Is It Worth Living In Miami?

By: Araceli Hernandez

The need of money in Miami is sky rising. With property prices increasing by the hour and gas prices increasing by the day. The style of living in Miami is becoming impossible. With minimum wage fewer than seven dollars and the prices of a gas tank already in the three dollar range. Only one question comes to mind. Is it Worth Living in Miami?

Nobody really knows when it all began. But everyone can recall the good old days. When 10 dollars would take you far. For example you would have a decent lunch and half your tank of gas full for just ten dollars. Now a day ten dollars can barely even buy you lunch or even get the arrow in your tank to reach a quarter. As everything keeps increasing it is making the living situations in Miami, very difficult. From taxes, to light services, to insurance, to gas prices, to entertainment purposes (movies, bowling, parks), to even the highway tolls. Everything is getting so expensive that it is just ridiculous.

So let’s just say you are a full time worker at a Winnie Dixie and you are getting paid minimum wage, which in this case is $6.79 per hour and you live in a small little apartment (one bedroom and 1 bath) in a nice neighborhood, and your transportation is still you first car your parents gave you. How much do you think you will have in your pocket? You net payment for your job would be a total of $1086.40 before you get money taken away for taxes. But by the time the government finishes with you, you would be making a living for that month with only $1000. How do you expect to get around for that whole month? If in the first of the month you have to pay the owner for your rent already and that is just $750 dollars of the bat. Not including light, not including cable, telephone or a matter a fact anything else. So then your car realizes on at least $20 dollars a week on gas, which would just get you a little under the half a tank line. That gas would only last you a week if you don’t go out of your work routine. But what was to happen if you were having car trouble, how are you suppose to pay for car insurance, how about you cars oil change and registration once a year.

 So far by now you have a house, and a car with a monthly need of a hundred dollars jus for gas. You have no health insurance because you job doesn’t provide it, you have no car insurance because the prices are so high especially if you are a guy. So with those thousand dollars a month you have one hundred and fifty dollars left and that is basically for food for that whole month. So what does this mean, you are living to work, or basically working to live you tell me. Your life is pretty much the same everyday routine. And that is not including the fact if you have kids that depend on you. Because if you did trust me you would definitely have to work more then one job.

 I find Miami to be a place for tourism only, which that is the only way I think it would be possible to live here. You can go to the beaches and attraction from the time you get here to the time you leave. The reason for that is because you would be prepare and know the insides on the things that are happening. Or option number two would be to move in with a friend or a mate. It won’t make living that hard especially if you are both working and are using the same things like the car and the house. All you really have to do is split it.

At the rate Miami is going by raising everything higher and higher the proverty level will

continue to drop. Since living condition in the sunny city is getting harder and harder to live up to. With prices soon changing by the minute, is it really going to become more and more difficult. What is there to expect next. If the minimum wage doesn’t rise and everything else does all I a see is doom for those that live here. So at the end of the day you are the one that makes the decision is it really worth living in Miami?

Editor- Winny & Carmen, Layout & Photographer- Michael and Yuleinys, Technologist- Sherlynn,Francia

Beyond Physical Death

There was a young little girl by the name of Isabel living in Cuba . This little girl was very intelligent and had many high expectations in her life. She used to be as sweet as honey, and as beautiful as an angel. Isabel was a little girl who put a smile on everyone’s face. She was always happy, and even though she was only 10 years old she was very mature.

Isabel and her family went through difficult times when her father passed away in a car accident. Her mother didn’t have enough money to survive, and the money that her mom was receiving from the government was too little. Her mother couldn’t pay everything by herself; it was too much for her. Isabel’s mother didn’t have any help from anyone. Although she worked a lot and brought money to the house, it was never enough!

Her mother wasn’t able to get a better job because of the fact that she did not know English and did not have legal rights. On really sad nights, which were every night, Isabel’s mother cried rivers of pain. She would lock herself in the bathroom so that Isabel wouldn’t hear her cries of loneliness.

Isabel’s father wasn’t there anymore to support the family. Month’s after her father’s death, her mother brought home a friend who offered to help them without asking for anything in return. Though Isabel’s mother accepted his generosity as acts of kindness, Isabel never gave in. Since the beginning she always thought that he was in disguise. She never got along with him because there was something about him that she did not like. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t her biological father, which is what she kept telling herself.

One day she was in her mother’s room playing with her dolls, when he came over and asked her if he could play with her. She responded with a slight hesitation but soon they became friends. He was wonderful with Isabel and her mother. After a while, Isabel’s mother got married with this generous man who helped through difficult times. At the beginning everything was great. Everyone was really happy.

One year later, things began to change in Isabel’s house in a drastic way. There was no more happy-ending, instead there was constant bickering between her mother and step father. Isabel came home one day to find her mother crying on the floor and asked her mother why she was crying. Her mother told her that it was nothing for her to worry about that she simply made a big mistake in her life. Isabel’s mother decided to get a divorce, but never understood why.

One year after her mothers divorce, they moved to Miami . Isabel was already in High School and was going to Coral Gables Senior High. Like any other day, Isabel was waiting for the bus to pick her up, when suddenly someone grabbed her hand. As she quickly looked back to see who it was, she was shocked to see that it was her step-father. He told her not be afraid of him, that he just wanted to know how she and her mother were doing, but he was lying to her. He told her that her mother divorced him because she was jealous, which was one of his many lies. Isabel didn’t know what to say or what to believe. She was extremely confused and scared.

The bus then arrived and was getting ready to leave. She then decided to try to catch up to the bus but was held back by his tight and aggressive grip. He then forced his lips on hers. Isabel screamed and screamed once he began tearing off her clothes, but it seemed that no one was around for miles. He then proceeded to push her down to the floor and shift his weight on to her small fragile body. Holding her down with one hand, as if it were a shackle over her hands, the disgraceful moment occurred. He had taken away her innocence and after this violent assault he threatened her that if she dared to tell anyone he would tell the police that they are illegal immigrants or worse, kill them both. He also told Isabel that her mother was a bitch and because of that she had to pay.

Isabel was scared to die and went home that day without saying a word to anyone about the rape, including her mother. Not telling anyone caused her extreme anguish, until one day she couldn’t handle it anymore, and tried to kill herself by jumping off the Key Biscayne Bridge . However, someone that was witnessing her intention immediately called 911. The police arrived quickly and Isabel explained her motive for her actions. For the first time in a long time, she wasn’t scared anymore.

After that day her life changed and after 3 years of pain, Isabel’s step-father was sentenced to life in prison. Isabel said these words “I may be alive physically but spiritually I am already dead”.

Photo Credits:

Imgage #1: http://www.faluninfo.net/torturemethods2/sexual-abuse/RapeVictim_big.jpg