Unemployment in Boston

Today I recognized two things that will be essential to the rest of my project: government workers, consumed in red tape and bureaucracy, really do not want to deal with student journalists, and unemployed people without a job have time on their hands to spare. My project is about the economic crisis and how it’s affecting unemployment in Boston. I spent my morning going from unemployment agency to agency, each one less helpful than the one before, and the last one telling me over the phone that it had very little time for journalists right now, let alone students acting like them. Right after she hung up on me, I got my third call of the day from a lady I’d been in contact with who works for an organization that provides career help for professionals. She offered her help with any part of the story and asked for a list of the questions that I had for her, reestablishing my faith in at least some part of the system.

I spent the rest of the day with people who relied on begging to pay the bills. In the photo I put up is Diane, a woman who has given up on finding work and relies on the pocket change of strangers to pay her $800 per month rent. After hanging out with Diane for a while I spent some time with Michael, a supposedly former politician, artist, and activist who did not receive unemployment benefits because of the few paintings he sold every month. Michael pays $80 a night to stay at a hotel, and took me to St. Paul’s church where he went some days to grab a free lunch. After today my project has become more focused, and is now looking at the contrasting experiences of the elite who find themselves unemployed and the poor in the same situation.

At night I met with Tom Arabia, a socialist pro-Palestine activist who is one of the leaders of Boston Stands with Gaza. While I am still pursuing the unemployment story with full force, I was intrigued by the pro-Gaza protests in Boston on Monday and have decided to also pursue a story about the movement in Boston. Tom told me how he radicalized around the issue of Palestine and told me about his hopes of forming a greater coalition for Palestine, for which there will be a meeting tomorrow night.

-Aalok Kanani