Anthropology and Homelessness in World Facts - Term Paper Example

ANTHROPOLOGY AND HOMELESSNESS IN WORLD FACTS The term homelessness in anthropological perspective is diverse considering the fact that the meaning would mostly be contextual pointing out to the circumstance in question rather than the dictionary definition. It can be seen in a more metaphysical sense of detachment from ones being and known to diaspora sense. It is a pertinent global issue and this essay focuses on the investigative description and world statistics where the causes, world most affected cities, means of analyzing the situation and solutions. What can be deemed homeless in the point of view of an anthropologist? The answer to the question can be simple if shelter absence is the thought. However the more descriptive understanding takes into account what a home is (M Rossi, 1989). Home is that place where a person spends the night time for sleep and general residence and is considered a basic human need since it is essential that people rest after the days up and downs. As a matter of fact therefore homelessness is a state of lacking shelter note solely but also the feeling of lacking identity in a given region. It can as well be used to mean the lack of a regular housing or case of inadequate place of residence or in other terms the lack of enough security in your place culminating into migration in bid to find a better environment to have the night. With this regard the a homeless person can be viewed as that displaced person or poor person that cannot in one way or the other afford a fixed accommodation for a long period of time. Noteworthy to mention are the wanderers in streets comprising mostly of beggars and mentally disturbed fellows who roam around seeking refuge and providence keeping the old saying alive by placing a mad person everywhere uncontrolled. There are many reasons as to why people find themselves homeless. For instance, global disasters like heat waves and water waves. Taking a review of Japan and India, a lot of people have been forced to vacate their regular and comfortable residential apartments to look for safety (IP and NG, 2008). Earthquakes are so frequently clearing large areas of residence in in the aftershock and amount to leading causes of lack of home in Japan. Natural Disasters reports an estimate of about 100,000 displaced individuals in Fukushima in 2011 along the coastline of Pacific Ocean. Tsunamis which entails the huge water waves resulting from an earthquake deep in the ocean that flood the coastal areas is a crisis that has affected settlement in japan with many families forced to migrate. In India and other parts of this continent of Asia heat waves are tragedies that annually occur and destabilize long established residences. In 2003 a fatal extension of humid and aggravated temperature of over 100 degrees of the Fahrenheit scale affected Germany and Italy including the France killing over 70000 people leaving hundreds of thousands without a home. Still on Naturel disasters the, It has also been seen that floods from major rivers are always leading to lack of shelter (Weart, 2003). Recently in Philadelphia heavy downpour culminated to busting of banks of the famous river Schuylkill which led to wrecking of property among them houses. Memories are still fresh about flooding in March this year 2014 where global warming and accumulation of greenhouse gases caused massive flooding in Florida. The result was people settling at camps and relying on government. Some causes of homelessness are however not natural but human in nature although they still fall under disaster. In the event of war and bombing especially the ongoing clashes between Israel and Pakistan are always great contributors to refugees. The state of instability and lack of safety not only drive away people from initially populous regions but also increase street wanderers. Figuring out the complexity of settling scheme to war refugees in underdeveloped countries like Somalia leaves one wondering when such war victims will ever find a place to call home. To add on that, the governments involved lack funding to settle down these the escalating number of displaced. Accidents have also been implicated in this Sharma & NCDM, 2001). Nuclear reactors explosion such as the Chernobyl tragedy as well as Fukushima are statistically prominent in causation of homelessness. Over one hundred thousand had to be resettled in Japan Fukushima accidents given the myriads of genetic abnormalities that would have resulted would they stay exposed to the harmful nuclear energy that emanated from the accidents. It is also plausible to remember Hiroshima bombing and the Nagasaki nuclear missiles that left Japan contemplating on the ways and means to resettle its people. Narrowing down to the people displays personal and interpersonal causes of people’s lack of shelter. Mentally ill may lack the orientation of place and reside in the streets if they are not well restricted by a caretaker at home or even a hospital setting. However the vast majority attribute their lack of home to poverty. This can be viewed in various dimensions. One may simple lack funds to afford an accommodation or have little to keep them in a given residence thus adopt a nomad settlement. The United Nations records that in the UN habitat that currently the inadequacy of income among 72 million to lower than 2dollars a day which can never cope with the increase in cost of life (Weart, 2003). An abrupt loss of employment that results to long periods of joblessness will lead to a person inability to afford the so house that they used to live in. other individuals are not in their houses due to the use of drugs which are illicit. Currently nick named drugs of recreation, substance abusers are among the prolific slum and ghetto dwellers. They usually are the people behind domestic squabbles that lead to their out casting to the streets. In the United States has a striking figure of about 10000 youths along Toronto in the great Canada and are among the Victims of sex abuse and mentally ill roamers (M Rossi 1989). Mayors’ conference in The U.S found out that the three causes; is lack of affordable accommodation, lack of job and poverty are mostly related to families and that the singles are the ones going through the tragedy of homelessness due to substance abuse and psychosis. Of the approximated 100,000,000 homeless globally, about 80% are women shockingly children (NRC, 2014). The governments have also been shown to contribute to homelessness through formulation of property rights and policies that make it difficult for an individual to afford a settlement. Women in some regions are abhorred from being heirs of property. Gender inequalities in the job markets and favoring men in certain jobs also makes it next to impossible for women to afford a home. Consider a divorced woman barred from inheriting the established home. It is easy to infer how the children are going to be directly affected by this. Urban planning as well can lead to homelessness. If the foundation of buildings and infrastructure will focus myopically on an individual owning a huge land in the urban then definitely many people will have no authority to develop it to large and sky crapping architectural designs that could house 100 people in an initial 10 people plot (NRC, 2014). The degree of homelessness is assessed by population analysis techniques ( Utah., Utah., & Utah State University 1991) This is through the census done at various periods or done at a given time. The methods to measure usually investigate the chronically affected region at a given time although this methodology has been disputed by critics who claim that it leads to exaggeration and it mostly over estimate. This is the incidence study technique. The other method is called prevalence technique which involves counting the people affected at a given period. The data processing and standardizing are complex and as a result bodies like the Housing and Urban development authority in US advocates that the department includes the sheltered and those without housing to come up with more descriptive data on population that help the planning process. Analytically the statistics relate several runaways for the homeless which can be collectively called the impacts of the situation. To begin with the effort to afford a home can lead to participation in a vice to rise a reasonable earning. Child labor has been the resort in underdeveloped countries where the children are sent by parents to look for employment to supplement the little family income (Blau,1993). This is child rights violation and abuse. Overcrowding is another result. Sanity is diminished in such areas as slums and they are prone to epidemics like cholera and food poisoning related to typhoid. These regions also have been associated with high crime rate which is due to increased drug abuse among the homeless. However not all houseless people are poor and as such the impact is also different. In event of disasters like Tsunamis that are common in Japan and floods in Florida the results are internal displacement and crowding in camps. War leads to the rise in Refugees especially in Pakistan and Israel as well as Syria. These settled refugees require a lot of government involvement to resettle. What can be done to prevent or alleviate Homelessness? In anthropology the analysis of a sociological problem without attempt to resolve is not desirable. The solution to lack of a housing adequacy will involve addressing the factors that lead to it. This will therefore start from the disaster prevention, avoidance of war and alleviating poverty. Considering Tsunamis in Japan natural disaster and tragedy management system should be well improved to warn of tragedy in the disaster stricken areas. By discouraging settlement in these regions like Miyagi and Fukushima, the government would prevent the homelessness that results every time the earthquakes strike. A new settlement area should be established to deal with those who are already displaced from previous episodes of these deadly waves (Sharma, 2001). On the other hand the management of flooding is a global crisis. Global rise in temperature is insidiously raising the sea waters to a completely different sea level. This is why campaign are important in avoiding such crises (Weart, 2003). The worldwide awareness campaigns carried out by United Nations Environmental Programmed need to be intensified. This is possible through early introduction of the subject matter at elementary education level syllabi and youth groups. It is also fundamental for governments to institute and construct organizations at national levels to deal with greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and others like methane. There is need of scrutiny of the efficiency of motor vehicles used in the transport industry to ensure that the exhausts systems of cars and other vehicles have filters to convert the carbon gases to solid carbon. The industrial effluents need to be controlled. Filter chimneys would easily prevent the pollution of the atmosphere with the toxic carbons that increase the temperature of the atmosphere. Furthermore the check of air conditioning units in the cars and housing and even work places should not be allowed to emit their gases to the atmosphere. This way the melting of ice in the Polar Regions will subside and rising of sea lines will be minimal which could prevent flooding. The stabilizing of river banks of major flooding areas in Florida can also curb flooding. War refugees can find shelter if the war is halted. This calls for diplomatic reconcilement of the Israel and Pakistan war zone as well as the Syria to end war within. A thoughtful mechanism emphasizing the need to appreciate religious diversity could be employed in the ending of religious wars in Somalia. This possible through national and international awareness as well as involvement of the International Criminal Court to execute war victims to curb crime and war that massacres many and leaves yet a large population homeless (NRC, 2014). Furthermore more the causes of the war needs to be known so committees of investigations and people involvement in government is paramount given that a lack of the same has been shown to result to war and eventual displacement. Poverty should be addressed so that the vast majority in the slums can afford accommodation and housing. In as much as jobs are few the governments can lend a helping hand by constructing a housing system in the slums. The housing finance can address the same issue by providing sufficient allowance for those in the working class. More on jobs, the employment should be increased to the youth by targeting them with appropriate skills training that empower them to work independently. Such self-employment would be possible if technical training like woodwork and mechanic to mention just but a few would be been available to the youth. Having seen drug abuse to be a cause of homelessness it is plausible to mitigate it by curbing the causes and eliminating further risks. Mass and community education on dangers of drug abuse coupled to the rehabilitation of affected individuals can be a good starting point. This can provide a remedy to many vices that are associated with drug disuse such as crime and the transmission rate of blood bone and sexual transmitted infections. It is also imperative that policy is formulated to relieve oppression of children and female gender in property ownership. Inheritance laws should allow same rights should consider women and the children. Stereotypic customs that emphasize female chauvinism should be discouraged since their housing directly translates directly to children housing. Urban planning in the dealing of housing crisis cannot be overemphasized. Coming up with a spacing and geospatial focused urban center designing is a good strategy to providing residence of many people in a small area. If only the richer individuals would be abhorred from leaving land idle in the city space then such land is used to build sky crapes of immense capacity to accommodate hundreds of thousands of the homeless individuals this problem would go to history. Resettlement measures can be initiated. Decentralizing of main facilities and amenities that are rushed for in towns and major world cities will entice the masses to follow them and reduce crowding (Hedberg, 2012). Such services as hospitals and industries for production should be moved to less populated areas to encourage them to occupy their surroundings. In the same manner the governments can build new houses in the newly established region and improve the transport network and security not forgetting offer of affordable rents. In the case of real estate and landlords mistreatment, laws governing the renting system that protect citizens from mistreatments such as unpredictable increases in rents and sudden evacuation notices be prevented by law. In the case of overpopulation management, a global measure to control the number of children that a couple can give birth to is essential in population control. In conclusion the anthropological studies and analysis of homelessness reveals various causes which are broadly classified as natural and artificial (Hombs, 2001). The natural causes include disasters like floods and earthquakes which are common in United States and Japan (Özerdem & Jacoby, 2006). Further on causes are poverty and poor government policy like property ownership laws that favor men housing and inheritance in most developing countries. These result in overcrowding in towns especially slums and the resultant effects of overcrowding regardless of the cause may include outbreak of diseases due to poor hygiene like typhoid or town loitering and crime. However it is noteworthy that this global concern is preventable via the above mentioned measures. References Top of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Sharma, V. K., & National Centre for Disaster Management (India). (2001). Disaster management. New Delhi: National Centre for Disaster Management, Indian Institute of Public Administration. Baumohl, J. (1996). Homelessness In America: A Statistical Handbook and Resource Guide. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Blau, J. (1993). The visible poor: Homelessness in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. Hedberg, A. G. (2012). Achieving and living a healthy lifestyle in a world of stress: 70 lessons for those wanting improved health and lower health care costs. Hombs, M. E. (2001). American homelessness: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. Inequality Poverty and Neoliberal Governance: Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry. (2008). S.l.: Univ of Toronto Pr M Rossi, P. H. (1989). Down and out in America: The origins of homelessness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. cNamara, R. H. (2008). Homelessness in America. Westport, Conn: Praeger. M Rossi, P. H. (1989).. Homelessness: New England & beyond. Amherst, MA: Published by the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs. National Research Council (U.S.). (2014). Lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear accident for improving safety and security of U.S. nuclear plants. Özerdem, A., & Jacoby, T. (2006). Disaster management and civil society: Earthquake relief in Japan, Turkey and India. London: I.B. Tauris. Utah., Utah., & Utah State University. (1991). Utah health status survey. Health insurance. Salt Lake City, the Dept. Weart, S. R. (2003). The discovery of global warming. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Read More