Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 19:29:06 -0500 (EST)
From: danceswithcarp <dcombs-AT-bloomington.in.us>
Subject: Re: The Return of Chris, the happy go lucky anarchist.....




On Mon, 1 Feb 1999 Anarch666-AT-aol.com wrote:

> 
>    I was thinking Habitat for humanities might need some cash. For those of
> you who haven't heard of them, they are group which builds nice houses for
> people on the condition that they help build five more houses. This is a very
> good idea in my opinion. I don't know what other organizations would fit the
> bill though. 

HFH requires people pass a Jeezus Lover Litmus Test and be of documentable
strong moral fibre before they consider you for a house.

HFH is a middle-class oriented organization that sucks thousands of
volunteer hours out of the pool for just one family.  Then, those
middled-class that so volunteered walk away from that one project feeling
as if that bit of volunteering combined with paying taxes fufils their
social obligation to society for that year.  These samepeople that build
the one house that shelters one family could feed a community for a month
through a FNB-type organization.

These two issues alone make me reject HFH out of hand.  What I do like
about them is the incorporation of "sweat equity" into theier program.  
People who get a HFH house have to "volunteer" 500 hours wirking on the
homes of others.  I don't necessarily like HFH requiring this, but do
believe it is a principle that good anarchists shouldn't reject out of
hand.


carp