Saturday, January 30, 2010

A Tale Of Two Cities; and How they deal with Violence



New Yorkers smack down Gov. Paterson's plan to legalize ultimate fighting.

BY Glenn Blain
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

Friday, January 29th 2010, 1:39 PM

Albany-Male voters opposed Paterson's proposal 55% to 43%, while females punched out the plan by a margin of 82% to 15%, according to Marist.

Even among younger voters aged 18 to 29, the plan could only generate a 50% approval rating, Miringoff said.

"I think people find it too much on the violent side and not enough on the revenue side to matter," Miringoff said.

New York banned the sport in 1997 at the urging of then-Gov. George Pataki, who called it barbaric. Pataki has since changed his stance and come out in favor of Paterson's proposal.

Paterson argued that new regulations have made the sport safer. His budget projects raising $2.1 million from taxes on ultimate fighting matches.

Julie Wood, a spokeswoman for the Ultimate Fighting Championship league, said she wasn't shocked by the poll.

"We understand that not everyone is going to be a fan of mixed martial arts, but UFC sells out arenas coast to coast and would do the same in New York and the tax revenue and economic impact of those events would benefit all New Yorkers," Wood said.

With Kenneth Lovett


New tour takes visitors into LA's ganglands



by Katie Hammel on Jan 29th 2010


Tourists looking for a thrill in Los Angeles can now take a bus tour of the city's most dangerous ganglands. For $65, LA Gang Tours takes visitors around the city, pointing out gang graffiti and stopping at sights like the Los Angeles Riverbed, Florence Avenue, and the Pico Union Graffiti Lab.

It seems tourists are always drawn to places with a dangerous auras and violent pasts, places that are the complete opposite of our comfortable lives at home. The question is, do we go to these places, places like the slums of Mumbai, the townships of Johannesburg or the streets of South Central LA, because we want to understand what life is like for the people there, or do we go to gawk or just so we can say "I've been there"? And do these tours actually help the communities that are put on display, or do they make them a spectacle?

LA Gang Tours was created by Alfred Lomas, a former gang member, who says the tour will create 10 part-time jobs for ex-gang members who will lead tours and share their own stories. He says his goal is to help residents of South Central,"to give profits from the tours back to these areas for economic growth and development, provide job/entrepreneur training, micro-financing opportunities and to specialize in educating people from around the world about the Los Angeles inner city lifestyle, gang involvement and solutions."
I'd actually be curious to take the tour, which is scheduled to run once per month. It sounds like, in this case, the tour may be run in a way that takes a more anthropological, rather than exploitative, look at the community. The tour bus is unmarked, and out of respect for area residents, riders on the tour are not permitted to take photos or video.

While in
Cape Town
, I had the opportunity to tour Robben Island, the prison where political "criminals" were held during apartheid. When the tour guide, himself a former prisoner, was asked why he would do this - lead tours and relive the pain of his imprisonment every day - for a living, he responded with two reasons. One, he said, was because he wanted people to know what happened. The second was that every boatload of tourists that came to the island meant one more person who would have a job.

Perhaps it's naive to think that welcoming a bus-full of tourists once a month could help solve the many problems of the area. But if offering the tours keeps one more ex-gang member employed running tours and out of gang life, well, at least it's a start.


[via
Chicago Tribune]





1 comment:

  1. Damn shame. The bus tour should be banned, it's like the people of the gag territories are zoo animals on display. If anything the gang culture needs to be destroyed, but no one cares. Obama won't do anything if it doesn't involve robbing the middle class and giving to the super rich. There needs to be a massive awakening of the consciousness of individuals. Gang life is stupid and a cancer, it only keep you trapped and helps the haters continue to hate on us. People need to stop listening to that mainstream hip-hop and find something positive and recognize the creator. Learn to love thy neighbor and do some good, learn your rights, and pick up trade skills and move forward from there. be self sufficient, too bad they do not teach this on school, all they teach is crap you forget and never really apply to real life.

    ReplyDelete