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How to Jump Start Your Exercise Program By Sheri Colberg-Ochs, Ph.D. You may have started out with the best of intentions to become more fit, and you may even have invested in some new walking shoes—so why are they still sitting in the box next to your brand-new pair of polyester-blend athletic socks? My expert diagnosis is that your exercise program needs a jump start! Take it one day at a time Have you ever heard it said that the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over again, but expecting different results every time? Certainly, you don’t have to dramatically change everything about your lifestyle all at once, but effectively preventing and controlling your diabetes is going to involve doing something differently… permanently. If “exercise” is a bad word around your house, you simply have to change your way of thinking about it. For starters, call it “physical activity” or “moving more” or something else with a less negative connotation. The easiest way to get started is by just getting more active throughout the day: sit less, stand more, walk extra steps, and even fidget more consistently. You won’t even realize that what you’re doing counts as exercise. Start today, and take it one day at a time. Lose the diets If some weight loss is your goal, do yourself a favor and do not follow any drastic fad diet or unbalanced diet plan. The healthy nutritional changes that you implement for yourself should never be interpreted as “going on a diet,” which implies that the “diet” will end at some point. If you
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Volume XII, Issue 1
London’s new Robin Hood moves the homeless into city’s poshest mansions (pg. 5)
The World Just thinks we are Lazy!
A Call Away
Sean Cononie detox. Since we take these clients we have to e is laying on the ground full of blood. deal with seizures quite often. Security is screaming, “get the trauma A few years back we had three going on at kit...!” One of the other staff first responders’ one time. I felt like an Emergency Room screams, “someone get a pillow so he does not Doctor going between cases and shouting out keep banging his head!” More bumps, the orders to the first responders.... and these more bangs, first responders more blood. The are, guess what, Manager of the formally homeless Day shouts, “Get individuals who me a lot of four took an 80 hour by fours, where course to work are the gloves?!” a full code on These above people at the time screams are what of an emergency. is said at least From AED’s, Aironce a day at the way tools, oxygen shelter. and lots of trauma We take in people stuff these forwho have one seimerly homeless zure after another. people are saving When seizures lives. Heck they can’t be con- Mr. William Scott and the “Seizure Kit” even respond to trolled by meds bad accidents in the person usually becomes homeless. Why? front of the shelter on federal highway. No company is going to hire someone who It was News Years day and yes another forcan fall down and bang their head or in some mer homeless individual named Mr. William cases hurt others while they are having their Scott came into my office and handed me seizures. Liability, liability, liability- such a a “Seizure Kit.” Many months ago he told nasty word. By the way friends, let’s not asme he was going to make one but we both sume the seizures are drug or alcohol related got busy. “OK Sean what is a Seizure Kit?” because in most cases those ones can be conGuys it is that best of best tool kits you altrolled by meds or end a week or two past ways dreamed about. Gals it is the all time
by Kelly Robinson Me? Homeless? Really? Really The majority of Americans only think of homelessness when someone tries to clean their windshield at an overpass intersection or holds out a cup asking for spare change. Maybe it comes to mind when they see it on television or when a mother and her child are spotted sleeping in a storefront doorway. That is sort of how it started for me. I was in my twenties, on the trip of a lifetime in San Francisco when I was stopped short by the sight of a woman and her filthy baby sleeping away the heat of the day in a doorway. The baby opened its eyes and looked right at me. Something in that scene hit a raw nerve and I cried until the friend I was with finally was able to calm me down the next day. That vision of them huddled together stayed with me, but as things do, with time it faded away - lost to the misty memories, both good and bad, that make up a person’s past. For the next twenty years, my life ebbed and waned, splashed like huge waves hitting the breakers and then calmed, only to start the cycle again over and over. It is the story of many lives, especially those who have an artistic spirit and are given to follow-
H
(From A Place To Stay)
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Our Purpose: To Help the Homeless Learn How to Help Themselves
(Continued on pg 5)
The Voice of the Homeless
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Volume XII, Issue 1
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Our Homeless Voice readers: THANK YOU AGAIN LORD FOR SUCH A WEAK FLU!
W
e have always prided ourselves and we pray you or any of your loved ones does here at the shelter on the fact not get injured, but sometimes we get hit with that we are out there selling our paper something that places a tremendous financial so we do not have to depend on the burden on us: that so called “surprise” that puts government and to also be told what to the entire budget into disarray. After all these do by the government as far as what years functioning here we have been notified by types of clients we can take or not to the Hollywood Fire Department that we need to take. We will never be on the Forbes have a sprinkler system for the building. There is 500 list or on the New York Stock Exno previous ground work for this so it becomes change and that’s because we choose to a completely from scratch operation. Pipes have stay as we are and be able to run a sucto be run throughout the upstairs and downstairs, cessful and profitable organization, : but numerous sprinkler heads, hook up to water, auplease do not take the word profitable tomated alarm system, etc and the “etc” comes as meaning we are making money as out to be about $85,000 worth. Although just a business would. In a profitable busilike you we try to put money away for a rainy ness in the real world the owners get day we never figured that the rain would come lots and lots of money. For us the word from sprinklers inside the building. This money profitable means we can afford to get will have to come from somewhere be it lessour elevator fixed when it breaks down ening the quality of food for our clients or cutso our clients who are disabled do not ting back on medical supplies and possibly next have to walk down difficult flights of time the elevator breaks down let it go and simstairs. It means we can afford to buy ply have our clients in wheelchairs struggle to ground beef instead of cheap substicrawl down the stairs. We certainly aren’t going tutes like ground turkey. It means we to put it all on our vendors by making them work can supply the more hours or cutting back best healthcare their percentage of profit. for our clients It is our responsibility to we have been notified by including life provide for them and our saving AED’s responsibility only. the Hollywood Fire and oxygen. It Originally we were Department that we need told means we can the sprinkler sysdo what we call to have a sprinkler system tem would cost about “outreach” and $250,000. The new quote for the building supply the resifor the job and construcdents of the city tion to cover some of the the much needed piping is $85,000. If we food, baby supplies and medical attendo not get the sprinkler system we may have tion they could not otherwise afford. It to discharge approximately 60 people. The fire means we can get our roof fixed when marshal feels with the added fire protection we the hurricane rains pour down into should not have to discharge anyone. We are a the rooms where our clients reside family. We enjoy thanksgiving and Christmas and many of you have read about the dinners together, we take care of the ill when weddings we perform at our expense they can’t take care of themselves. We all chip for those couples who are in love and in and do what we can to help our relatives here cannot afford the bells and whistles of just as you do with your families. one themselves. Just as everyone expeThis added expense of this fire sprinkler system riences some time in their life they are is going to put us behind in our bills. We do need thrown a twist of fate, a hardship if you your help. will that sets them back when they are This month we ask that you send in a special just finally getting ahead. We constantcheck donation to our fire sprinkler system. This ly run into those road blocks here at the will make our lives a little bit easier, a little safshelter. We wonder if we are just meant er, and some reassurance that if we had a fire to struggle for a reason or if we are all things would be okay and nobody would get hurt being tested by God on our patience badly. It also prevents the fire from spreading to and fortitude to survive and not give the next room. Please read below on where to up as human beings. Being homeless send your check to. As I close this story, I do is no bargain to begin with but when want to thank each and every one of you for all one setback after another takes place it the support you have given the homeless in our makes you just want to give up and ask community. You are one of the reasons why we yourself what’s the point of even trywere able to pay off our main shelters mortgage ing even after we have settled in here in just a short time. trying to start life over. One such example is just a week or so To help get our sprinkler system please send a ago one of our vans carrying our vencheck or money order to : dors was blindsided by another car and Cosac Foundation “Sprinkler Fund” run into a ditch. Because our bread and butter for finances is our vendors we P.O. Box 292-577 of course had to spend the money to Davie, FL 33329 rent another van and this one that got hit may be totaled. Ok, things like that happen even to people such as yourself
COSAC’S CHURCH Come to the church that is a Church of Service and Charity Learn of Jesus and learn how to put God’s words into action. Sunday 8:30 pm 1203 N. Federal Highway Hollywood, FL 33020 954-924-3571 x316
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Publisher (middle) Sean Cononie meeting with Rain Wilson and his wife discussing poverty in America and the continued world hunger problems and the efforts the Homeless Voice is making in Haiti.
Members of the Florida based band Creed with Homeless Voice Staff Mark and Sara Targett Homeless Voice Newspaper Staff Publisher
Editor in Chief
Executive Editor
Mark Targett
Sara Targett
Sean Cononie
Assistant Editor Lois Cross
Photos Christopher Bombery
Contributing Editors
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The Voice of the Homeless
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Volunteers vaccinate homeless against H1N1 By Rich Phillips, CNN Sean Cononie bounded out of the back of an ambulance ahead of most of the other volunteers. A bullhorn in his hand, he was, in a sense, the pied piper. “If there’s anybody out here, that wants the swine flu vaccine, please come over here,” he said. And come they did. Outside Fort Lauderdale’s main library, a crowd started to build, and soon about a dozen homeless people were rolling up their shirt sleeves -in the middle of the street -- for the H1N1 vaccination. “You stop spreading the germs,” Cononie said. “Because if a homeless person gets positive for the swine flu, they get sick, they go into a gas station and use the bathroom, transfer those germs to a public bathroom, [then] mom and dad come in with little ones, use that bathroom -- boom. Bingo. Contagious. Swine flu.” The volunteers are with the Homeless Voice -- a nonprofit homeless advocacy center that also runs a shelter
in Hollywood, Florida. They’ve hit the streets for about three weeks to vaccinate the homeless population in Broward County. They requested the vaccine through the Florida Department of Health to help part of a population that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls an at risk group. Many homeless people often have untreated medical conditions, and the lack of sanitary conditions makes it easier for them to catch the virus. So far, the group has vaccinated about 300 homeless people “Some have high blood pressure, some are alcoholics and are more susceptible to the flu, the seasonal flu, and the swine flu,” said Dr. Chad Frank, a family practice physician who is a volunteer. “We’re protecting them, and we’re also saving the emergency rooms here as well from being overloaded with potential patients, swine flu patients.” Wearing a yellow reflective T-shirt, Frank spends his nights on the street during the vaccination effort.
“I appreciate this. There’s not a whole lot of people that come by and do something like this,” “I think it’s needed,” he said. “And believe it or not, it’s fun. That’s why I’m a doctor.” Russell Ahamed was one of the first people in line. He lives in the park next to the library in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The volunteers took his temperature to make sure he wasn’t running a fever and took his name down so he could be entered into a Department of Health database. “I appreciate this. There’s not a whole lot of people that come by and do something like this,” Ahamed said. “I know people can die from [the flu].” But on this night, not everyone was able to get the shot. William -- the only name he gave to volunteers -- was ready and willing but not able. Alcohol had gotten the best of him, and he could no longer stand. Fearing a possible bad reaction to the vaccine, the volunteers would not give it to him. Calmly, Cononie leaned down to talk to William, who was sitting on the grass, and explained why they couldn’t vaccinate him then. “ Wi l l i a m , I’m gonna put something in your bag. It’s a piece of paper,” Cononie said. “When you wake up in the morning, promise me you’re going to look for this piece of paper, OK? It says our phone number. Call us in the morning. We’ll come back and give you a shot when you’re a little more sober.” William insisted, “I need the shot now.” Cononie replied, “Well, we don’t think tonight’s a good night because you have a lot of alcohol in you.” The volunteers, who travel with a police escort in case they encounter any situation they’re not equipped to handle, described the homeless as a forgotten population. Lee Engels is newly homeless. He lost his trailer and his construction job in Martin County, Florida, and headed south to Fort Lauderdale, he said. He’s been homeless for three weeks, and he’s trying to stay sober. “It’s tough out here, but it’s how you make it,” Engels said, rolling up his sleeve to get the vaccine injection. The volunteers said there’s no way to know how much of an effect they are having in stopping the spread of H1N1, but they believe they are doing a public service. “A true blessing,” Engels agreed. “You don’t have to go to a hospital and pay the bill.”
Prince William spends night on London streets
Volume XII, Issue 1
The Mysterious, Disappearing Honey Bee
By JENNIFER QUINN
LONDON – A cold alley in central London is a far cry from a palace — but it was the spot Prince William chose to sleep to highlight the plight of homeless British teenagers. He spent a chilly night near Blackfriars Bridge last week with Seyi Obakin, the chief executive of British homeless charity Centrepoint. William has been the charity’s patron since 2005. “I cannot, after one night, even begin to imagine what it must be like to sleep rough on London’s streets night after night,” William said Tuesday. “Poverty, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency and family breakdown cause people to become and then stay homeless. “I hope that by deepening my understanding of the issue, I can help do my bit to help the most vulnerable on our streets.” William, second in line to the throne, was exposed to some of the hardships found on London’s streets when his mother, Princess Diana, took him to a shelter in 1996. Just 13 at the time, William spent an hour at the facility with his younger brother, Harry. Diana was well-known for her charitable work and the homeless was a group she was particularly close to. She had also served as Centrepoint’s patron, a position she held at the time of her death in 1997. A photograph released by the charity shows William, 27, in the alley in jeans, a gray hooded sweat shirt and a knit hat pulled low. In a post to the charity’s Web site, Obakin said the idea for William to spend a night on the streets — known as “sleeping rough” in Britain — was hatched in March. “He was determined, as he has always been, to understand deeply the full range of problems a homeless young person might face,” Obakin said. “For me, it was a scary experience. Out of my comfortable bed. Out there in the elements. Out there on an extremely cold night, with temperatures down to -4 C (24.8 F). And it was the same for Prince William. But he was determined to do it.” Obakin said they found a secluded spot — tucked away behind some garbage bins — and settled in for a restless night. “But there was no shielding from the bitter cold, or the hard concrete floor, or the fear of being accosted by drug dealers, pimps or those out to give homeless people a ‘good’ kicking,” Obakin said. William is currently training to be a Royal Air Force search-and-rescue pilot.
Honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States. by concerned groups, we still don’t reWritten by Lisa Wojnovich ally know what causes CCD. NumerHoney bees are disappearing. The ous causes have been advanced – from story has been in the news on and insecticides to parasites to genetically off since 2006, but for one reason or modified crops to stress due to envianother, most people have paid little ronmental changes. In April, Spanish attention. And the situation is signifiscientists identified a type of fungus, cantly dire. Nosema ceranae, that appeared to be Colony collapse disorder (CCD), also causing CCD in two commercial coloknown as honey bee colony depopulanies they were studying. The researchers tion syndrome, is essentially the sudden managed to cure them with the applicadisappearance of honey bees from their tion of an antibiotic drug – thus identicolony. As more and more bees disapfying and curing at least one cause of pear, the colony fails and ultimately CCD. But even dies. this advance CCD has been does not appear taking its toll to be the panon commeracean answer cial beekeepone third of the U.S. the agricultural ing worldwide. food supply is and apiarian The first reports industries are came from muldependent on d e s p e r a t e ly tiple locations pollination by bees searching for. within the U.S., There is a litbut the phetle good news, nomenon has such as it is. spread across From SeptemEurope and has ber 2008 to April 2009, according to even been reported in such far-flung loa survey conducted by the Apiary Incations as Taiwan and New Zealand. spectors of America (AIA) and the Haagen-Dazs, a maker of high end ice U.S. Department of Agriculture, overcream, sounded the alarm early in 2008, all U.S. honey bee colony losses from going so far as to donate $250,000 to all sources, including CCD, were 30%. CCD research and launch a new flavor, This figure is a slight improvement over Vanilla Honey Bee, to raise awarethe 36% of last season and the 32% the ness and more research funding. Their season before that. Unfortunately, such spokeswoman said that 40% of their 60 losses still bode ill for the economic flavors, not to mention approximately stability of commercial crops that rely one third of the U.S. food supply, is deon honey bees for pollination and the pendent on pollination by bees. If the $15 billion alone they add to the value bees die, so, ultimately, will the crops, of American crops each year. and then everyone will be in trouble. The problem is, even after three years and some intensive focus and funding
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The Happiness Effect By Alice Park The next time you get the flu, there will almost certainly be someone you can blame for your pain. There’s the inconsiderate co-worker who decided to drag himself to the office and spent the day sniffling, sneezing and shivering in the cubicle next to yours. Or your child’s best friend, the one who showed up for a playdate with a runny nose and a short supply of tissues. Then there’s the guy at the gym who spent more time sneezing than sweating on the treadmill before you used it. You’re right to pass the blame. Pathogens like the influenza virus pass like a holiday fruitcake from person to person, but you probably don’t think much past the one who gave it directly to you. An infectious-disease expert, on the other hand, would not be satisfied to stop there. What about the person who passed the virus on to your colleague, the one before him and others earlier still? Contagious diseases operate like a giant infectious network, spreading like the latest YouTube clip among friends of friends online. We’re social animals; we share. So public-health experts are beginning to wonder whether certain healthrelated behaviors are just as contagious as microbes. If you’re struggling with your weight, did you in effect catch a case of fat by learning poor eating and exercise habits from a friend or family member who was similarly infected by someone else? If you smoke, do you light up because you were behaviorally contaminated by smokers who convinced you of the coolness of the habit? Even more important, if such unhealthy behaviors are contagious, are healthy ones--like quitting smoking or exercising--equally so? And what if not only behaviors but also moods and mental states work the same way? Can you catch a case of happy? Increasingly, the answer seems to be yes. That’s the intriguing conclusion from a body of work by Harvard social scientist Dr. Nicholas Christakis and his political-science colleague James Fowler at the University of California at San Diego. The pair created a sensation with their announcement earlier this month of a 20-year study showing that emotions can pass among a network of people up to three degrees of separation away, so your joy may, to a larger extent than you realize, be determined by how cheerful your friends’ friends’ friends are, even if some of the people in this chain are total strangers to you. If that’s so, it creates a whole new paradigm for the way people get sick and, more important, how to get them healthy. It may mean that an individual’s well-being is the product not just of his behaviors and emotions but more of the way they feed into a larger social network. Think of it as health Facebook-style. “We have a collective identity as a population that transcends individual identity,” says Christakis. “This superorganism has an anatomy, physiology, structure and function that we are trying to understand.” In their most recent paper, published in the British Medical Journal, Christakis and Fowler explored the emotional state of nearly 5,000 people and the more than 50,000 social ties they shared. At three points during the long study, all the participants answered a standard questionnaire to determine their happiness level, so that the scientists could track changes in emotional state. That led to their intriguing finding of just how contagious happiness can be: if a subject’s friend was happy, that subject was 15% more likely to be happy too; if that friend’s friend was happy, the original subject was 10% more likely to be so. Even if the subject’s friend’s friend’s friend--entirely unknown to the subject--was happy, the subject still got a 5.6% boost. The happiness chain also worked in the other direction, radiating from the subject out to her friends. The happiness dividend is more powerful if two people not only know each other but also are equally fond of each other. Happiness is more infectious in mutual relationships (in which both people name the other as a friend) than in unreciprocated ones (in which only one is named).
(Continued on pg. 7)
On Spirituality
I
would like this to begin with an explanation that we are all made up of three primary elements, and they are physical, mental and spiritual. While most of us have a fair knowledge of our mental and physical sides, we know very little about our spiritual side. A tripod is a good example of the fewest legs required to support a weight, if any of these legs are removed the weight immediately falls. Our spirituality cannot be removed but can be damaged or neglected and cause crippling effects, just as would be true if our physical or mental sides cause us great pain and problems when they are hurt. So how do we nourish this spirit? That is what this column will attempt to deal with over the next few months. The dictionary describes spirit as `breath, to breathe, a life giving force’. It is in fact the essence of our lives. It is where our desire to understand a higher power or deity comes from. Our spirits grow hungry, and must be nourished, must be fed. For many of us this happens in organized religion, and for many others they find their own way, and for many others still it doesn’t happen at all and the results are catastrophic. I think it fair to say that all of us could use a little workout of our spiritual muscles. For our first excercise; take some
time every morning to find beauty in nature. A power greater than ourselves has provided us with an abundance of beauty whose primary purpose is to delight us. The second part of the first excercise is to find someone to thank at the end of the day. Let us begin 2010 with a renewed spirit. Until next time, DEACON BOB
A Call Away (From A Place To Stay) (Continued from pg. 1)
outside peaking in, those knots in the ing whims and dreams and ideas. shadows remained. I would never Always, though, there was the veneer of reagain feel fully safe. I would never spectability. I had the right resume, pedigree again be fooled into believing that and cheekbones to open all of the right doors. homelessness happens only to other As with most great times in our lives, I didn’t people. I still feel, to this day, that really appreciate it while it was happening. It I have one foot in the door and one was like a scripted story playing out before me foot just inches away from no longer and then one day the plot twisted unexpectedhaving a door. ly and it went from a fairy tale to a cautionary The funny thing, though, was that tale overnight. Life was pretty great and then, even as all of this was happening, without warning, it wasn’t. even as I watched my life melting I was just passing forty when I woke up one away, I knew that someday, when morning to the incessant sound of a phone these floods of fears and tears were ringing. I was in a hotel room, on the move but another misty memory, I knew I from one job to another, and the phone call would write about it. I had already was to give me the news that the job that I been a writer for more than half of was to start that same day had been cancelled. my life, so really it was just logical. I was on my own, in a strange town, a small What I didn’t know, though, was that amount of cash in the bank, but not much, even as the years and a minivan that had put distance bejust gone from being my tween me and transportation to being those hard times, my home. A flicker of fear I would never the desire to write started in my stomach and about it would grew and grew until it again be fooled rather than consumed me. into believing that grow fade away. The I always thought that if homelessness passion to make the unthinkable happened a difference, to to me that I would remain happens only to put voices to the calm, cool and collected other people. nameless faces and would just handle it would grow and like I had “handled” evbecome my life’s ery tsunami that had ever work. I didn’t threatened to wash away see that one coming. I’m glad. Had my life. This wave, though, was too big, too I known, I might not have experiunexpected and frankly, I just wasn’t in the enced everything so fully and deeply. right frame of mind to gracefully weather it. I might not have let it make fundaI went from employed with a place to live to mental changes to my very core. unemployed with no home in the blink of an Now, I am the voice crying out in eye, and that resourceful side of me that althe night, keeping you aware that as ways saw a way out was temporarily blinded. you lock your doors and pull the covInstead of seeing the answers, all I could see ers up to keep you warm, there are were diminishing returns. those who have no doors, no covers The first thing I did, after I finally put a dam and no peace of mind. I am the words on my tears and slowed the waves of fear that that educate you about the millions made my heart pound so hard I could hear my of people, people just like you, that own heartbeat, was to start weighing out my have been cast off and pushed away options. I counted my assets, did the math as just so much riff raff. I am the perand started figuring out what was best for me. son sitting next to you as you dine, For me alone. Always before I had others I the neighbor who watches over you had to consider. This was the first time I was and cares about your plight. I am completely alone, and if you have ever expeno longer homeless, but as America rienced that feeling of belonging in the comdownsizes and shifts in its shoes, I pany of others to being a complete outsider, am the one who is trying to tell you you know the permanent knot it grows in the that it only takes one phone call to shadows and dark spots of your soul. render you homeless. I am you. Later, after my life had finally landed back on high ground and I was no longer on the
The Voice of the Homeless
Page 6
London’s new Robin Hood moves the homeless into city’s poshest mansions Lauren Cooper The champion of London’s homeless, Mark Guard, is becoming nearly as famous as his celebrity neighbors, including Maggie Thatcher, Joan Collins, Sean Connery and Nigella Lawson. Guard, the self-appointed leader of a group of squatters, is grabbing headlines again after taking up residence in yet another mansion in Belgravia, London’s most upscale district. This £4 million ($6.5 million) government-owned home was once the residence of David Blunkett, a former cabinet minister and member of parliament. The blind politician lived here with his seeing-eye dog, and it is in its rooms that he conducted an infamous love affair that led to his resignation. Now the fancy pad is the latest in a series of empty multimillion-dollar mansions that Guard and his band of homeless Londoners have squatted in to raise awareness of all the vacant properties nearby that could be used to house homeless people, the group says. The Merry Adventures Of Mark Guard The stunts are beyond brash as Belgravia is no run-of-the-mill neighborhood, but rather a super-posh address favored by Britain’s elite. Homes here are furnished with crystal chandeliers and Frette linens. An omelette at the cafe around the corner can cost you £14 ($21). But after playing a cat-and-mouse game with authorities, Guard was due to head to court on Dec. 11 when the eviction process was scheduled to get underway. The process could take months. Stopping Guard won’t be easy as he has come to be seen as an urban Robin Hood, opening the doors of opulent mansions to the poor and needy. The eccentric 45-year-old Brit is a media-savvy guy who once made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for scoring the highest percentage return on an investment. He bought a property for £1,000 ($1,650), which he turned around and sold for £3.5 million ($5.7 million).
Thanks to his ease around the press, his squatting Harrods has its flagship. He stages the squats, he exploits have been chronicled in papers across the says, on behalf of others to draw attention to all United Kingdom, and television networks have the empty Belgravia properties -- some 312 of come calling, giving him airtime to expound on them now in total. his cause. He claims to be not only the group’s More pointedly, Guard says the vacant homes legal advisor, but also an electrician, property derepresent a major injustice: Many of the residences veloper and, most recently, a documentary filmhave been bought by foreign investors who keep maker. their money offshore to avoid paying astronomiGuard and his homeless posse, which includes a cal British taxes. Shopping with bloated Euros or French martial arts enthusiast, a fireman, a nurse stolen rubles, they snap up London homes -- more and a man in a wheelchair, moved into the latest affordable today with a weakened British pound home -- just a few blocks from Thatcher’s pad --- and then allow them to fall into disrepair. in early December. They entered through a winThe Taxpayers Picking Up The Tab dow, which Guard told Daily Finance had been Guard knows the offshore routine because he left open by a security guard who unlatched it for himself has an overseas trust and enjoys non-doventilation while he smoked miciled status, which exempts him from paying on the job. certain taxes. He spends most of his time living in For months, says Guard, the Cayman Islands, coming to the United King“This place was impregdom for only 90 days each year. nable. No one could get in.” But the homeless advocate says the problems Indeed, the mansion is right he’s exposing are real, no matter his own financial around the corner from a status. Homes like the one he’s currently squatting police station. Dressed up in are actually costing those who do pay taxes, as builders in hard hats and since it is government owned with taxpayers footluminous jackets, Guard ing the bill for its maintenance and upkeep. Locatand his entourage spent 12 ed at 62 South Eaton Place (not far from a house weeks surveilling the propMozart once lived in), the mansion has undergone erty before figuring out a an £85,000 ($138,000) refurbishment, reportedly way to make their move. “I paid for by the taxpayer. But it has remained unocspotted a weakness in the security detail,” Guard cupied for three years. says. “You can see it’s not damp here,” says Guard, Then, on the appointed day, Guard sent the call while showing a visitor around. “The heating has out to members of the media, who snapped phobeen on for three years, and it’s not dusty. Obvitos as he hoisted himself ously a cleaner has been into the property through coming in.” Guard says the open window. He took he has examined records He bought a property for possession of the home as related to the property and passersby looked on. found it is costing the tax£1,000 ($1,650), which he A Millionaire On A payer £10,000 ($16,000) turned around and sold for per year for taxes and Mission Guard is using the stunt heating. £3.5 million ($5.7 million) to draw attention to other For the time being, vacant buildings in the Guard’s antics, as some area, many of which are would characterize them, part of the Crown Estate’s £6 billion ($9.8 billion) don’t seem in danger of coming to an end. He property portfolio -- land formerly belonging to knows the law inside and out. Plus, he claims to be the British monarchy that is now managed for the well-connected. “My cousin is Gordon Brown’s government by an independent organization. He personal assistant,” he smirks when asked why the fumes at the fact that 13% of the Crown Estate police seem to leave him alone. “They know not stands empty, saying it could all be used to proto bother me. They say, ‘Leave him alone, we’ll vide shelter for the homeless. “I think the Queen never win.’” should consider taking take the Crown Estate back Powerless Police For Now because this administration is mismanaging it,” It’s true that Guard has become an expert on “lehe says. “I know for a fact that the Queen is congally” taking over vacant properties. He’s careful cerned about homeless people. She never leaves not to cause damage. His first move is to post a any of her properties empty, mothballing.” notice on a window stating, “We live in this propAs for Guard, he himself is a millionaire and erty, it is our home and we intend to stay here” far from homeless. He owns a home in nearby -- and legally, he’s right. Knightsbridge, where the fabled department store
Voice of the Poor: “I was hungry, and you formed a discussion group to discuss my hunger. I was imprisoned, and you quietly crept off to your chapel and prayed for my release. I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health. I was homeless, and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God. I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for me. You seem so holy, so close to God. But I am still very hungry – very lonely – and cold.”
The World Just thinks we are Lazy (Continued from pg. 1)
favorite cooking set that has all the perks. To us who work on people at the time of an emergency, it is a pillow to protect the patients head from banging on the ground over and over, a blanket to help protect their body from other scrapes or bruises, gloves for our protection, blood spill gowns to protect our body from blood when they injure themselves from the seizures. Airway tools and oxygen in case they stop breathing and lots of trauma wound bandages. This “Seizure Kit” has everything to help them as well as to protect staff form getting blood on them. A lot of people do not realize sometimes a person having a seizure hurts themselves and in some cases it can even look like a murder scene full of blood. The same day we got our first kit, we got our first seizure of the New Year. The words came over the Public Address System, “Code three, Code three, Jason is having a very bad seizure and there is blood everywhere in the outside patio area- bring the trauma kit and Bio Cleanup crew also respond.” Well, I was taking a nap and when I got down stairs I was ready to rock and roll, however, there right in front of my own set of eyes there they were, a bunch of homeless people using scene safety to protect themselves from blood and helping Jason to not hurt himself. It looked like someone had taken a knife and stabbed him because blood from hitting his head caused several big bleeding cuts on his head. However the hitting of the head on the ground stopped because yet another formally homeless man named Mr. Scott took a pillow out of his newly invented “seizure kit” and put it under Jason’s head while the other first responders put him in a recovery position, which means putting him on his side so he did not choke on his own salvia. I had to admit to myself this seizure was very quiet and highly organized thanks to Mr. William Scott the inventor. Oh Did I mention? The World Just Thinks They are Lazy Bums, however we know the truth.... Don’t we?
Volume XII, Issue 1
Page 7
How to Jump Start Your Exercise Program (Continued from pg. 1)
avoid calling your meal plan a “diet,” you will have a much more positive attitude toward the changes you make. Dieting also makes you feel cranky and tired, which is likely to keep you from wanting to exercise. Since most diets fail at some point if permanent changes are not made, you will likely gain the weight back afterward anyway—unless you adopt a healthier eating plan and get more active in general. Just gaining or retaining your muscle mass through physical activity will increase round-the-clock energy expenditure without your giving it a thought. Besides, several recent studies have shown that the best way to lose that spare tire around your middle is to do any type of exercise. Dieting by itself (without exercise) results in greater loss of your muscle and less reduction in abdominal fat. So, start moving more in any way possible, give up dieting, develop a healthy relationship to eating in general, and live well in spite of diabetes and at any body weight. Keep reminding yourself that exercise can save your life Regular exercise can lessen the potential impact of most of your cardiovascular risk factors, including elevated cholesterol levels, insulin resistance, obesity, and hypertension. High blood pressure is associated with higher levels of insulin, and regular physical activity can result in lower blood pressure and reduced circulating levels of insulin. If you do nothing but regular walking, it can lengthen your life. In fact, walking more is likely the best and easiest medicine for both the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. Thus, good blood sugar control, if you achieve it with the help of regular physical activity, has the potential to prevent or delay almost all of the potential long-term health complications of diabetes, and it’s never too late to get started reaping the health benefits. Why, then, do so many people still consider exercise to be a punishment of some sort to be avoided at all cost? Proof of this misperception is everywhere. For instance, in one recent study, 64 male and 112 female Mexicans ages 30 to 75 (average age 55 years) with type 2 diabetes reported following the correct dose of prescribed diabetes pills or insulin 78% of the time and eating recommended food portions more than 50%, but exercising three or more times per week only 44% of the time, making exercise the least-adhered-to part of their diabetes care plans. Your adherence to exercise is likely to be worse if you’re
The Happiness Effect (Continued from pg. 5)
depressed or have a history of excessive alcohol intake. Of greater importance, however, is the fact that you’ll be most likely to follow the recommendations for effective self-care if you are more knowledgeable about diabetes, regularly check your blood sugars at home, have good health, and communicate better with your doctor. Use fitness to break out of depression or apathy Thus, it appears gaining knowledge about diabetes is the first step to increasing your adherence to better diabetes self-care and to attaining good health. It’s also important to find ways to alleviate feelings of depression; when you’re depressed or in an emotional funk of any sort, the last thing you usually feel motivated to do is anything resembling exercise. The irony of physical activity, though, is that it reduces depressive symptoms and anxiety, so keep in mind that your current sedentary state may actually be contributing to your lack of motivation! To break this vicious cycle and to better motivate yourself to get more active, try following some or all of the motivational tips given below. Tips for Keeping Your Exercise Motivation Strong •Get yourself an exercise buddy (or even a dog who needs to be walked). •Use sticker charts or other motivational tools to track your progress. •Schedule structured exercise into your day on your calendar or “To Do” list. •Break your larger goals into smaller, realistic stepping stones (e.g., daily and weekly physical activity goals). •Reward yourself for meeting your goals with non-caloric treats or outings. •Plan to do fun physical activities that you really enjoy as often as possible. •Wear a pedometer (at least occasionally) as a reminder to take more daily steps. •Have a backup plan that includes alternate activities in case of inclement weather or other barriers to your planned exercise. •Distract yourself while you exercise by reading a book or magazine, watching TV, listening to music or a book on tape, or talking with a friend. •Don’t start out exercising too intensely or you’re likely to get discouraged or injured. •If you get out of your normal routine and are having trouble getting restarted, simply take small steps in that direction.
And it’s not just in sterile study settings that the contagion of happiness is spreading. Christakis and Fowler noticed that people who are smiling on their Facebook pages tend to cluster together, forming an online social circle like a delirious flock of cyberbirds. And while some of this joy can certainly be traced to the copycat effect-if your friends post smiling pictures, you might feel like a grouch if you don’t too--Christakis and Fowler are analyzing the clusters to see if something more infectious might be at work. Skeptics raise other concerns, ones that go beyond the copycat effect. Couldn’t happy people simply be exposed to similar lifestyles or social factors that explain their shared joy, such as favorable weather, low unemployment rates or a winning baseball team? If that were the case, argue the authors, then happiness would spread more uniformly among all the relationships; instead, it varied depending on whether the friendship was mutual or merely one-sided. As the investigators teased out these factors, they found that environment didn’t have nearly the power that relationships did. The infectiousness of happiness is only the latest in a series of similar phenomena Christakis and Fowler have studied. In 2007 they published a paper showing that obesity travels across webs in a similar way, with individuals having a 57% greater risk of being overweight if they have an obese friend. The same holds true for quitting smoking, with success 30% more common among friends of quitters than among friends of smokers. In all these cases, there’s a predictable topography to how people influence one another, one that can be reduced to a sort of social map. People who are central to their networks--who in effect are the hub through which most of the other relationships or information flows--may have the most influence on others and in turn are the most influenced by them. But just because you start off at the center of your web does not guarantee that you’ll stay there. In the 1970s, smokers were more likely to occupy that focal position in their network of friends and family. Look at a similar social map today, and you’ll see that the smokers have drifted to the periphery. The better this kind of mapping becomes, the more value it has. Officials at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are exploiting the connectedness of youngsters in online social networks, for example, to improve flu-vaccination rates, not just among those under age 18 but among all the people to whom these children have ties. “Because of their social and peer networks, children have a higher likelihood of sharing information with the most people,” says Jay Bernhardt of the CDC. By targeting youngsters on these sites with information about the importance of annual flu shots, health officials hope to trigger a literal and figurative viral wave of vaccination among the kids’ peers, their peers’ peers, and even those peers’ parents and grandparents. “We are always looking for exciting new areas of research that will help people live healthier,” says Richard Suzman, director of the division of behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging. “Without a doubt, I see this as a very promising area.” And with the health community a web like any other, expect that idea to spread further and further.
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