" Poverty Is Another Country. You Have Either Lived There or You Have Not "- Alex Andreou.

Bum-Free Planter- Victoria British Columbia,  Nils Norman-Artist

I'd never heard the term defensive architecture until this morning, when listening to a special segment on CBC The Current called, By Design. I am certain I have seen examples of defensive architecture in the city, but I haven't lived there for many years. Along with the pigeons, it seems like people have become nuisances.

I am very cognizant of homelessness and poverty having been a Youth Care Worker for 20 plus years. The marginalized within society and throughout the world, are living in dire poverty, less than a dollar a day. This fact is glaringly apparent as being the other 99% of the economy that the Occupy movement speaks about, while the other remaining 1% of the population holds the ever increasing purse strings, and defensive architecture perpetuates and contributes to poverty.

Alex Andreou may not be unlike a voice in the wilderness. I admire his voice in addressing this topic because he has lived in the 'country of poverty' he refers to in his article.