgrundsvokalister under bl.a Madonnas Blond Ambition Tour samt flera av Madonnas videos. Pennye Ford heter för övrigt numera Penny Ford då hon 1993 plockade bort det e hon haft i slutet av sitt namn sedan födseln.

FPI Project – Rich In Paradise

Som det inte vore nog med att Stax/Snap släppte Mary Had A Litte Boy. FPI Project var nämligen ute ett par månader innan och släppte Rich In Paradise som använder sig av just det grundtemat som vi finner i Mary Had A Little Boy. Så här kan vi snacka om att det lånats friskt av idéer mellan de olika samtida dansprojekten som fanns i början på 90-talet. Själv tycker jag det är suveränt när musiken får utvecklas på det viset och på så vis vaskas de bästa låtarna fram genom att idéerna får möjlighet att växa på flera ställen så att säga.

Tjillevippen

notbugs

The clock is ticking
Watching the clock, hypnotized
Need to snap out, now

I would like to relate my experience of going on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP. This is a federal program that is still colloquially referred to as “food stamps,” though technically this is incorrect. While the ability to buy food used to be administered via stamps that could be exchanged for food, they migrated more recently to a credit card-like system: the bearer is given a card that has a balance on it. The money on the card can be swiped like a credit card at the supermarket, but it can only pay for food.

The first step in the process is actually going down to the Social Services Administration and applying. I could have done this months ago, when I was unemployed, but I had no idea then what the process was like, or even that I was eligible. However, I discovered shortly after attaining my job that as an Americorps volunteer I qualified for the program automatically.

I waited until September 14 to apply, since I have Mondays off. (I have no idea how you apply if you can’t go sometime during the work week.) I went down to the Mountain View Social Services office, which is the closest one to my house in Palo Alto. There are only three offices in all of Santa Clara County, a county of 1.6 million.

After waiting for a while in the lobby, I was called up to the counter. I had brought with me a variety of documents pertaining to my status as an American taxpayer. They didn’t need many of them, though. After being there for an hour, they informed me that I would have an appointment with a social worker in the office, and then that he or she would work with me to see if I qualified. Furthermore, I would be notified of when this date would occur in the mail. I asked if I could just meet someone now, or if they could tell me my appointment time now; they said no.

Obviously this was alarmingly stupid and Kafkaesque from a bureaucratic standpoint but I accepted it because I had no choice. About ten days later, just as planned, I got a letter in the mail from the County of Santa Clara informing me that my appointment date would be October 31. Yes, that’s a full month and a half after applying.

What if I had been starving at the time of the appointment? I actually asked the bureaucrat at the office this question on September 14. He told me that there was an “emergency” process that took only three days, max. Did I qualify for that? Probably not, he told me.

So think about that, first. There’s a pretty big gap between three days and 45 days. I was unable to avoid making comparisons to the state of public health in this country–-it’s near impossible, for us subaltern at least, to make an appointment with a doctor within a few weeks, but if it’s an “emergency” you can go to one of our country’s overcrowded, underfunded ERs. There is no inbetween–-something that is pretty unsettling. ERs are also absurdly expensive, as we know. So what state am I in? I’m either fine or in a crisis. Two poles. That’s what our health/assistance culture has evolved into. No empathy from bureaucrats otherwise, either honor an appointment or wait till you’re on the verge of death/starvation.

So, on October 31, early in the morning (I had an 8:30 appointment) I delayed work and went down to the office. My case worker was a very empathetic though necessarily rule-oriented bureaucrat named Maria.

I brought a slew of documents with me-–my California state ID (which was still registered in SF, posing a small problem), my sublet tenant agreement (which didn’t actually say the address, another problem), my bank statement, and about 5 pay stubs. I also brought my passport.

But I was almost immediately rebuffed because I didn’t have my Social Security Card. For non-American readers, this is a flimsy piece of paper that is issued to you, usually shortly after birth, that has your Social Security number on it and your name. It doesn’t have the holder’s picture. It is probably the most easily reproducible document ever made–-I could fake one with a scanner, an ink color printer and a pirated copy of Photoshop. (You could probably do it in MSPaint, really.) It’s also something no one carries around in their wallet because it’s a really bad idea to carry around your social security number, for obvious reasons. Most people when asked for their Social Security number just write it down from memory. I have never been asked for this document before. I haven’t seen my Social Security card in maybe five years. It might be at my parents house, though I called them and they don’t know where it is either.

This was a very big problem, Maria let me know immediately. Even though I’d brought my passport, something that is difficult to acquire and near-impossible to forge, I couldn’t get food stamps (she said) without my flimsy Social Security card.

Maria gave me a map to the Social Security office a few miles away (it’s different from the county Social Services office, where I was–-Soc. Sec is a federal thing). She continued with the eligibility procedure anyway. This involved her typing on the computer a bunch of numerical values related to my income, rent and assets. After crunching the numbers she had some bad news: evidently I did NOT qualify for food stamps.

I was stunned, only because I knew this wasn’t true. I explained to her what little bureaucratese I understood about my situation. I told her that many of my co-workers were on food stamps, that there was no doubt in my mind that they, getting paid the same amount of money as me, qualified so I must qualify. I knew it had something to do with the federal Americorps program. I argued with her about this for some time. I didn’t try to speak in bureaucratese because I didn’t really understand the nitty-gritty details of why I was eligible, but I knew from work that there was some federal rule or statute or something that allowed me to get on food stamps.

I want to take a break here to explain the oddity of this situation. I make minimum wage. I work full-time. In America, in northern California, if you make minimum-wage and work full-time, you do NOT qualify for food stamps. Even more stupidly, when considering income in order to see if one is eligible for food stamps, the income considered is pre-tax. $55 of each of my paychecks goes to taxes. But because I make $625 (every 2 weeks) pre-tax, which averages to $1354 per month (which is actually $1235 after taxes) I did not qualify for food stamps. If I had made $1300 per month I would have qualified by their standards.

So, to clarify: you have to make either LESS than minimum wage (supposedly impossible) or be working less than full-time at minimum wage. (So really, you either have to be working part-time at minimum wage or unemployed) Furthermore, in order to qualify for food stamps, you have to have less than $2000 in assets.

I want to repeat this for effect. If you make less than $15600 a year, even in northern California, AND have $2000 or less in assets (including cars) you qualify for food stamps. This is a tiny amount of money. Try living on $1300 a month and paying for gas and car maintenance (a necessity in San Jose, where public transit is shit), as well as covering food, rent and utilities. $2000 in assets is NOTHING. Most people retire with tens of thousands, more often hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets, in addition to a pension and any property or cars they’ve acquired throughout their life. If you are over 40 and on food stamps, chances are you will never retire. You have to be in dire, dire straits to qualify, or be too young to have any property, or homeless and unemployed.

Also, interestingly, there’s not much of a grey area in there when it comes to income limits. I was supposedly $54 above the monthly limit–-yet food stamps provides $200 a month in benefits to unmarried, childless persons.  That means someone who makes 1300 a month actually makes 1500 including food assistance, and someone who makes 1301 a month makes just that. That math seems a bit odd, doesn’t it? Again, the thin line between “crisis” and relaxed is exemplified in this model. Apparently making $1300 a month constitutes an emergency but $1301 does not.

So, back to my story. I argued with Maria as calmly as I could, but I was definitely a bit upset. She was the bureaucrat, not me, and she was supposed to sort these things out, because clearly I make no claims on understanding the Byzantine system of organization that governs these things. There were many points during our conversation where I could’ve walked out and said, okay, well, thanks anyway, and I just wouldn’t have had food stamps. I think at one point I said, “What am I supposed to do now? Just leave?” Maria shrugged and said I didn’t qualify. I said I would go to the San Jose Social Services center and try again, because they’d given my co-workers stamps. She laughed and said it wouldn’t work because I didn’t qualify.

Maria’s boss was out of the office so she couldn’t consult with her. She went to a co-worker to ask about my case, and her co-worker said the same thing. She fiddled with the computer (which was really the all-knowing portal in the room, it seems) for a while and then confirmed that I didn’t qualify. Finally, she went and asked one more co-worker, because I was adamant. This co-worker had dealt with a case like mine once before (no one else in the office knew what Americorps was–-Maria pronounced it “Ameri-Corpse.”) I couldn’t see what they were doing on the computer screen, but I inferred from their conversation that they changed some option box from “non-exempt” to “exempt,” regarding my income. Changing this meant that I qualified.

So, to clarify again: I was only able to get on food stamps because I was knowledgeable and forward enough to sort out the bureaucratic mess. I am lucky to have this privilege. Many are not afforded this, because of language barriers or education level or access to information or otherwise. But because I had an inkling of the inane regulatory arcana regarding my case, I was able to eventually affirm that I qualified for food stamps. I can only shudder to think how many Americans are denied benefits simply because they aren’t privileged enough to communicate some banal detail about their income or situation.

Things got a lot easier all of a sudden. My social security card was no longer a necessity, as she found me in the database and affirmed my social security number was indeed what I reported it as. She gave me the EBT card (Electronic Benefits Transfer) and I picked out a pin number, as if it were a debit card. She said the card would be activated the next day.

One of the cool things about the EBT card is that it was loaded with all the money I would have received back to the date I applied, September 14. So I started with $350 on the card, and since the benefits renew monthly, I had $550 on November 1.

However, this turns out not to be as convenient as one might think. The reason is that food stamp money can only be applied to quote-unquote food-–no alcohol, no prepared deli foods, but just about everything else in the grocery store. I didn’t really need that kind of money on my card, though. I would have much rather been reimbursed for all the food I’d bought over the past month and a half. It didn’t really make sense to load up on food for the future, since I get more money each month and I can’t eat only non-perishables. So this wasn’t quite as ideal as it seemed.

Yet EBT is admittedly a very cool thing. Americans being obsessed with the illusory freedom of consumer choice, there is almost no limit to what food I can buy with my card. I could spend it all at pricey Whole Foods or at Safeway. (Not all grocers take it, but most large supermarkets, some farmer’s markets and some convenience stores do.) I could buy 100 avocadoes or a hundred Kit-Kat bars or blow it all on soda. And the taxpayers would cover it. Of course, alcohol and certain energy drinks are prohibited, being deemed non-nutritive. But even things like exotic spices, tea and coffee beans are paid for, which are similarly calorie-free, so I wonder at their logic.

This is very different than the food welfare system in other countries, many of which offer their people staples–Brazil, for instance, gives out five staple foods and grains to the impoverished, including dry rice and beans. But the SNAP food stamp program is very prototypically American–-it reflects our inane obsession with the illusion of personal choice and individualism. If you want to spend the taxpayer’s money on soda and Twizzlers, hey, that’s your choice, buddy. Because this is America, and we have “freedom.” Of course, if you don’t have a social security number, or you’re not able to comprehend how to deal with all the red tape, or you lack certain documentation regarding your life, or you’re an immigrant (legal or illegal) and you’re hungry, well, you’re just kind of fucked, huh? You can thank the “compassionate conservatives” for that one.

I had to sign all kinds of alarming documents in order to get food stamps. They fingerprinted me, which was kind of ominous, and doesn’t really give the impression that the government regards the poor with any sort of dignity. I also had to affirm that I wasn’t lying about anything and that if my financial or career situation changed I would affirm within ten days or else risk losing my benefits. Also if I was convicted of a crime I’d have to tell them. Finally, if I was indeed lying, I was alerted that I would be required to pay back the government as well as prosecuted formally.

So now, all I have to do to keep the food stamps is submit a report every three months. The county sends me an envelope and I have to put all my pay stubs from that month in the envelope and send it back (postage paid, conveniently). This is how they check up on me and know to continue giving me the $200/month benefits.

It’s pretty easy to lapse on this program. The homeless Palo Altan to whom I spoke with in an earlier entry said that she was once on food stamps, and had simply been unable to deal with all the paperwork required to keep them after she got out of the hospital and went homeless and no longer had a permanent address. This is alarmingly common. We’ve made the food stamp system so difficult to get on–-trying to ward off so-called fraud–-that America is actually preventing some of the poorest of the poor from receiving SNAP benefits. This woman begged on the streets for money every day so she could buy some nutritious produce, rather than eat the free church food which she called “very bad” (which I don’t fault her for).

I can’t even articulate how monumentally fucked-up this is. I wish that poor homeless persons, like this Palo Alto woman, could somehow join league with other subaltern foot soldiers and go punch every member of the Senate in the face. They could call it the Senatorial much-Needed Ass-kicking Program (SNAP). I bet there’d be alot less paperwork.

A cold front from the north will affect Vietnam’s southern and Central Highlands regions, Le Thanh Hai, deputy director of the National Hydrometeorological Forecast Center, said November 16.

Ho Chi Minh City dwellers wear overcoats during a cold spell last year (filed photo)

Though the daytime weather will continue to be sunny, with the temperature at a high of 29-30 degrees Celsius, nights will be fairly chilly.

Most areas in the north and the central part of the central region are experiencing cold weather and, according to Mr. Hai, will have fog.

The cold spell is likely to last at least five days, he said.

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this is amazing. triple heart this. its like that show of shows “in living color” sketch  men on film (2 snaps and a circle!) but so much more!

Courtesy of Jessica Mullen (via Flickr)

Between the recession, job losses, and rising costs, millions of American households are going hungry. In fact, nearly 1 in 7 Americans are food insecure, or unable to afford and provide enough food for their family, according to a report from the USDA.

Poverty and a lack of resources have made it more difficult for many families to find food, shelter, and healthcare. Necessities everyone should have access to. But in 2008, at least 17 million households were food insecure, up from 13 million last year – the highest level of food insecurity since reporting began in 1995, says the USDA. Even with record enrollment in SNAP and other assistance programs, millions of families are still in the red with “low” or “very low” food security. As more children grow up in food-insecure households, President Obama is working with Congress to extend benefits and expand programs to ensure access to healthy meals. Make sure you’re getting the help you need and deserve.

No one should go without food. Visit The Beehive for family support services, healthy eating tips, and financial help.

Celebrity guest post from a real douche Richard Wildwood – Cultural commentator, person of interest and enabler. Follow him @ twitter.com/RichardWildwood.