Volunteering, work in the Cairngorms

Nomad64

Full Member
Nov 21, 2015
1,072
597
UK
post scriptum:
it finally dawned on me!
Britain, Wales and Scotland still got the English upper and high class system embedded in their culture.
Och I was slow to understand that!
That why the Scandinavian and Dutch people here dont get it!

"Britain, Wales and Scotland...." not yet but give it a couple of years! ;)

Presumably the unwillingness of Dutch and Scandinavian people to work other than for cold hard cash means that they can't get volunteer moderators for their bushcraft websites so have to use ones modded by downtrodden serfs in the UK. I guess bushcraft gettogethers never happen there either because no one is prepared to spend unpaid time arranging them? ;)

Ironically, volunteering does potentially damage the interests of less advantaged people, but not in the way (I think) that you are suggesting.

Kids from poorer families are less likely to be able to afford to take unpaid internships (or have the social contacts to arrange them) or to pay for voluntourism opportunities to decorate their cvs to get the best education or job offers. The willingness of volunteers to work for free for the National Trust, local Wildlife Trusts etc. obviously reduces work opportunities for professional gardeners, foresters etc.

Sorry to burst your theory but, if you spot someone working for nothing in the UK, they are as likely to be towards the higher social echelons as the lower. :)

PS apologies, I typed this a while ago and got chatting with Mrs Nomad about some unpaid work she had been doing arranging an Easter egg hunt - I didn't realise that there had been a voluntary (can you see what I did there!) end to this thread. :surrender:
 
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Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,297
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
I think the 'bushcraft scene' is different in Fenno Skandia compared to UK. The largest leisure activity by far is going out into nature, from a quick stroll in the forest, maybe picking mushrooms or berries or an hour on crosscountry skis to a couple of weeks walking a trail.
This is very traditional, hence our Right to Roam which safeguards this.
Also a very large % of the population have access to a cottage ( ancestral in many cases) be it shared family ownership or single.
Many of those soecially up north do not have running water, heating or electricity.
Bushcraft with a bed and roof!
Small populations, fewer people per area means cheap land (compared to UK) so quite cheap to buy and put up a cabin.

Being in nature is more integral in our lives. Most of us do not have the old skills you guys have. None of my old buddies would make a fire not using matches or a lighter.
Maybe the young Scandihooligans are better there?

Also one difference between our areas is a more social one ( maybe wrong expression - no politics meant) as in FS we do not have the amount of charities and charitable/volunteering work. Out charities ate more towards less fortunate countries, or children in those countries and such. Export charity if you will!

Maybe that is the problem with some of us not understanding the volunteering bit?
( being Eastern think "reaching out a palm leaf of peace"!)
 
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Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
Funnily enough that topic reared it's head recently. Our long school Summer Holidays are apparantly a reminder that this was harvest time and the children were needed to work…..different times indeed.
 

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