I am almost ready to begin my experiment. I have written down the questions that I am going to ask myself when studying the homeless people in the city. It just so happened that I went for a quick trip to the city this past Friday. It was kind of a spur of the moment type of trip and although I did not get to do my full study, I did get to see that their were a lot of homeless people on the streets. This tells me that hopefully my study will be a success knowing that I will have people to study!  I will be performing my study over the break.

It just so happens that I will be going to the city this sunday, Decemeber 2nd. It wasnt planned, but it turns out i have to go their for a family outing. When i go to the city this sunday I won't have time to fully watch the homeless people in their habitat but i am hoping that I will be able to answer a couple of survey questions for visual appearance. I will ask myself questions like "what are they wearing?" "do they have teeth?" "how bad is their physical hygiene?" I will do another visit to the city probably a couple of days before Christmas. This will give me the chance to fully watch the homeless people and answer some more questions do to the way that they act.

2nd Quarter Project
I have already mentioned my 2nd quarter project and what I am going to do, but I am going to get into more details about my project. Of course my project is going to study poverty, but mainly I am going to be studying the homeless. I am going to take a trip to the city and study the homeless. I am going to write up a survey for myself. Hopefully, I will be able to answer all of the questions in the survey after my visit in the city. I am going to study a homeless person and do a write up about how they look and what they are wearing. I am also going to study what they say and if they have good speech. Not only am I going to study the homeless, but I am going to study the types of people who put change in the homeless people's cups. I am going to try to make my trip to New York as soon as possible before it gets to cold because hopefully their will be more people on the streets. I think that I may take a second trip, more towards Christmas to see if their is still the same amount of homeless people in the cold. Also, I am going to see if people are more generous during the holidays. I am really excited to see how my survey and natural observations come out!

For my quarter two project I am going to participate in natural observation. I am going to find a day to go the city and truly study the homeless. I am going to study what they wear, how they act, what they say. Not only am I going to study the homeless, I am going to study the way people react to their poverty.  What does it take a homeless person to say to get someone to put a little change in their cup?

I cant believe this picture. The thing that makes me sad about this is how skinny the kids are. Girls in america are anorexic and think that they are so fat when they are not. Meanwhile, kids here are so skinny and their is nothing they can do about it. The size of their body shows how much little food they are eating and it looks like they are close to death. It is sad that anorexic people chose to look like this and think this is healthy, where as people in poverty can't do anything about it.

This week I found a website about Poverty. This website told me something I had not yet come across in my research so far. This website says that we actually have plenty of food in the world to feed everyone, but the people that are suffering from hunger are so deep in poverty they don't even have the money to get this food.   So this website proposes that to get people out of poverty we do "food for work". Basically, you work for food. This way no one is hungry. Also, they give education for food. So when people get food from work they can also use that food to pay for education. This is a great way to end poverty.

I found the perfect website that you all should participate in to help hunger in other countries and to help poverty. This website is called Free Rice. On this website you can learn, while helping people through the World Food Programme who are suffering from hunger. All you have to do is answer the English questions on vocabulary correct and automatically 10 grains of rice are donated through the World Food Programme to help end hunger. This is something so simple that goes such a long way. It does not cost anything either. Please, if you are reading this blog, click on the website and answer a couple of questions. I promise that you will end up being addicted to this, and it isn't a bad thing. Look how great this is! You are having fun, but doing something of service at the same time. Hunger is a huge part of poverty and if we can stop hunger maybe we can stop poverty all together.

Poverty

This video says more then I am about to write, so watch the video first and then read the rest of this paragraph! This video is completely right. You always find people that act as if they are upset about poverty. They cry because they feel so bad about the people around the world who need help. But the people who are in poverty don't need everyone else's tears they need their help. I think that the idea this video has is amazing. How are people going to get out of poverty if they don't have a head start? If they don't get out of poverty then their kids won't get a good education which means that poverty will just keep on being passed down further and further. If we can make a difference in one person and just give them a head start, it could not only change their lives but it could change lives in the future. I think that aid is the best idea to fix poverty. The people who have the money to give aid should. Then when the person gets a good education and a job they will be able to pay back the loanes and everything, but it needs to start somewhere.

2 weeks ago I bi-accidentally posted a video instead of an article, so instead of posting a video this week I am posting an article. I read an article on the Causes of Poverty. Most people wonder if people are poor because of their own fault. Are people poor because of their own bad decisions? Or maybe they are poor because they are lazy.... The list could go on forever, but the question is never really answered. The article says that in country's who do not really have a good government to lead them in the right direction most of the people are poor when only a few become wealthy. So is the government to blame? Yes, partially the government to blame. When you are poor you don't have the money for health, education, and other things. Not being able to really part of the community by taking part in the things that wealthier people are able to do lower's the voice of the poor. It is harder to voice your opinion in political debates, making it even harder to get out of the poverty that you are stuck in. Surprisingly, Even though economic and political policies are made to help the poor, they end up benefiting the wealthier in the end. This just leaves the poor in the same situation and it makes it harder and harder for them to get out. Reading this article, and the other articles linked on this website made me realize, that it is mostly the government making poverty stay the way it is and not the people who are in poverty.

When I saw this picture I almost cried. Look at the way people are living daily. Look at their surroundings. It's astonishing to me that people can see other people like this and can care less. Poverty really causes the families to stick close together and help each other because they really have nothing else. I can't imagine what living like this would be like... can you? Even being around this surrounding for more then a minute would make a traumatic affect on my life. Next week we will see what organizations do to help people in need and fix these situations.

For my first post, I want to start off simple. I want to address my topic by visually showing you what poverty is like today in the world, so that when I start posting articles you will be able to fully understand the point I am trying to get across. As I keep posting I will go deeper and deeper into my topic, but I'd thought I'd start off easy. If you have read to this point in the paragraph and haven't watched the video above WATCH IT NOW, until you read on further. 
This video just astonishes me. Look how the people who need the help and need  guidance (the homeless) are being turned away by people just based on there appearance. I mean seriously, this people don't even know this man, but just because he looks home less people look at him as if he has a gun to their face. WHERE IS THE SYMPATHY? AREN'T THE PEOPLE WHO ARE STRUGGLING THE ONES WE SHOULD FEEL BAD FOR?! The people struggling with poverty should be the people who get the help or get the attention so that they can turn their life around and make it better. I mean really, why do people look at poverty and walk away from it, when they should be trying to do something about it? 
The craziest part of the video is when the guy puts on the nice jacket. When the home less man puts on the nice jacket, he doesn't seem to be  home less, and that is when people care to talk to him. Since the homeless man is not selfish he helps the other home less woman he sees  because he knows better. He realizes that she is the one who needs the help and is cold so he gives up something for her.... and that is coming from a guy who has NOTHING. But most of us have SOMETHING.... actually we have A LOT of things... and we are the ones who won't even say one word to a home less person. 
So not only are people that are poor are struggling, but on top of that, they are being judged by everyone around them. IS THE REASON WHY PEOPLE ARE IN SUCH POVERTY NOW A DAYS  IS BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE ARE CARELESS? The reason why poverty is increasing more and more is because WE aren't doing something about it. SO WHAT DO WE DO? .....think about it.... 

Introduction to my blog

Hello. My name is Francesca D'Angelo. For this semester in sociology i decided to blog about poverty. Why? Because poverty has been a problem all around the world as long as we can remember!! This summer, my eyes were opened to what a big deal poverty is. I read the book The Glass Castle, which is about a young girl who lives in poverty her entire life. I also went to New York City for a couple of days and was confronted by the homeless on the street begging for money because they had no food. But the real question that has always left me wondering is "How did they become so poor?" "What did they go through to make them live a life in poverty?" Well, hopefully my research on this topic will bring me and all of my fellow readers to a better understanding of why poverty is happening, and how we can change it.