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What it's All About:
I mentioned at the end of the last episode that this one will not be pagan. This show will have a more secular atmosphere. I interview Mira Nabel Beig about his experience living in poverty in Canada. He does have a story to tell about his experience. He is now working as a consultant and has a non-profit organization called La Panache. That organization helps other Canadians who are living in poverty.
Songs Featured:
Links Mentioned:
Affiliates:
Crowdfunding:
Transcript:
(03:51)
Welcome to another episode of the Music From the Goddess’ Vault Podcast. I am your host, Midnight Starr. You just heard Heather Dale with the song All Poor Men and Humble.
Today's show is about the organization La Panache. You can stay up-to-date on the latest from the Music From the Goddess’ Vault Podcast by signing up for their newsletter. You will be informed as soon as new shows are released. You can access past episodes by paying seven dollars per month or seventy dollars per year. Or you can subscribe for free at http://musicgoddessvault.substack.com. That's http://musicgoddessvault.substack.com. You can also support the podcast monetarily by donating at ko-fi.com/goddessvault or patreon.com/goddessvault. All of the money raised will go towards paying for the bills associated with this podcast. You have the option to donate once or make monthly donations on both websites. Here are the links again: ko-fi.com/goddessvault or patreon.com/goddessvault. Please check out the blog https://goddessvault1.wixsite.com/home if you haven't already. You can listen to the show from there. And finally, if you have a suggestion for a song, show topic, spirit guide, or dream symbol you can contact me through the blog. The Music From the Goddess’ Vault Facebook page. TikTok at Midnight Starr with two r’s and number two. And Instagram and Twitter @goddessvault. Now for the topic: the organization La Panache. I mentioned to you at the end of the last podcast that this show will not be a pagan one. I did this once before when the pandemic first started because of a lot of misinformation that was going around at that time. And there will not be any spirit guide, dream symbol, or myth this week. Those will be continued in the next podcast. There will be music though, as you already heard. This episode is about something that some of us pagans are going through. And I know that there are Pagan Activists who are helping out in organizations such as La Panache. Before I go on, I know that some of you are listening to this podcast in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. This is more of a Canadian view on poverty. But I know that this is a big issue all over the world. And the pandemic had made this worse thanks to all the layoffs that happened. I know this from personal experience, because after being let go two years ago, I am still looking for work. That’s why I need you to donate some money to this podcast. But enough about me, let's talk about the founder of La Panache, Mira Nabel Beig. This organization was born out of Beig’s own experience of being homeless in Canada. He has originally been from Pakistan and has immigrated to Canada to study at a university and to pursue a career as an engineer in the oil industry. Things didn't work out as he planned, as he will explain in the interview. Mira had some eye-opening experiences of being homeless, which he will share with us. But because of the help of two souls, he picked himself up, got back on his feet and became a consultant for La Panache Consulting and is now giving back to help the homeless in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Before I go into the interview, I am going to play you a song: Traveller Part II: Thoughts of a Homeless Alien by Julia Ecklar.
(10:34)
Midnight Starr: How did you, as an engineer, end up homeless?
Mirza: So it's a long story. I will try to explain that in less words. I came to Canada in 2010 as an immigrant, and started working at some survival jobs which every immigrant has to go through. I also found a lady, I liked her, and I married her. But she was back in Pakistan. Conservative government comments were there, and they were not very pro immigrant at that time. And they increased the spousal immigration. Initially, when I married, the spousal immigration time to bring your spouse to Canada was only 18 months. But they slowly increased the time to four years. So, me and my ex-wife did not get a time to bond like a couple. It was a long distance as well. Though I visited Pakistan twice a year. But again, the bonding was not there. That was not the only factor. In 2013-14, I enrolled myself in an MBA and master's in petroleum engineering program at the University of Alberta. While I was graduating, the oil price crash happened in the world. Oil became cheaper than water. It literally destroyed or devastated the Alberta economy. Any prospects which I had to find work or find a stable career were diminished. This was the time when my ex-spouse also arrived in Canada. After coming to Canada she realized that I'd maybe not able to provide for her the lifestyle which she needed. So she decided to part ways. That left me heartbroken. There was a divorce, and that was a big betrayal as well. Because I was of the view that if you didn't like me or if you didn't wanna continue the relationship, then you should have ended it while you were in Pakistan. Why you did that after coming to Canada? Pressure after pressure, I was here by myself. I did not have any mentors. I did not have any family support. My mental health deteriorated, and very soon. It happened that from a very cozy downtown apartment in Edmonton, I came on the streets. So it was a mixture of all these things which brought me to the streets.
Midnight Starr: What was your experience with the homelessness shelter?
Mirza: Yes, homeless shelters play a role, definitely. They don't let you die. They provide you food. I, in no way, am against them. But my point is that those shelters do not rehabilitate people who are homeless. They just provide you a bed at night and provide you food. But they are institutions. The way they are run in my experience, they will never be able to reduce, solve or eliminate homelessness. There is a lot of trauma there. Literally, I was handled, I would say, to put it mildly, not nicely, in certain shelters. There was a shelter in Brampton, in minus 40 weather. They kicked me out without giving me a taxi voucher or any other place to go. There was no other shelter nearby. It was God who saved me, or it was another homeless person who saved me that night. Otherwise, I would have frozen to death. To me that was something which a homeless shelter should never do because they work in this environment. They know the people who come there are troubled and they need support and help. They should never kick anyone out. Where was a case in Ottawa when I was asked to leave a shelter. The reason was that the person who asked me to come to them to show my ID. I was like, I come here every day and my ID's in the system. But they were exerting their dominance and being authoritarian. They just kicked me out because of this thing. I responded back that my ID is already in the system and I'm standing in a line to get food. If I leave my place, I have to wait. Things like these, I don't think were individual incidents. People need more training. Also, when I look at homelessness problem, I look at it from a perspective that it is not something that we need to live with. I’m a consultant. I look at problems and I find their solutions. We want to solve this problem. We want to ensure that there is no homeless person in our society. The society is as strong as its weakest link. We have seen lately that homelessness problem is growing. It's an epidemic. People are dying, drugs are coming. Putting everything in perspective and looking at everything from this. I think shelters have lost their place. To solve homelessness, they are not very valuable or they are not playing their efficient role of as institutions. Yes, they are keeping homeless people alive, which is helping some other people in our society. Homeless people are given certain amount of money every month. Which the majority of the money was taken by the people who sell drugs to them. In a way, it's a cycle. It's a cycle of funds. We taxpayer pay the tax. Government allocate money for the homeless people. Homeless people get that money. Some forces in our society sell them drugs and take our money from them. Keeping homeless people out. Yes, shelter is doing a good job for that. They're keeping them alive. But when you ask the question can shelters solve the homeless problem? No, they're not doing that. It's a certain elements in society are getting benefits from the shelters. As a society, as a whole society, as a citizen of Canada, we are losing in the grand scheme of things.
(19:48)
Midnight Starr: That was Halagaz’ Runedance with The Home That I Will Never See. I neglected to mention the poor audio quality. I still haven't been able to resolve that issue on Zoom. Here is the second part of the interview with Mirza Nabel Beig.
Midnight Starr: What is the reality of homelessness the average person does not know about, especially in the media?
Mirza: That is a very good question. I'll quickly explain the reality of the homelessness industry. Let's talk about Vancouver, because I live here. There are 5,000 homeless people. Maybe it's the number is higher now. But let's go with there are 5,000 homeless people in Greater Vancouver area. We saw a video launched by a World Economic Forum that they 3D printed houses in Eastern Europe for every homeless person there. The cost of 3D printing a house was only 4,000 dollars. The technology has came to a point where we can cheaply build a house. Yes, that house is not a mansion. That house is just a house with the bed and the table and a chair. Or maybe a communal washroom. But with $4,000 we can give them an address, we can give them a place to start to live their life again. Now if we have to implement a solution, we want to finish homelessness. We need to give those $4,000 houses to each individual who is homeless. 5,000 multiplied by 4,000, the answer is 20 million dollars only. Then we need a land to put those houses. Let's say in a radius of 1520 kilometer from Vancouver. We find a land and we put those houses there. The cost of land is $10, $15, $20 million. Let's go with the higher number. Let's say it's 20 million. 20 million for making houses and $20 million for the land. In $40 million, we can solve the problem of homelessness for once and all. We can make a town where all the homeless people will go and live, have their address and our streets are clean. No drugs. No prostitution. No crime. We don't need to pay police that much now on our streets because of the criminal activities which happen. We don't need ambulance services on the street that much because now homeless people live in a town where they administrate themselves. The solution is this simple. That under $50 million we can solve this problem. Now let's look at the reality of what is happening. There are hundreds of programs which federal, municipal, or provincial governments are running to cater the problem of homelessness. I will mention only one program. That is National Housing strategy. In National Housing strategy, the federal government have allocated $70 billion. $70 billion. The reality is that program is running since 2017. The homelessness have increased 20% all across Canada. They have put a huge plethora of resources on a problem. And the problem has increased instead of decreasing. And the cherry on top is that another 20% Canadians are a couple of paychecks away from becoming homeless. I asked this question: what is happening? Why? In my engineering or in my MBA or in my working with the BIG4 consulting firms, we have learned that when you throw money at a problem, the problem gets solved. But what is happening here? We are throwing so much money on this problem and this problem is not getting solved. In fact it is increasing. What is happening with our money? Who is taking this money? What is being done with this money? These are the questions which we need to ask between ourselves, between our media. But they're not. There is a research posted on business in Vancouver Article. I approached that writer whom I'm hopeful that he will respond to me. He conducted a research amongst British Columbians. The basic point of that research was that if British Columbians believe that their government can solve homelessness. An overwhelming majority of British Columbians came out and said that they do not trust their government to solve this problem. My point is that we need to think differently. We need to. People are dying. If the government is not thinking, we need to leave behind the traditional methodologies and traditional programs which we are employing to solve this problem. We need to give a younger generation of Millennials or Gen Z Gen Ys, to come up with ideas and solutions to this problem. I'm very sorry. I don't want to criticize people. But on the other hand, people are dying. I think it's like a corrupt machine in which very few are getting benefits in the form form of funding and loans and grants. While the homeless people lives doesn't get better. They do not become a contributing part of the society again. We, on the other hand, citizens who are paying on a plethora amount of taxes. We are just losing more money.
Midnight Starr: What is the one thing that helped you most come out of your homelessness situation?
Mirza: Again, a very good question. It was not the shelters. I was not given any mental health resources. It was not the job placement resources which they provided. Nothing of those sort helped me out of the homeless problem. It was just one act of kindness by a homeless person, and a prostitute, although she’s a working lady. I was in Mississauga, Ontario that night. It was a snowstorm. I didn't have money. I didn't have the Internet, but I used to sit in the McDonald's. I googled that the weather will be bad. It was minus 40 weather. I was like I need a place to stay. I cannot stay on the street tonight. So I Googled the nearest shelter was in Brampton. I decided that, OK, it was 7 to 8 kilometers away from me. I was like, OK, I'll go to that shelter and sleep the night there. Buses didn't stop as I had no fare with me. I had no money. The bus driver said he will not take me there. So I decided to walk. The wind was so strong, and it was blowing against the direction I was walking. My cap will always fly away. Majority of that travel I did backwards. I walked backwards e on the whole Ontario street to reach the Brampton shelter. But by the time I reached that shelter, the lady there told me that they have ran out of beds. There is a better location and I'm late and sorry they do not have any beds for me. I requested them that please allow me to sleep on the floor because it's very cold outside, and there is no shelter nearby. I still remembered that Lady. She was like, no, it's not her policy. We cannot allow you to sleep on the floor. You have to go and you have to find another place to stay. I also requested that at least give me a taxi voucher or somehow arrange for me that I can reach to another shelter. It's very cold outside. I'm by foot. I have no money. For some reasons which I don't remember, she's rejected that request too. Anyways, I was ******. I was sad.I was dejected. I was heartbroken. This is the importance of a human life in this society. But anyways, I walked to the nearby strip mall, and I lied down on a curve. Where there was not enough wind was coming. But I realized very soon that when you're walking, your body stays warm. But when you sit down, your body starts feeling the cold. Very soon I realized that, oh, I will not survive this light because it's extremely cold. Mind you, I was malnourished. Also, I didn't have a lot of food for days. At that point, my trust in God wavered. I said to God that I was a good person. In each and every role, I was a good human being. Why did you give me a end like this? Because in my head, it was my end. I was frozen to death in my head. Mind you, there were many people who walked by the strip mall. But no one called 911. No one gave me any attention. This further made me sad at that time. I just was like, OK, I'm done. I'm giving up. I just closed my eyes, and I just lied down there. Five, 10 minutes, 15 minutes maybe, later I heard a voice. That of an old homeless guy and a street working girl was walking by. They came to me. They attended me. They gave me a blanket. They took care of me. It was their act of kindness that led a fire in me. I don't remember their face now. But I remembered the thoughts moving in my head that time. I promised to God. First of all, I apologize to God that I'm wrong. I should not have unwavered my trust on you. He sent help very soon. Then secondly, I promise. For that in my life I will do something nice for them. I will help these people because they have more humanity than the other normal people, who showed their kind of humanity. These people have more humanity and they understand pain. Now I'm in the position where I can do something really good for these people. To answer your question, it was that act of kindness by those two individuals which gave me the spirit, the energy and the willingness to take control of my life back.
(31:33)
Midnight Starr: That was Bards of the Koad with Hopeful People. I forgot to mention that this is going to be a longer podcast than expected. I've already said I'd be talking about all things Pagan on the next show. If you don't understand this conversation, there is a transcript of it on the blog https://goddessvault1.wixsite.com/home. Now back to the interview with Mirza Beig.
Midnight Starr: I saw on the TV that there was a project in the states. It was probably in Texas. I don't know where, but the government was paying and hiring homeless people to do something like pick up trash or something that needs to be recycled. Do you think that another way to end homelessness is to hire people?
Mirza: See, that's definitely will help by hiring people. It will put them in a normal routine or a normal thing. But again, we need to understand the homeless people currently are on drugs. And drug is a is a very strong medium which does not allow you to feel life the way you should be feeling in a normal capacity. Yes, picking up trash helps, it will definitely help. I'm not against that. But I am off the viewpoint, then give them house first in Austin, TX and in Finland. These are the two places where they have experimented by giving homeless people houses. Housing, first methodology. What was the result of all this was that they have noticed that the homeless people have use their alcohol and drug intake. Reduction in the intakes of these two things that have further developed their brain, and further help them come back to a normal life. This is what I want Canadian or BC government to do that, hey, give them a house, no matter how small, how big it is. Give them an address, give them a respectable need to live their life. That is a very good start once we have that, we can call it the town, anything! Once we have that town of 5000 homeless people, then we can provide them mental health resources there free of cost. We can provide them life skills, Academy there. All this plan is on my website. We will teach them marketing. We will teach them app. We will teach them drama, philosophy, whatever they want to learn. Vancouver is such a huge metropolitan city. We have people from all walks of life here. And they can come and teach them once an hour, once a week, twice a week, something like this. And very soon they will develop those skills. Then we will have that HR consultancy firm. We will place them on jobs, on a reduced pay. I understand nobody will pay them $100,000 a year, but people might pay them $40,000 a year. That will be a good start. Now what is happening? We have a town made here. Homeless people live here. They administered themselves. They help each other. They have their skills taught to them. They have mental health given to them. Now they're finding jobs. Some people will start businesses, some will start jobs. We will connect that town through a Translink bus to the city. I don't see if this hall is so cheap to do.
Midnight Starr: Here's one last question. What is next and now that you got through your predicament? And now you've created this nonprofit organization. What's next?
Mirza: Right now, we have a big problem of funds. We are not going out and asking for donations. We are not doing fundraising events. Every activity which we are doing is coming out of my pocket all day. But I don't mind that I've or for a certain level we can do that. We are looking for Equity Partners or project funders. We are in talks with people in different countries who might sponsor this project. My team is working on making a more detailed plan of this town. I have some architects in my team. They're working on a more detailed plan. We are designing this town. We are in a process of making a documentary on my life. This documentary can give us some funds which we can allocate towards our project. We don't have high hopes from government programs that they will fund us. Because what we are saying is if you have a business, we are taking away your product. We are taking away your target market. Why would you fund us to take your parrot market? If you take all the homeless people and put them in a town, then all these industry, all these organizations, who are taking billions and billions of dollars, they will not feel happy. Why the government will give them money? no one will give them money. They will not be able to take donations. They will not be able to take refunds. They will not be able to take grants. We know that we will not get help or support from that industry. We have to do something on our own and this is what we are doing. We are talking to Equity Partners all across the globe. We are making detailed level town plans. We are trying to create our own wealth by making a documentary. Hoping that if we can make some millions from the documentary, we will allocate all that money towards this project. We are talking to a lot of people like you to further our message. We are working with some people within UBC to create a case competition to further refine this solution. We want the younger generation to participate in this, and we want to use their intellect in further refining this solution and the methodology that we should employ to solve this problem. At this moment we are working in 5-6 angles on this problem. There is a woman empowerment event happening. We are sponsoring that event. That's happening on 1st of October. We believe that God has given more compassion and empathy to women than men. If women are in decision making roles, they might be able to solve this problem better than what men has done historically. These are our efforts we are doing. We are really hopeful that god help us in some way and we are able to deliver what we want to deliver.
(41:21)
Midnight Starr: That was The Ring of Hope by the Brobdingnagian Bards. This is the end of the show. I am your host, Midnight Starr. I hope that you thoroughly enjoyed the interview with Mirza Nebal Beig. If you want to know more about La Panache Homelessness Elimination Society go to their website http://www.la-panache.ca/. In the next episode, we are going to return to the topic of paganism. Be the first to get exclusive access to the Music Goddess Vault podcast by signing up for the newsletter at https://musicgoddessvault.substack.com. Or if you want to donate some money to support this show, you can do that through https://www.ko-fi.com/goddessvault or https://www.patreon.com/goddessvault. Other than that, if you have a suggestion for a song, show topic, spirit guide or dream symbol - or if you want to like, share or, comment: You can do so, at https://goddessvault1.wixsite.com/home. The Music From the Goddess’ Vault Facebook page. Through TikTok at Midnight Starr with two r’s two, And on Instagram and twitter @goddessvault. I am going to leave with some Kellianna: I Walk With the Goddess. Blessed be.
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