ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE: Minorities & Environment

Again, your status within a country could depend on how you came to be there. Those who flee from violence or destitution very often find themselves facing zenophobia and sometimes even violence in their new first world countries. As a UK citizen I cannot understand why it is justified to allow a refugee child, who has probably already been subjected to the sort of horrors no UK child is likely to see, to be further prejudiced in terms of living accomodation, the right to have enough to eat and a roof over their heads. Yet, there are some refugees and their children whose only recourse is to begging because our Welfare State seems tailored only to meet the needs of its own.

I have heard a lot of people say,"Well, they don't pay for it, so why should they receive social benefit?" I say this, a society which will turn a child away or allow a person who has been abused or ill-treated to also go hungry is a society which has lost its way - if not its very heart. Where will such a family live? Will they protest if their homes are dangerously under-maintained or they are right next to a toxic dump or a polluting factory. Would you? Imagine that you were fleeing for your life with your children and were not sure of your welcome in the country you chose for sanctuary.

What can you do to help?

Ask yourself: Is it good enough for me?

If it was made difficult for you to vote because you were white, or hetrosexual or male, would you complain? (I have used majority labels here to allow you to feel some of the indignation minority groups feel). I am sure you would feel like it. If it would be wrong for majority groups it is also wrong for everyone.

If you had to leave your country and live somewhere else because of the violence. Would you feel happy if the only way you could feed your children was by begging on the street? Would you be comfortable knowing that your own children would never be offered the sort of social welfare, even long enough for you to get back on your feet, that the resident children were getting.

Ask yourself: Is it good enough for ANYONE?

Is it ever appropriate to build houses on landfill sites, toxic dumps, flood plains or next to

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