Saturday, 17 October 2009
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There She Is, Miss... Homeless?
It sounds like something out of a satirical comedy film. A group of ten homeless women in Belgium recently competed in the Little Miss Homeless pageant, the prize being a year of rent-free living. Contest winner, 58-year-old Therese Van Belle (pictured third from the left), was surprised she won. “This is the first time I've been lucky,” Van Belle is quoted as saying. “I think my life is about to change for the better.”
“It was about the contestants' inner strength and determination to get themselves out of their old life and on a new path,” said contest organizer Aline Duportail to the UK's The Sun. Duportail explained that the purpose of the contest was also to “draw attention to the plight of the homeless.”
Well, the contest did draw attention, that's for sure, but not for its humanitarian efforts. Women's rights groups have come down hard on the contest organizers for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the remaining nine losing contestants were sent back to life on the streets.
“I am outraged,” said activist Jacqueline Aubenas. “These girls turned into puppets parodying their own life. Absolutely pathetic."
At least one of the contestants support the Miss Homeless pageant. “The contest is not obscene - for a homeless person to want to be beautiful is not obscene,” said runner-up Leonie Reiner, a 39-year-old who, according to the UK's Orange News, lost both her house and her children because of substance abuse. “It is the misery of life on the streets that is obscene.”
Yet it is that “misery of life” Reiner and the rest of the losing contestants must face once again. Despite the efforts of the organization who put the contest together, the nature of the contest allows for only one winner.
Not only that, but the prize rewarded, a rent-free year, doesn't address the root of the problems that likely caused her to be homeless in the first place, including alcoholism and drug abuse. These habits could continue despite her new-found living situation, causing her to be homeless once again after the end of the year-long lease.
This is, of course, a pessimistic outlook. She could just as easily take this to be a new beginning and work to free herself from the things that kept her homeless, but one has to wonder whether a roof over her head is enough help to free her from whatever has made her homeless in the first place.
Do you think the Miss Homeless contest draws proper attention to the plight of the homeless? What are some other things the organization could have done to help all of the women instead of just one?
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Comments (9)
This is just weird.
The prize is mostly useless.
If living rent free for a year would cure homelessness, then there ought to be no homeless people, because they all live rent free. A roof, walls, and plumbing may make a difference, but it won't get you a job, it doesn't free you of addiction, it doesn't rid you of criminal records, it doesn't instill a good work ethic, it doesn't teach you how to manage money, it doesn't treat mental illness, etc. Not all homeless people need help with all of those things, but they all need help with various combination of those things, so that they can keep a roof over their heads. And it can often take more than a year to get oneself together.
You are not going to find anything quite perfect here on this earth. I think that critics of the Miss Homeless contest should themselves be doing something concrete toward helping people to get off the street and into comfortable housing. Rather than levying acid-tongued attacks on those who are doing something about the situation.
You're never going to satisfy everybody no matter how hard you try!
I'm disappointed with the critics. Let's see their real contribution!
It's worth noting that all the participants received a bit of dignity in this too. That's big. We often underestimate the need to build up people's dignity.
@subSacred@xanga - Having an address goes a long way in obtaining a job and certain form of identification and certification. This is often one of the bigger hurdles homeless people have to jump in order to become better established.
Both of these things I've found to be true in my work with the homeless.
@TheGreatBout@xanga - good points. from what i can see, this opportunity provided an activity in which hope could be instilled in these women and for one of them, a very rewarding opportunity. i hope that the positives can continue to be explored with acts of kindness like this.
Come to New York City where people make tons of money, CEOs make over $100 million a year and you can hardly walk 2 blocks without being asked for spare change by a homeless person. What's wrong with us?
this is wrong on soooo many levels.
I don't think it helps them except with the prize the winner receives. But other than that I don't see an effort of others trying to help.
Why don't they just get the community to sponsor them for an amount of time so they can get their lives on track? That seems much more simple...
Not sure whether I agree with the pageant or not...but I DO need to clarify...not all homeless people are drug or alcohol addicted. My husband and I were homeless for a time last year, after a variety of things hit all at once. Let's not assume all homelessness is self-created! I was injured in a car accident, which took our vehicle, the company my husband worked for "downsized" etc. We never would have thought we would end up on the street, but we did! Let's be quicker to help, and slower to judge, or not judge at all, how someone got there!