1st annual Chameleon Awards

You're all aware of how the chameleon

changes to suit its environment
It changes its appearance to hide from
predators and prey alike.

Well, it's my belief that humans can do the same.
We are faced with unemployment, and preyed upon
by government
(rising taxes, fewer services, pension theft)
and capitalists
(the ridiculously high cost of putting a roof over our heads,
a Porsche in our hands and an Armani suit on our backs;
all necessities).
IT'S TIME TO ACT!

That's why I'm sponsoring the first annual
CHAMELEON AWARDS
for those adapting best to this Time of Crisis
by thinking outside the box.
and the first prize goes to [the envelope, please]:

the Belgravia Squatters Club

Belgravia is home to Million-pound
apartments and mansions. But, many of the
rich owners have so many houses that they
don't live in the one they
own in Belgravia.
Don't you see how homeostasis works in nature?
It's an equilibrium.
Empty spaces tend to be occupied, if there's the will & a way.
Well, whadya know!
a house is a space.
When the super rich don't live in one of their brick-boxes,
homeless poor people leave their cardboard ones behind,
move in and get free rainproofing.
Natural law, innit?
It wouldn't be right for the rich to hoard stuff,
now, would it?

In this wild environment,
the rich are vulnerable to people who
are homeless, and not earning enough money
to pay for rent, and who
know how to break and enter and...squat.
sub-species: there was the Spanish waiter-beast on tv news tonight.
capabilities: Notice how they can change colour instantly,
like with this pink wig disguise,
and note their top-secret hand signals.
Natural enemies: bailiffs & police officers.
when these approach, the squatters merely
take to the streets and find another house.
watch them parcour over balconies, Tarzan-style.

Flying through the air with grace and baggy trousers.
How exciting is that?
diet: microwave food & dumpster snacks.
Part human, part scrounger.
surviving by his wits.
thriving on visceral, real danger.
His time has come.
the squatter!
Top that for wild nature,
Sir David Attenborough!

second prize: Las Vegas rain-sewer dwellers

It's rather nice and yet excessively socialist for a city with zero rainfall, like Las Vegas, to have rain sewers. So, some homeless people there have taken advantage of this largesse and set up homes underground. If you check the story below [1], you'll see they've got furniture and everything. Of course, they're mostly ex-druggies or still live ones.

third prize goes to the Mountain Man Daniel Suelo

This lad lives in a cave near Moab, with all his belongings, without money and has since about 2001. Before that , he had been living in the 'prison of money'. Nevertheless, he manages to keep a blog going, as well as keeping himself going on a diet of wild plants, bugs and roadkill. Here's a quote from the text (title below [2]) "Suelo, who was raised in a strict evangelical family, said he had long wondered why so few Christians who considered themselves devout were prepared to adopt the ascetic lifestyle espoused by Jesus." and

"as I let go of my possessions, I found more and more that I needed less and less." But, I hear he stinks royally. So, I wonder how they let him into the library where he runs his blog from.

-Cos67 ~(%^D>

info:

[1] Las Vegas Oct 22nd 2009 By Jeremy Taylor

http://www.asylum.co.uk/2009/10/22/couple-lives-in-flood-tunnels-under-las-vegas/?icid=main|uk-compaq|dl4|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asylum.co.uk%2F2009%2F10%2F22%2Fcouple-lives-in-flood-tunnels-under-las-vegas%2F

If not for the ominous plastic crates that Steven and Kathryn's bed and dresser are propped high up on, the couple's home would look like a dingy basement apartment. But those crates speak volumes, as they are there to protect the pair's belongings from water -- a constant threat when you live in an underground flood tunnel.

Luckily, it hardly ever rains in Las Vegas. In fact, over their two years of living deep in the bowels of Sin City, Steven and Kathryn have been able to stay dry enough to fashion their unusual dwelling with a makeshift kitchen and even a shower made from an office drinking-water dispenser.

They aren't alone in making their home underground. Roughly 700 people live in the flood tunnels beneath Vegas, with the majority concentrated under the strip. They've formed a community, united by a collection of graffiti drawn by resident artists that they call their art gallery, and a fear of flooding, which has killed 20 underground dwellers over the last two decades.

Black widow spiders thrive in the darkness, and mosquitoes swarm in the damp.

But it still beats being homeless above ground. "It's much cooler than on the streets," one resident explained. "We get a breeze coming through and the cops don't really bother you. It's quiet, and everyone helps each other out down here."

For "work," Steven and Kathryn put on their best clothes and emerge up into the casinos' neon glow, where they "credit hustle." This vocation consists of checking slot machines for the chips and credits drunken gamblers leave behind. 997 dollars (around £650) is the most Steven ever found in a single machine. Most nights, 20 will do.

Many of the drain-pipe dwellers have drug and alcohol problems. Heroin was Steven's thing. He claims he's kicked, but two outstanding warrants from his bad old days have him leery of returning to the normal life and sunlight that he craves.

So he'll remain beneath the margins, with his woman and his surprisingly well-appointed sewer suite. Proof that, for some, being underground is more than a state of mind.

[2]

"Struggling US envies its cashless caveman" by Tony-Allen Mills The Sunday Times 30 August 2009.