Too much information for me

[Cisse]

Just watched a documentary on homeless children in USA. And there are plenty of them. Still when they talk about millions of people it is easier to pass that than when they show you 10 year old girl and 12 year old boy having to give up their dog. Or being hungry.

That program came right after I had watched a program of five rich people living as homeless in London for ten days. People on the streets of London being passed by people like me not even glancing on them.

No wonder I like watching millionaires running after a ball bitching how hard it is for them with the refs and fans.

 

[-JW-]

First person to say 'what do you guys think' should be banned.

[ladyram]

First person to say 'what do you guys think' should be banned.

I think so, it wasn't funny the first 200 times.

[Cisse]

Feel like crap after watching those programs. Needed to rant off a little. I think I could use some optimism of B right now.

[ladyram]

Know what you mean Cisse, I've only got to watch an advert from the NSPCC and it's horrible, it makes me sick to see this happening.

"...This is Miles. He knows no-one will come to answer his cries..." or "his parents will say he fell down the stairs".

I really hate some people for allowing it to happen.

[uttoxram75]

Poverty is man-made.

 

 

 

 

Debate that fecker!

[ladyram]

Long live Mandella.

[Cisse]

Know what you mean Cisse, I've only got to watch an advert from the NSPCC and it's horrible, it makes me sick to see this happening.

"...This is Miles. He knows no-one will come to answer his cries..." or "his parents will say he fell down the stairs".

I really hate some people for allowing it to happen.

Those adverts are sometimes brilliant. About fifteen years ago I saw an advert of little girl, perhaps four or five years old in front of some hut with dog on her lap. The advert said something like "All this girl got to hang on is this dog and hope of that you'll help".

I believe I will take that image to my grave.

[CumbrianRam]

Poverty is man-made.

 

 

 

 

Debate that fecker!

Defiantly the wider "society" is a lot less accepting these days from government downwards.

 

If you rich you given never ending chances to change, if not you sometimes you get zero even if you are not to blame.

[Alph]

I've said before I was homeless for a very brief period.

I went to this centre where they offer a hot meal. It's nice to be treated like an actual person too.

Anyway, I was sat there just studying other people (honest people with a clear conscience imo) and this girl came in. She was probably 30. You could imagine her being pretty. She had red hair and nice eyes. Her features were all subtle and you could just tell she could have been desirable in another life.

She was clearly a user though. Black circles around here red eyes, couple of teeth missing and discoloured.

She had this card that she brought in. Turned out to be a Mother's Day card from a daughter that had been taken from her. She cried when she opened and read it. Of course she probably had her daughter taken for good reason but I think whatever wrong turn she made she was punished when she read that card.

It pulls on my heart strings now even typing this. To see the pain in her face...

A few other homeless people tried to comfort her but she threw the card and stormed out. After she went the mood was grim. Nobody there knew her but all the other homeless people and the staff felt sad. Genuinely sad for her.

Do you think anybody would of cared like that outside? Do you think when she's sat in a shop doorway anybody cares what her story is? Where she sleeps? How she can ever hope to turn her life around?

Nope. But people in that room (other bums that nobody will even acknowledge) cared. They didnt know her. Who are really the lowlifes?

I'll never forget that girl. I hope she's ok.

I realised then that these people have been abandoned. You'll protect pedophiles and Mick Philpott will probably live a better life than her. These are people just like you and me that took a wrong turn and there's no help out there to recover. There's occasional beds and hot meals. Ofcourse you can't enter with alcohol or drugs though. Not sure what a homeless addict is supposed to do there.

People are on autopilot. Send money to Africa. Millions every year. Why? Do many people care about Africa? Do they know anymore about the troubles in Africa than a 5 minute advert? Poor African children. It's like people are programmed. But homeless people? In this country where we protect rapists identity and let known terrorist preachers spread their hate. Where offenders re-offend because they haven't been punished. Homeless people are cast away. Not worthy of "no mate, I haven't got any change. Sorry pal". You blank them. You send a £20 to Africa without knowing where it actually goes or what it does. But you wouldn't chuck a homeless guy 50p because you don't even care what his story is.

That day in that centre changed my entire outlook.

[Alph]

My view is that most people give to charity for themselves. Sort of to save their own souls. It won't work. If you're part of the rat race and pretend to be a good caring person you're the lowest of the low imo.

It's wrong but I don't care about kids in Africa. I should do. It's terrible. But I don't look into it. I don't give money. I don't think about it very often. So how can I care? I wish I did care but I obviously don't or I'd know more.

I don't care about a car crash. I wish I did but I don't try to find out who was involved and if they're ok.

I slept fine the night of the London bombings.

Of course individual stories effect me. Like this peadophile story from the little stars nursery makes me feel physically sick. Or if I hear of a child die in a car crash or a typical family on holiday or.... you know, the stories that do stick with you.

But do I care that right now people are dying in Syria? Nope. And neither do a lot of people they just pretend to. Pretending is sick. Especially considering they don't care enough to acknowledge a person who isn't lucky enough to have a home.

As a rule I hate people. I like people for simple reasons as I talk to them on a forum. If something happened to someone I speak to on here I'd think about that. Because I'd care. I like people who I interact with.

I just don't like or care about average joe.

It's probably why I'm quite a loner by choice. I have my family and my daughter and my hobbies. Outside of my shell I just don't give a toss about Syria, Egypt, Africa.

I wish i did. But I can't pretend. It's wrong.

I guess if you truly did care about everything then life would be horrible. It's not a nice world is it? You have to squeeze joy out if it.

Fook me I'm miserable and down now.

Night folks.

[EastKentRam]

I dont care about the homeless as much as I dont care about Egypt, Syria etc, so I completely agree with you, then again I dont really care about much. 

 

I've gave money to the homeless before, just like I've gave money for comic relief etc. Suppose you just do it in the moment, what kind of mood you're in when you walk past a homeless bloke begging. 

 

You just associate them with their problems being either drug or alcohol related and think, where is this money really going to go, when you give it to them. Some of them dont help themselves when you see them drinking on cans of scrumpy, but I suppose if I was homeless I'd be on the p*ss quite often. 

[EastKentRam]

Makes me think of the time me and a couple of mates were leaving a club out our nuts and paid this homeless guy to do stuff, press ups and run into a bus stop. Paid him about a fiver in the end but felt quite guilty since, it was out of order even though I was laughing at the time.

[Alph]

I dont care about the homeless as much as I dont care about Egypt, Syria etc, so I completely agree with you, then again I dont really care about much.

I've gave money to the homeless before, just like I've gave money for comic relief etc. Suppose you just do it in the moment, what kind of mood you're in when you walk past a homeless bloke begging.

You just associate them with their problems being either drug or alcohol related and think, where is this money really going to go, when you give it to them. Some of them dont help themselves when you see them drinking on cans of scrumpy, but I suppose if I was homeless I'd be on the p*ss quite often.

Thing is mate what can they do? Save up for a house?

They're addicts there too. Addiction is a word I think we take too lightly.

Thinking about some of the issues and people I do care about has got me wondering if I'm not a decent person.

I always start ranting when I talk about homeless people and talk like a bit of a ****. Not sure what exactly I'd like the world to be like tbh. I do wish being homeless had a bit more attention though. All I had to do was apologise and ask for help from my family (which I was too proud to do for a while). Easy escape.

[PrivateDerby]

The more you look the more you'll see.

[Ambitious]

Everyone should get a calender year to train for the 'hunger games' 

 

come 29th august 2014 - everyone has to fight to the death, the winner gets everything.

 

Woman and Children excluded of course, I'm not an animal. 

 

In all serious though, some people get on a bad path in life and end up paying a heavy price - others are forced onto a bad path, and can't do anything about it. I think the world isn't as closed as it seems, and if you want something enough, you can make it - I don't feel bad for people who don't want to help themselves, it's the ones that sweat blood and tears and still can't crack it I have sympathy for. 

[Cisse]

There are two kinds of people that seem to get treated like they have chosen their way of life. Addicts and people with mental problems. The thing with addicts is that they often are in the state where their body is in charge, not their head. If their body requires heroin they have to have it even if they don't want it. But when you are addicted to drugs you get no sympathy. When you get withdrawals from coffee you get sympathy from your coworkers and family.

People with mental problems don't choose to be bi polar or severely deppressed and still they are easily put under the label of crazy. This can be seen everyday and still nothing changes.

[Day]

Alpha some of the stuff you have wrote sounds pretty sausagetish but I also agree with it, I also won't be the only one either but some will be offended no doubt.

I've been and going through things in my life now that have made me more understanding about certain things, 10 years ago I wouldn't have given much notice and maybe even joked. It's not till you've experienced it yourself you truely know how it feels, if you gave a fiver to a homeless charity now you would realise its just a drop in the ocean but you have been there and seen up close the people that were great full for that one meal you have helped.

I was in a position where I could have given to charity, comic relief and all that but I didn't, I see these videos of African kids and I feel sorry for them at the time I do but I don't really care much beyond that, I look at this country and see the problems we have and we're sending millions out each year that could help people in this country, what does the rest of the world do for Africa?

Take homeless people for example as its affected you Alpha, almost £94m raised this year alone by Comic Relief. How many soup kitchens and safe areas to sleep could that provide if you used local builders that didn't charge extra because the money was there to be sucked up.

So many people in need in this country, but if Comic Relief said 2014 this is going towards homeless people in the UK would it raise anywhere near £94m? I doubt it, people see drug addicts as scum and don't really know the back story behind their lives. They chose the wrong path but who doesn't make mistakes in their life's?

I'm not justifying what they do when they rob shops or houses but its not out of boredom, it's to feed an addiction that control their lives and a lot of people will die never really understanding what it's like when your body is controlling your life and not you controlling it.

[sage]

A few thoughts.

 

Alpha, you've been through a lot, but you bemoan the fact that people ignore the homeless and yet say you don't care about or like people you don't know. Is that a chicken or egg situation? Despite the fact Thatcher started us on the 'it's all about me' mantra 34 years ago, there are still more people who care about others than not. It's my default position to care about and trust other people. For me, it's a duty of care we should have for others. The Care in the Community policy massively added to the problem, by literally emptying adult mental health care homes out onto the street,

 

In terms of the homeless, many homeless people are affected by drink, drug or mental health issues and this can lead to people viewing homeless people as scary or self-indulgent and see money given to them as money that will be spent on drink and drugs, which perceive as making their problem worse. From a personal point of view, I buy the Big Issue and occasionally buy food or a hot drink, I feel this helps, without adding to an addiction, though if I had to sleep homeless, I'd be tempted to use something to make the night pass by.

 

We can all help, whether it's helping out at a soup kitchen, buying the Big Issue or voting for a more caring political party, if you can find one. Personally I've helped local children and young people by providing sporting and recreational opportunities for the last 10  years and now I've become a foster parent to help those children who have grown up in chaos. Alpha, maybe when you've come to terms with your experiences, I'm sure you could be a great help to people who are facing what you once faced.

 

p.s. I'm sure Comic Relief cash is split 50/50 between UK causes and abroad, but having worked in volunteered in Africa, I can say that poverty is relative and what we see as poor would be very comfortable indeed in most parts of Africa.

[ladyram]

Alpha, I'm glad you've turned your life around and your recollections make for sad reading and I don't think I'll look at a homeless person in the same way again. I will say I have given them money before if I'd had some on me, haven't always walked past pretending they're invisible.

But just going back to one of your pg's in which you say if people give to charity, if it's for their own souls they're the lowest of the low? Can you explain that for me please?

I put money in collection pots, like baby charities, the air ambulance, the poppy appeal, cancer and heart charities pretty often, in the hope that it will go towards getting them all back on their feet, not because I want to feel better about myself.

Is that what you mean? It's not a loaded qt, I just wouldn't want to be thought of as low for doing it?