Welsh athlete Ella Rafferty (2L) strikes a pose with Indian performers after the flag hoisting
ceremony of team Wales at the Commonwealth games village in New Delhi
Posted on 09/29/2010 10:39:17 PM PDT by Cardhu
Human Rights campaigners have accused the Indian government of sweeping slum dwellers and beggars off Delhi's streets in an effort to "beautify" the city.
The eyes of the world are on Delhi as it gears up to host the Commonwealth Games and activists fear poor people are being forced to leave because they send out the wrong image.
Shanty towns across the city have been razed to the ground. Some are deemed too close to venues while others have been demolished to make way for car parks and road improvement schemes.
Shivani Chaudry from the Housing And Land Rights Network said: "Mega events like the Commonwealth Games act as powerful symbols for city's vying for the global tag.
"But to host these events cities require extensive stretches of land in prime locations. Clearing these causes significant displacement of poor communities."
Sri Ram lived with his family in a poor settlement which had stood on the banks of a canal near the Nehhru Stadium for over 35 years.
Then suddenly one day the bulldozers were ordered in and in just a few hours hundreds of homes were reduced to rubble.
A multi-story car park now stands on the site.
The residents say they were offered no alternative housing or compensation.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
Back in college I was in Amsterdam. Spent a nice evening at dinner enjoying the town, then back to the Youth Hostel before they locked the doors (10 or 11 pm??).
After hours another guy and I decided to go back out on the town. We sneaked out, and it was amazing how the late night crowd was so different than the tourist-filled evening. LOTS of drunks, sleeping on benches, etc. It was quite the change from just a few hours before.
We made it back in by 2 am, and in just enough time to get a couple of hours of sleep before we had to catch a train. Again it was very surreal to be walking in those same streets. But it was just about sunrise - a faint glimmer of light in the sky, and the street cleaner with the water and brushes making its way down the road.
And no sign of the dozens and dozens of drunks and homeless and scattered bags and clothing to be seen that had cluttered the place just hours before.
Reminded me of “Soylent Green”.
It that anything like curling?
“They want to first criminalise the poor people ....”
The law applies equally to the rich.
LOL, very good!
Probably more like Whack-A-Mole.
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