ART FEAST AT SPAIN RESTAURANT: Namaya Art Rat and Ricky Singh 📅 Thursday, May 29, 2025 | 4–7 PM 📍 Spain Restaurant & Toma Bar | 513 N Tampa St, Tampa, FL [ TAMPA, FL—Spain Restaurant & Toma Bar will transform into a vibrant celebration of art, music, and culture for “Art Feast at Spain Restaurant: Featuring Namaya & Ricky Singh.” This one-night-only event invites the Tampa Bay community to experience bold, playful, political, and profoundly moving art alongside live flamenco guitar and poetry performances. We are very pleased that Spain Restaurant and the Castro family are hosting this art event; they have always supported music and art. The art is on view now through June at the Spain Restaurant. Hyperlink https://www.tomaspain.com/ The event showcases two extraordinary artists: Namaya, a performance poet and artist, is internationally recognized for his works of peace and social justice arts projects. His Fauvist-inspired portraits and political art will have their first Tampa art show. (Namaya’s art has been exhibited worldwide—from San Miguel de Allende to Villa Grimaldi in Santiago, Chile—earning awards for peace art and residencies exploring human rights through art, dance, and theater. Ricky Singh – a St. Petersburg-based artist celebrated for his evocative resin and acrylic art, blending vibrant color, innovative techniques, and cultural symbolism. Singh’s work draws inspiration from his Sikh heritage and contemporary art movements, earning praise across Florida’s arts community. Warehouse Arts District, “Ricky has been an invaluable art guild member with his marvelous creations. He has presented workshops to the community on his art and has inspired many youngsters with this work.” Guests will enjoy: ✅ Delicious Happy Hour Spanish tapas & drinks available from Spain Restaurant ✅ Original artwork available for purchase ✅ Live flamenco guitar by Namaya ✅ Poetry performances from Lorca & Neruda “This event is not just an art show—it’s a cultural immersion,” says Namaya. “It’s art from India from Ricky Singh, and art and performance from Namaya.” 🖼️ Review of Namaya’s Art “Namaya’s art goes straight to the danger zone—and it’s exactly what’s needed in our moment… His direct imagery and willingness to dialogue about war and peace create a safe place to bring matters out from the darkness. It’s exciting and refreshing.” — Alison Beth Levy, Independent Art Curator Admission is free and happy hour drinks and tapas can be purchased. Art collectors, cultural leaders, and community members are invited to meet the artists and experience this unforgettable evening. Follow updates: #Namayaartpeace and for Ricky Singh #Heroncreations on FB & Instagram 👉 For media inquiries, interviews, or high-res images, contact: Namaya – b4peace@namayaproductions.com
ORANGE HAIRED NOBBED OGRE
ORANGE HAIRED NOBBED OGRE 13 February 2025 President (Hardly) Oh NO! Which is the acronym for the Orange Haired Nobbed Ogre! by Namaya Art Rat Peace
HOUSING FIRST FINLAND
4 July 2024 Thursday in Turku: Finland Addresses the Homeless Issue by providing homes to everyone. I am grateful NOT to be in the USA on the 4th of July. These are shameful days in US history with the decision of SCOTUS that POTUS can do whatever he wants and is immune from prosecution. According to www.pogo.org – Project on Government Oversight, the gross military budget is between $1.5 and $2 trillion. Yes, the USA will not address the millions of Americans who are living in the streets and the tens of millions suffering from housing insecurity. But it will pour trillions into the Military Industrial Pig Trough to ensure CEOS and MisFortune 500 companies can continue to loot the USA. In Florida, the homeless are criminalized for sleeping in public spaces. I am baffled. Why would you be arrested for sleeping in public if you cannot afford an apartment and have nowhere else to sleep? Where do they expect you to sleep? Where else would the homeless sleep? I am in one of those Kafkaesque quandaries. Does the government think if they do not see people experiencing homelessness, they will disappear? In Iceland, if you are homeless, which is a rarity, you can simply show up to jail at night, and they will give you a bed. Nevertheless, in Finland, where we are now visiting, there are no visible homeless people. They’re not in prison. They live in houses. As you will see in the following article, Finland has made a goal that by 2025, all people in Finland will be housed. Today, we were at the tourist office, and in that office complex or social service office, people experiencing homelessness or who are ill can get help. The Finnish government’s national priority is that all people should have homes. This is similar to Iceland. Also, there is universal healthcare; everyone is entitled to healthcare. Healthcare, education, housing, and, where necessary, financial support. This is a fundamental human right – a home, health care, education, and financial support. You may call it socialism, but I call it basic human dignity. Here is a terrific article from https://www.greaterchange.com about Finland and its work to address homelessness. Statistics on homelessness in Finland show that in 1989, roughly 16,000 people were experiencing homelessness. Since then, that number has steadily declined to approximately 4,000 people in 2020. This is effectively a 75% decrease in homelessness over 30 years. Finland is also the only EU country that has experienced any decline in the number of homeless reported in the last ten years. Why are Finland’s statistics impressive? Firstly, Finland’s definition of homelessness is extensive. It includes temporarily staying with friends or family, which is uncommon among other nations’ homelessness statistics. This not only puts Finland’s low numbers into context but also gives a greater degree of reliability to the interventions they have created by ensuring the problem is correctly understood. As a result, they would be able to address it most effectively. Secondly, this success results from innovative solutions and a strategy that has been provided with the necessary resources and driven by the Housing First approach. A History of Housing First The housing first principle, policy or approach, is an ideology initially coined by a Canadian Psychologist named Sam Tsemberis, who proposed that the best way to eradicate homelessness was to give people homes. The notion was approached with skepticism at first, and it was argued that more complex contributory factors, such as mental health or substance abuse, need to be solved first. Finland, however, sees housing as a fundamental human right that needs to be extended to every homeless person. In 2008, the Finnish government committed to the Housing First policy as part of a drive to end homelessness. Housing First Explained Put simply, the Housing First model provides a home, a rental, or a flat with a contract without conditions to a person experiencing homelessness. These people are not required to get a job first, get sober first, or make any lifestyle changes—housing is provided first. The notion goes that once people have permanent housing, they can seek the help they require to improve their lives. This approach has successfully reduced the number of people experiencing homelessness. Government-partnered nonprofit organizations like The Y-Foundation are integral to this success. The Y-Foundation CEO, Juha Kaakinen, predicts this approach will eradicate homelessness by 2027. The keys to Finland’s success Multiple governments, with different political coalitions, have been involved in driving and maintaining the work towards ending homelessness longitudinally. This has allowed the fight against homelessness to extend beyond the length of a single political term. This initiative involves a vast partnership network. The government, big cities, and prominent NGOs are working together to achieve the same outcome: radical change. Finland mandated that at least 25% of housing in a city must be affordable, social housing. This has kept access to affordable housing a realistic possibility for those experiencing homelessness and prevented Finland from experiencing the housing crisis many countries in Europe are currently experiencing. The ideology or conviction that housing is a human right and that eradicating homelessness is an urgent and immediate issue that requires rapid and consistent efforts. Homelessness decreased again in Finland, according to a survey published by Ara. There were 3429 single homeless people in November 2023, 257 fewer than in the previous year. “The survey confirms that eradicating homelessness in Finland can be successful if we invest in it,” says Teija Ojankoski, CEO of Y-Säätiö. Helsinki has primarily driven the downward trend in recent years, which is also reflected in the latest figures. Helsinki managed to reduce the number of single homeless people by 157. The number of homeless families in Helsinki is 33, a decrease of 75%. The long-term homeless were also successfully housed: There are 118 fewer long-term homeless people in Helsinki than in the previous year. “Homelessness problems are typically concentrated in large cities – Helsinki’s success
Today in Palestine
The despicable Palestinians have continued to seize more and more land from the Israelis. In their voracious hunger they continue to take over more and more of the old City of Jerusalem. Like when they won the war in 1967, they destroyed the entire community in Jerusalem over 400,000 Jews who were displaced within three days. Then in one enclave on the Mediterranean sea, $1.5 million Israeli Jews are held in a virtual concentration camp. The borders are tightly controlled by the Palestinian armies and it is a savage occupation. When any Jewish farmer approaches the security wall, the Palestinian guards fire on them with machine guns. This Jewish enclave has the highest concentration of population of any place on the globe. The news from Palestine grows worse. The Palestinians have erected a huge wall several hundred miles long separating Jewish Israelis from their homes and their lands. This wall over 27 feet high is a monstrous thing. In one refugee camp outside of Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Jews are cramped into a tiny refugee camp, denied access to work and travel. Waves of Palestinians continue to flood in from around the world, and they are given jobs, and homes on lands seized from Israelis. United gives the Palestinians over $3.5 billion in military aid. It is strange that the Palestinians are one of the worlds largest nuclear powers, but it isn’t a signatory to any kind of international regulatory body. When one of the scientists went public with this he was imprisoned for seventeen years. Though the Palestinians claim they are a democracy, they allow full citizenship for their own, but deny Palestinian Jews. It is also odd that one of the requirements for Palestinian citizenship is that you have to be a Muslim, there are fully 30 percent of Palestinian Jews who have to swear allegiance to a Muslim nation. It is even more bizzare that the Palestinian national flag is written with the word “Allah, and the moon of Islam.” The largest nuclear arsenal in the Middle East. What makes this appalling is the APAC, the American Palestinian Political action committee that controls and prevents any discussion of why the Palestinians have so brutalized the Israeli Jews. I am shocked that no candidate to congress can be elected if he questions the actions of a Palestinian. The President of Palestine recently said, “That quote from Netanyahu.” This is all true, except reverse the words in the above, the Palestinians are the Israelis, the Israelis are the Palestinians.
