In my opinion, Cornel has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to poverty and segregation in the US, where I have lived for 35 years and am a volunteer in a social service agency that helps people considered poor in this country. Many poor Americans have a better standard of living than many middle-income Europeans, and the acute and widespread ghettoization throughout Britain and Europe seems to have escaped Cornel's attention, as Viviana's example showed.
The following compilation is only offered in the hope that Cornel is interested in the general facts on poverty in America: Source: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1713.cfm The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports: 1. Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes 2. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio. 3. Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning. 4. Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. 5. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person. 6. The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.) 7. Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars. 8. Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions. 9. Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception. 10. Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher. 11. As a group, America's poor are far from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children and, in most cases, is well above recommended norms 12. Poor children actually consume more meat than do higher-income children and have average protein intakes 100 percent above recommended levels. 13. Most poor children today are, in fact, supernourished and grow up to be, on average, one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier that the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II. > --- Viviana <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Cornel - > Did the congregation of Muslim immigrants in Malmo > occur on purpose, either because the non-Muslim > Swedes desired it or because the new Muslim > immigrants desired it, or by accident, according to > you? >