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Detroit Violating Human Rights By Closing Water Taps: U.N.

Detroit Violating Human Rights By Closing Water Taps: U.N.

Geneva (AFP) – U.N. rights experts on Wednesday slammed struggling U.S. city Detroit for violating the basic human rights of its citizens by disconnecting thousands of people from water services over unpaid bills.

Cash-strapped Detroit, which last July became the largest U.S. city to ever file for bankruptcy protection, has recently begun disconnecting water services on a large scale, for all households that have not paid bills for two months, the three experts said in a statement.

The birthplace of the U.S. auto industry has accelerated the process since early June, with around 3,000 customers cut off each week, and some 30,000 households expected to be disconnected from water services over the next few months, they said.

“Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights,” they insisted.

“The households which suffered unjustified disconnections must be immediately reconnected,” they said.

While disconnecting people who are able to pay but choose not to can be justified, the experts stressed that in a city like Detroit, with its sky-high poverty and unemployment rate, the relatively expensive cost of water is simply unaffordable for a significant portion of the population.

“When there is genuine inability to pay, human rights simply forbids disconnections,” said Catarina de Albuquerque, an expert on the right to water and sanitation.

She said she had previously called on the U.S. government to adopt federal minimum standards on the affordability for water and sanitation, and urged Washington to take action to help protect families living in poverty against disconnections.

Leilani Farha, the expert on the right to adequate housing, meanwhile cautioned that disconnections were having devastating consequences, with social services removing children from their homes after the water was cut off since their housing situation was no longer considered adequate.

And “if these water disconnections disproportionately affect African Americans they may be discriminatory, in violation of treaties the United States has ratified,” she warned.

©afp.com / Bill Pugliano

End Of Era As Hollywood Park Closes After 75 Years

Los Angeles (AFP) – Hollywood Park, once America’s most famous horse racing showplace with legendary moviemakers and film stars among its patrons, closed Sunday after 75 years with a final slate of 11 races.

Such equine icons as Seabiscuit, Citation, Affirmed, John Henry and Zenyatta competed at the impressive venue in suburban Inglewood, which opened on June 10, 1938.

Film industry legends were among 600 shareholders who founded the track to attract the rich and famous, including Bing Crosby, Walt Disney, Al Jolson, Warner brothers studio’s Jack Warner, MGM’s Sam Goldwyn and noted producers Darryl Zanuck and Mervyn LeRoy.

But as cinematic generations changed, so too did the fortunes of U.S. horse racing, with simulcast betting and more wagers being done through the Internet helping reduce live attendance at tracks.

A real estate development is planned on the site of a track where Cary Grant once strolled with starlets and famed comedians once enjoyed their leisure hours, a place where only nostalgia remains.

“People stop to talk and none of them, I really mean none of them, still believe they are going to tear this place down for real estate. We’ve all been told that, but nobody seems to believe it,” 86-year-old box seat usher Richard Warren told the Los Angeles Times.

“I remember Fred Astaire, sitting in these boxes. Then there would be Lucy and Desi Arnaz and they’d be arguing about something and they’d be with Jimmy Durante and he’d be just sitting there smoking a big cigar and ignoring them,” he continued.

Triple Crown winner Citation captured the 1951 Hollywood Gold Cup, the last race of his career and one that took him above $1 million in winnings, the first horse to crack that mark.

Seabiscuit, made famous to 21st Century sport and film fans in a 2003 movie, won the inaugural Gold Cup in 1938.

Shared Belief, prepared by Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, won the 33rd and last CashCall Futurity earlier this month in the final major event at Hollywood Park, a $750,000 race for two-year-olds that had showcased the next year’s Kentucky Derby hopefuls.

“I’ve loved the place and I hate to see it go,” Hollendorfer said.

The largest crowd to attend races at Hollywood Park was 80,348 on May 4, 1980.

The first Breeders’ Cup was staged at Hollywood Park in 1984, handling more than $11.4 million in wagers with a crowd of 64,625 and an estimated television viewership of 50 million people.

Panamanian jockey Laffit Pincay Jnr broke Bill Shoemaker’s former career victories record of 8,833 at Hollywood Park on with a victory on December 10, 1999.

Pincay established a new mark of 9,530 races before retiring in a ceremony at Hollywood Park in 2003, although Pincay’s record was eclipsed by Russell Blaze in 2006.