I've seen the mentally ill, aids victims, homeless camped out in cardboard tents, under the Gardner freeway, and in the ravines of Toronto.

I've seen pensioners lose what little they have on life in a tenement fire here in Saint John. They couldn't even get contents insurance even if they could afford it since the building was so dilapitated and unsafe. Insurance companies wouldn't even think of insuring it. These pensioners worked all there lifes on minimum wage spending their remaining days on about $400 a month government pension. About $300 a month went to the slum lord. What they ate I couldn't imagine.

There are many apartment slums here in Saint John that don't have heat or water. Many children live in these abodes. Winter here can be very harsh.

Sure, the above isn't Jamaica, Cancun or any of these other exotic locations were the bourgeous of Canada go to vacation ... cheap vacations since the staff of the hotels, bars and restaraunts are staffed by people who are paid next to nothing ... but the above situations I mentioned are real in a country that has 'everything'.

Yeah, I'm grateful for what I have ... but I'm aware what is in my own backyard, I do what little I can by advocating in my community in regards to the lack of adequate housing ... but it's like banging your head against a very hard concrete wall. I'm also aware that myself, and pretty well everyone I know is a hairline away from being thrown into the depths of poverty by unknown, but real circumstances.

Solution ... I think dianavin mentioned greed above in her post. The human element of greed is the evil that permits human beings to live in such misery.

biLL