There are more homeless now, that’s true. But then again, there are more people of all sorts now too.
Lacking outdoor skills
- Thread starter Janne
- Start date
I get it about being cautious believing all the stories and pleas from “homeless.” Heck, I’m usually the most cynical one on the forum. And I’ve seen my share of people with chronic bad choices when I was a cop (if really severe weather was coming we’d find some charge to arrest homeless just to get them inside under shelter with food overnight)
All that said, I refuse to give up caring. I still serve in the local soup kitchen, I still buy a meal for indigents when I see them near a fast food place. I still give money at times (but this is always a last resort—-it’s better to carry gift cards for places like McDonald’s or similar to hand out)
All that said, I refuse to give up caring. I still serve in the local soup kitchen, I still buy a meal for indigents when I see them near a fast food place. I still give money at times (but this is always a last resort—-it’s better to carry gift cards for places like McDonald’s or similar to hand out)
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The increasing pressures of today bring more people 'over the edge' than ever.
Some people have guts enough to say - no more of this cr@p- and start a new life. Maybe off grid. Maybe just take a more simple job.
Years ago, I calculated how much I had to work to live like my grand parents (dad's side) did. I could go down to less than 50%.
We spend a lot of time, stress to be able to have the 'modern' life. and do not enjoy much of it.
Some break.
Some people have guts enough to say - no more of this cr@p- and start a new life. Maybe off grid. Maybe just take a more simple job.
Years ago, I calculated how much I had to work to live like my grand parents (dad's side) did. I could go down to less than 50%.
We spend a lot of time, stress to be able to have the 'modern' life. and do not enjoy much of it.
Some break.
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Anybody can end up homeless. I was 21 and living at home and my dad gave me a week to get out, back in those days however I was able to get a Council flat. Not so nowadays. I was made temporarily homeless by a fire, not in my flat but elsewhere in the block, and was put in emergency B&B, that was initially only for one night, I was supposed to make my own arrangements with them after that, which if I had not have been able to do, I would have been on the streets until my flat was habitable again. I was not sure at the time if I would ever be allowed back in or the block would be condemned. I left with only the clothes I stood up in, and had it not been for insurance I would have been well screwed.
My mum's cousin ended up losing a very good job, family and lived on the streets. For him the descent was alcoholism. His dad also loved his beers but could hold it together despite being effectively an alcoholic too. Very sad really.
I met the son in law of my Gran's best friend. He was a lecturer and researcher in iirc physics at liverpool university. Very bright indeed. A motorbike accident resulted in major brain damage that meant he was unable to get and hold down a job. Luckily he had support. His wife stuck with him as did all his family he was a nice guy if you took the effort to communicate with him.
Sad when things like that happens. I know of another case but he had good family support too.
I met the son in law of my Gran's best friend. He was a lecturer and researcher in iirc physics at liverpool university. Very bright indeed. A motorbike accident resulted in major brain damage that meant he was unable to get and hold down a job. Luckily he had support. His wife stuck with him as did all his family he was a nice guy if you took the effort to communicate with him.
Sad when things like that happens. I know of another case but he had good family support too.
There is asaying that you are a months rent or mortgage payment away from homelessness and the streets. It could happen at any time to anyone. Being on the street is realy scary and dangerous. You can only live for a short time with those sort of pressures before it has an effect on your mental and physical health. Lack of food and warmth, being totaly outcast from everyday life. Looked down on by everyone. Eventualy for some it becomes a way of life as they take to drink and/ or drugs to numb the pain. They no longer fit into what is considered normal society so opt to stay where they are and often die young.
Then you have people who have left prison and have nothing and nowhere to go so they stick to a life of crime as for some that's all they know and at least in prison you get a bed and three square meals a day and TV!
There are as many reasons as there are people. I realy hate it when some look down their noses and say oh there is a homeless person.. they must have mental health issues / alcohol /drug/crime problems so I'll just ignore them and walk past as if they don't exist and they should be taken off the street so my sensibilities don't get offended.
I'm not denying there are some for whom this is true, but you got to give them a chance somewhere and somehow. I don't have the answers and I don't think anyone really does. Imagine if this happened to you? Would you like to be tarred with that brush?
Perhaps you have the family / friends support and the skills and kit to survive for a time but many don't.
Then you have people who have left prison and have nothing and nowhere to go so they stick to a life of crime as for some that's all they know and at least in prison you get a bed and three square meals a day and TV!
There are as many reasons as there are people. I realy hate it when some look down their noses and say oh there is a homeless person.. they must have mental health issues / alcohol /drug/crime problems so I'll just ignore them and walk past as if they don't exist and they should be taken off the street so my sensibilities don't get offended.
I'm not denying there are some for whom this is true, but you got to give them a chance somewhere and somehow. I don't have the answers and I don't think anyone really does. Imagine if this happened to you? Would you like to be tarred with that brush?
Perhaps you have the family / friends support and the skills and kit to survive for a time but many don't.
Where does the diesel generator they used to charge their phones come into their environmental plan?
You are right though, they will be fine a lot of them are getting paid for it too....
No mention of the ex Forces lads making up a large portion of homeless?
Having been homeless the thing that annoyed me the most was people giving cash to professional beggars. I Donate stuff to shelter and appropriate charities. Rather than giving cash, due to charities being corrupt businesses.
I once bought a lad a sausage roll and a cup of coffee one winter, and be scoffed at me and said he would rather have the cash. So I told him to stop being a **** and walked off.
And not to mention foreigners jumping for jobs selling the big issue, taking those jobs away from genuine homeless people.
It's only a small ray of hope but one of the UK's most notorious professional "charity" fundraisers was banned from being a company director for nine and half years in June 2018. Sadly there's a whole lot more Direct Marketing outfits out there working on behalf of some very dubious organisations, preying on the elderly.
It's because it it's manufactured from petrochemicals <
plastic tents polyester sleeping bags. A duck down. Duvet is far more eco frendly. They need to be enlightened on canvass really.
Saw this in the news today about Extinction Rebellion. Very interesting read.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50087022
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50087022
"The press has pointed to the way it is "raking in" money from members to support its operations and Mr Medhurst says the group has raised more than £2.5m this year.
Between the beginning of March and the end of September, gifts from large donors - those giving £5,000 or more - totalled £1.2m."
The article gives something of a breakdown of where the money gets spent.Between the beginning of March and the end of September, gifts from large donors - those giving £5,000 or more - totalled £1.2m."
It's because it it's manufactured from petrochemicals <
True, true!
As long as they do not investigate how most down is harvested....
Then they will sleep rolled up in cardboard boxes ( made from recycled paper).
Let’s be honest though, extinction rebellion isn’t about the environment, it’s a Trojan horse to implement a communist/socialist/globalist foothold. They are just a mob used as pawns.
This would be as opposed to the capitalist/globalist new world order?
I am trying not to laugh, but it IS difficult.
The people gluing themselves to railings are very clearly there because of environmental concerns. To think otherwise is absurd. Perhaps they are being someone else's "useful idiots", it is often the nature of mobs/idealist movements to be someone else's pawns, but without that environmental concern, there would be no group.
To be honest saying XR isn't about the environment is a bit like saying banks are not about money!
Of course it's a communist conspiracy ! Has to be dismissed or we will have to actually do something about it. That would be awful wouldn't it! Think about it... clean air.. who wants that? Bees and other insects to pollinate your food crops. Stupid idea! you can go out with a little paintbrush and do it yourself.. might even provide work for all those out of work oil industrialists pollinating those huge wheat fields.
Seriously? A trojan horse communist socialist plot?????? What planet you on?
Sorry don't make me laugh....except it's not a laughing matter. It's fine to stick your head in the sand and berate those pensioners doctors scientists and youngsters who are trying to actually do something about it. It's very easy to criticise sat in front of your TV. Perhaps meeting some of these people with an open mind would be a better course of action.
Looking after our children's future can be a thankless task in many ways. But who wouldn't want the best for them?
I'm not trying to have a go at you .. but I have only two questions . Have you read the story of noah and the ark? Do you want to be on the ark or banging on the door for admittance?
Am I a socialist communist or even a tory? No I'm not anything like that. If I had to give myself a label it would be someone who cares.. and often despairs about the state of the world. Politics are not my scene at all. It's just that sometimes you have to think for yourself not be swayed by all the cr*p in the papers and TV!
It is easy to shout that something must be done.
Most of us know that.
But they should also provide the solutions or ways to achieve the goal.
I think they have lost a lot of supporters, or potential supporters, with their disruptions.
Most of us know that.
But they should also provide the solutions or ways to achieve the goal.
I think they have lost a lot of supporters, or potential supporters, with their disruptions.
It is often the case of environmental campaigns getting headlines for what they're against but really not giving viable solutions. Stop doing this but how? What takes its place?
2025 is the goal date according to ER. Such a short timescale so stop gluing yourself to trains and give us a how not just a what and subjective when.
The message has been out for so long. It's the how that tbh only governments have looked at. Not good enough grant you but without giving real solutions you're open to criticism. I think we're seeing how criticism of one side is possible when they don't offer proper solutions. That's governments and ER btw. One gets protested against and the other gets accusations of being some sort of anarcho-communist teardown. Neither outcomes help much. But at least they're trying to do something, right? They've both got that defence.
2025 is the goal date according to ER. Such a short timescale so stop gluing yourself to trains and give us a how not just a what and subjective when.
The message has been out for so long. It's the how that tbh only governments have looked at. Not good enough grant you but without giving real solutions you're open to criticism. I think we're seeing how criticism of one side is possible when they don't offer proper solutions. That's governments and ER btw. One gets protested against and the other gets accusations of being some sort of anarcho-communist teardown. Neither outcomes help much. But at least they're trying to do something, right? They've both got that defence.
If one does an internet search for the words Extinction Rebellion and Communist, or Socialist, you do get hits, more than a couple of newspaper articles.
The Communism practised in the Soviet Union and many other places was historically not good for technological innovation, or fostering creativity, nor for raising the living standards of its citizens. Whatever you want to call what is currently being practised by China still isn't as good at creativity as the Western system, but it is catching up and in some areas surpassing the efficiency of Western Capitalist Democracy.
There are quite a few people in the US who think of the UK as Socialist, because we have the NHS and other social safety nets. There is clearly a spectrum of what people consider to be an acceptable level of socialism, and how effective these levels are.
Now in the case of environmental action, we are in the position we are in large part because people, and companies, have been free and encouraged to do what they want, freely, and to pursue profits competitively, because the model said this was the best way to foster creativity, drive innovation and raise living standards. Can people and companies choose to change direction, when such a change may not be comfortable, and is surely not going to be profitable, at least to begin with? If you are the first company, and you change to a more costly but more environmentally friendly system, while your competitors do not, you risk ruin.
In comes the "communist" idea. The people are pointing out that perhaps the only way to get the radical change they see as necessary, is for governments everywhere to act and force everyone, globally, on to a new path, force change for the common good. Of course, the worry for governments is much the same as for countries. If they bring their country to a halt with energy rationing, or similar radical changes, and competing countries keep burning coal a bit longer, they risk bringing ruin on their industries and people.
The Communism practised in the Soviet Union and many other places was historically not good for technological innovation, or fostering creativity, nor for raising the living standards of its citizens. Whatever you want to call what is currently being practised by China still isn't as good at creativity as the Western system, but it is catching up and in some areas surpassing the efficiency of Western Capitalist Democracy.
There are quite a few people in the US who think of the UK as Socialist, because we have the NHS and other social safety nets. There is clearly a spectrum of what people consider to be an acceptable level of socialism, and how effective these levels are.
Now in the case of environmental action, we are in the position we are in large part because people, and companies, have been free and encouraged to do what they want, freely, and to pursue profits competitively, because the model said this was the best way to foster creativity, drive innovation and raise living standards. Can people and companies choose to change direction, when such a change may not be comfortable, and is surely not going to be profitable, at least to begin with? If you are the first company, and you change to a more costly but more environmentally friendly system, while your competitors do not, you risk ruin.
In comes the "communist" idea. The people are pointing out that perhaps the only way to get the radical change they see as necessary, is for governments everywhere to act and force everyone, globally, on to a new path, force change for the common good. Of course, the worry for governments is much the same as for countries. If they bring their country to a halt with energy rationing, or similar radical changes, and competing countries keep burning coal a bit longer, they risk bringing ruin on their industries and people.
Historically seen,( maybe even today?) , it was the so called Socialist countries that created the worst environmental pollution.
I have said it before, and say it again: We need to start planting trees. The cheapest and most efficient carbon locking mechanism we have today.
Do you have a small back garden? Plant a tree in the middle. A large garden? Plant more trees.
It is pointless imo to pay money into schemes where the money is used to plant trees in Africa or other developing countries. Becomes firewood as soon as they become large enough.
Every country should take care of its own Carbon emissions.
I have said it before, and say it again: We need to start planting trees. The cheapest and most efficient carbon locking mechanism we have today.
Do you have a small back garden? Plant a tree in the middle. A large garden? Plant more trees.
It is pointless imo to pay money into schemes where the money is used to plant trees in Africa or other developing countries. Becomes firewood as soon as they become large enough.
Every country should take care of its own Carbon emissions.
Most people believe the plastic bags you get in taking your shopping home is very bad for the environment, and paper bags are the environment friendly alternative.
Correct?
as you all know, wood products, including pulp and paper, is a hugely important industry in Sweden.
Despite the very strict regulations introduced years ago, large parts of the Baltic Sea are dead. Outside the paper/pulp mills, the bottoms are devoid of all life.
More and more paper is made in Asia, from the 'sustainable' Bamboo. I can just imagine what they release into the watercourses and seas, with their non existent environmental thinking.....
Environment friendly paper bags? No. Far from it.
Correct?
as you all know, wood products, including pulp and paper, is a hugely important industry in Sweden.
Despite the very strict regulations introduced years ago, large parts of the Baltic Sea are dead. Outside the paper/pulp mills, the bottoms are devoid of all life.
More and more paper is made in Asia, from the 'sustainable' Bamboo. I can just imagine what they release into the watercourses and seas, with their non existent environmental thinking.....
Environment friendly paper bags? No. Far from it.
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