Posted on 05/07/2007 9:57:01 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker
Coming to a neighborhood near you!
What is a Colonia? THE THIRD WORLD IN THE USA
The term “colonia,” in Spanish means a community or neighborhood. The Office of the Secretary of State defines a “colonia” as a residential area along the Texas-Mexico border that may lack some of the most basic living necessities, such as potable water and sewer systems, electricity, paved roads, and safe and sanitary housing.
In recent years the Texas-Mexico border region has experienced an explosion of growth in population and industrial activity. Although growth has resulted in economic opportunities, it has also intensified the environmental health and social challenges.
Among the border states, Texas has the largest number of colonias approximately 1,800 communities, with more than 500,000 residents. Sixty-five percent of all residents, and 85% of residents under the age of 18, were born in the United States. (aka Anchor babies) These Americans live in extreme poverty and often are unaware of the services that the United States and Texas can provide for them. Education is a key to addressing the problems faced by colonia residents, but reaching out to these communities poses unique challenges that require unique approaches.
Ninety-eight percent of the residents are Hispanic and speak little or no English.
(see photos -
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-is-colonia-third-world-in-usa.html
“New York (dpa) - If the topic generates discomfort or shyness, the United Nations Monday recommended consideration of this fact: 2.6 billion people - or nearly half the world’s population - still do not have toilets.”
Sheryl Crow would like to double this number, apparently.
I suppose the UN will buy them all toilets and send Koffe Annan’s son billions to install them, only to find that they have no running water, they have no sewer lines to carry the waste away, they have no septic systems to treat the waste.....and that the people wind up using the ceramic vessels to churn butter with the free plunger that came along with.
Whose fault is that?
Certainly not ours.
3 outta 4 ain’t bad...
3 questions, though - do i really want a bmw, i-pod, and a radiohead (?) cd? does the word ain’t even HAVE an apostrophe? and did i place it correctly? i fear a post-grammatic stress syndrome comin on...
I don’t understand what the issue is...with out-houses. I can still remember my grandfather finally giving in and adding a bathroom onto his house. He didn’t see the necessity and could have gone on another 10 years without it...and that was 1968. These two billion folks probably aren’t complaining too much and would prefer clean water ahead of everything else.
Wood would work.
I had an aunt and uncle that had an outhouse up until 1967-68 when they finally added a bathroom to their house. They were already in their 60’s. But it wan unheated and it was like sitting on a block of ice in the winter. The old wooden plank with the hole didn’t seem so bad, then.......
Gee, I wonder who’s fault that is?
EEEwww!
::gags!!::
...they don’t have a pot to piss in...
Potty Parity takes on proportion; a global threat to health especially as climate change accelerates the rate of decay and fills our skies with noxious greenhouse gases.
The US check is in the mail.
Of course, the second level was for when the snow was too deep to open the ground level door.
As a child, I spent a summer on a farm in Virginia in the 60s. They had electricity but no indoor plumbing. You went to the outhouse during the day and used the chamber pot at night. There was a pump outside the front door and you pumped your water to wash. We took baths in a metal tub in the kitchen. As far as I recall, everyone was clean w/clean clothes.
That said, I couldn't wait to get back to the city.
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