OCCUPY abandoned houses and vacant lots

OCCUPY abandoned houses and vacant lots! The postings of my friend Dong Abay in his facebook account.

As a response i told him that when i was in amsterdam, i saw houses applying this principle. In the past a building could be used legally by someone who needed to squat if it was empty and not in use for twelve months, and the owner had no pressing need to use it (such as a... rental contract starting in the next month). The only ille...gal aspect was forcing an entry, if that was necessary. When a building was squatted, it was normal to send the owner a letter and to invite the police to inspect the squat. The police checked whether the place was indeed lived in by the squatter. In legal terms, this means there must be a bed, a chair, a table and a working lock on the door which the squatter can open and close.

LIVE WITHOUT DEAD TIME - People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love, and what is positive of refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth..Raoul Vaneigem
wordings posted in the door of "squatters" in amsterdam. In cities, there was often a kraakspreekuur (squatters' consultation hour), at which people planning to squat could get advice from experienced squatters. In Amsterdam, where the squa...tting community is still large, there are four kraakspreekuur sessions in different areas of the city, and so-called "wild" squatting (squatting a building without the help of the local group) is not encouraged. Dutch squatters use the term krakers to refer to people who squat houses with the aim of living in them (as opposed to people who break into buildings for the purpose of vandalism or theft.


An estimated 100 million people are homeless worldwide
Source: United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 2005An estimated 3 million people are homeless in Europe
Source: Red de Apoyo a la Integración Sociolaboral (RAIS) 2010
32.8million, 40% of the population in Philippines, live in slums
Source: Homeless International, 2008

An estimated 1,200,000 children live on the streets in the Philippines
Source: http://www.unhabitat.org
Mr. Hideo Aoki that classifies them as “street homeless.” Director of the Institute on Social Theory and Dynamics of Hiroshima, Japan, Mr. Aoki is also a researcher at the Institute on Church and Social Issues in Quezon City. He said that since the 1980’s, a new type of homeless has emerged in industrial cities and towards the end of the 1990’s, homelessness grew at alarming rates in developing countries, like the Philippines. But, because “street homelessness” is usually confused with “squatter homelessness,” it is not viewed as festering social problem in itself. Mr. Aoki said the “street homeless” are becoming “a peculiar social group” in Metro Manila. Who then are the “street homeless”?

Mr. Aoki describes them as “…people working in the street who have been evicted from squatter areas, who recently arrived from the provinces, ethnic minority groups of people who work as seasonal laborers, and street children and their families…The street homeless are people who do not have permanent and fixed homes, who do not have relatives with whom they can live, and who live alone or in a family unit on the streets…They have to find on the streets the basic necessities of life in order to survive…” Because they have to stay “where goods constantly circulate” in areas of dense human traffic.