Blog #6: Desiree Lambert, 10/05/12, 4:26PM, Spain Recoils as Its Hungry Forage Trash Bins for a Next Meal

In Madrid, a younger woman was seen digging through a stack of crates outside a fruit and vegetable store that had been shut down for the night. When interviewed she claimed that when you don’t have money, this is what you can get. The women lost her job and her unemployment benefits had run out. She was living on very little and squatting in a building that had water and electricity.  Although it’s against the dignity for these people to do this, they have no other choice. In Madrid, the unemployment rate is over 50 percent among young people. With this being a problem; supermarkets have started to put locks on the trash bins for public health precaution. A Catholic charity has had to feed 65,000 more people in 2011. Spain is not the only place that has had to cut jobs, salaries, pensions and benefits, Greece had to go down the same path as well.

The government has also had to raise the value-added tax making it harder on families. However, the damage does not just stop there. They now have to cut free services, including school lunches for low-income families. In fact, 22% of Spanish households are living in poverty and this is expected to get worse over time. For 1/3 of these families, this is their first time ever receiving help from a food pantry. For those who are not in the same position claims that it is hard to see people like that. Some say that by putting locks on bins is to protect the people so they get healthy food and so nearby civilian agents hand out vouchers and tell people to register for social service and food aid. However, locking the bins has created uproar and there are more protests. Mayors and unionist in Southern Spain staged Robin Hood raids on two supermarkets and loaded carts with foods then pressing them to donate more food to the needy. While more than a dozen people are facing prosecution for this, they feel as though taking food and giving it to the needy shouldn’t be considered stealing and they are proud of what they have done.  Even in areas where unemployment isn’t as high like in Girona, more people have no income at all. In order to help families who felt shame for asking for food, Bamera helped create sites that looked more like supermarkets and removed the charity’s name from the outside of the building.

Sadly, this is not just an issue in Madrid and Girona. This is a global issue that is not getting much better. It is affecting families all over and not just families from a lower class, now the problem is affecting the working middle class. As you read in the first paragraph of this article, the women who was digging through the trash was not your typical stereotype. She was hip and young. Not only is the economy leaving people without jobs, it is also causing families to lose homes and not have enough food to feed their families. On top of all of this, people who you would not typically find involved with crime are now committing crimes to feed their family as well as help feed other families. According to chapter 5 in our book, “Global Problems” poverty plays a role in crime (Sernou, p 128). Due to crime rates, for safety, people have to take bigger measures in order to protect their family which takes money. However, because of poverty, families don’t have the money to protect their families from some of the crime. With families not having the money to support their families, the government running out of resources, and crime increasing (regardless if it is a perception that people have or if statistics are incorrect) more and more families are being left without the resources to care for their families which will result in a smaller population due to death from hunger, crime, and just not having their basic needs met as well.

Resources

Sernau, Scott (2012). Global Problems: The Search for Equity, Peace, and Sustainability, Third Edition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/world/europe/hunger-on-the-rise-in-spain.html?pagewanted=all