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Responding to Beggars
51–60 of 139 posts
Re: Responding to Beggars
#52In Thailand this situation is quite terrible. The Mafia collects people with missing limbs and other disfigurations, basically the people who will elicit the greatest sympathy, and forces them to sit on the same corners begging day after day, month after month and year after year - and turn all of the money they collect over to them. If they steal any, they die. In return they are provided with the bare minimum subsi…
The situation is similar in Sweden, but I have thankfully not heard of anyone disfiguring someone else for these purposes. Yet. One of the glorious benefits of being a member of the EU is that we now have to put up with organized gangs of beggars coming in from Romania, Bulgaria etc harassing us on our streets. (The leftists have proposed that we add these people to our welfare rolls and give them their own apartment…
Exporting organised crime will not solve your problems. Especially regarding the EU.
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15932840,00.html
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15921927,00.html
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120503-42321.html
http://www.thelocal.se/31650/20110126/
http://www.economist.com/node/6919139
...etc.
Re: Responding to Beggars
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
The situation is similar in Sweden, but I have thankfully not heard of anyone disfiguring someone else for these purposes. Yet. One of the glorious benefits of being a member of the EU is that we now have to put up with organized gangs of beggars coming in from Romania, Bulgaria etc harassing us on our streets. (The leftists have proposed that we add these people to our welfare rolls and give them their own apartment…
Exporting organised crime will not solve your problems. Especially regarding the EU. http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15932840,00.html http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15921927,00.html http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120503-42321.html http://www.thelocal.se/31650/20110126/ http://www.economist.com/node/6919139 ...etc.
I am 100% confident that deporting all foreign beggars in Sweden will solve the problem of foreign beggars in Sweden. I don't really care if this doesn't get to the "bottom of the problem" or whatever. I (or the Swedish people in general) simply cannot be held responsible for the suffering of the entire fucking world.
Your links don't make any sense. The DDR used slave labor? Ingvar Kamprad uses various tax avoidance schemes? Did you choose them simply because they are related to Sweden?
Re: Responding to Beggars
#54This has been a huge problem for me. I recently moved to San Francisco after many years of living in the Midwest. I was born and lived the first 10 years of my life in Delhi where poverty was no big deal. It was accepted and not questioned. After living in the States and doing all the chores that someone else would normally do for me in India (dishes, laundry, etc.), it became difficult for me to see people as anythi…
There are ways to help the homeless without giving out money. For example, volunteering at a soup kitchen, shelter, etc.
And those things make far more difference in the long run. I never give to beggars aside from occasionally buying a "big issue". By my understanding (which I'll admit is almost entirely based on second-/third-/more-hand information and a chunk of cynicism) you can make far far more difference overall by donating to relevant charities and other such groups if you want to help financially, or (as you say) donating your time and effort to those groups by other means.
[] the cynicism part comes from things like the woman who for three years now has been trying to get together the bus fair to Hull, or some years ago seeing someone who earlier had been sat on a corner begging get into a car that appeared to be his and drive away
Re: Responding to Beggars
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exporting organised crime will not solve your problems. Especially regarding the EU. http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15932840,00.html http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15921927,00.html http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120503-42321.html http://www.thelocal.se/31650/20110126/ http://www.economist.com/node/6919139 ...etc.
I am 100% confident that deporting all foreign beggars in Sweden will solve the problem of foreign beggars in Sweden. I don't really care if this doesn't get to the "bottom of the problem" or whatever. I (or the Swedish people in general) simply cannot be held responsible for the suffering of the entire fucking world. Your links don't make any sense. The DDR used slave labor? Ingvar Kamprad uses various tax avoidance…
What a brilliant "solution": if somebody does something you are not happy with... just deport them!
Re: Responding to Beggars
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exporting organised crime will not solve your problems. Especially regarding the EU. http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15932840,00.html http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15921927,00.html http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120503-42321.html http://www.thelocal.se/31650/20110126/ http://www.economist.com/node/6919139 ...etc.
I am 100% confident that deporting all foreign beggars in Sweden will solve the problem of foreign beggars in Sweden. I don't really care if this doesn't get to the "bottom of the problem" or whatever. I (or the Swedish people in general) simply cannot be held responsible for the suffering of the entire fucking world. Your links don't make any sense. The DDR used slave labor? Ingvar Kamprad uses various tax avoidance…
3 Free movement of capital
4 Free movement of services
5 Free movement of people
5.1 Free movement of workers
5.2 Free movement for the non-economically active
5.3 The Schengen Area
I also invite you to read the labels of ie. the plying wooden chairs and crude mugs from which all those world-mesmerising profits arise.
Re: Responding to Beggars
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am 100% confident that deporting all foreign beggars in Sweden will solve the problem of foreign beggars in Sweden. I don't really care if this doesn't get to the "bottom of the problem" or whatever. I (or the Swedish people in general) simply cannot be held responsible for the suffering of the entire fucking world. Your links don't make any sense. The DDR used slave labor? Ingvar Kamprad uses various tax avoidance…
What a brilliant "solution": if somebody does something you are not happy with... just deport them!
Certainly. Foreign criminals are deported all the time.
Re: Responding to Beggars
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exporting organised crime will not solve your problems. Especially regarding the EU. http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15932840,00.html http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15921927,00.html http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120503-42321.html http://www.thelocal.se/31650/20110126/ http://www.economist.com/node/6919139 ...etc.
I am 100% confident that deporting all foreign beggars in Sweden will solve the problem of foreign beggars in Sweden. I don't really care if this doesn't get to the "bottom of the problem" or whatever. I (or the Swedish people in general) simply cannot be held responsible for the suffering of the entire fucking world. Your links don't make any sense. The DDR used slave labor? Ingvar Kamprad uses various tax avoidance…
You (and I) are responsible if you are enjoying your privileges while – through no fault of their own - others suffer.
Sweden and the west got rich through luck and exploitation. You are privileged. You are lucky. Recognize that and act on it.
Re: Responding to Beggars
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am 100% confident that deporting all foreign beggars in Sweden will solve the problem of foreign beggars in Sweden. I don't really care if this doesn't get to the "bottom of the problem" or whatever. I (or the Swedish people in general) simply cannot be held responsible for the suffering of the entire fucking world. Your links don't make any sense. The DDR used slave labor? Ingvar Kamprad uses various tax avoidance…
3 Free movement of capital 4 Free movement of services 5 Free movement of people 5.1 Free movement of workers 5.2 Free movement for the non-economically active 5.3 The Schengen Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms_%28European_Unio... I also invite you to read the labels of ie. the plying wooden chairs and crude mugs from which all those world-mesmerising profits arise.
What is your point? Do you think I'm somehow ignorant of what the EU means? I know about the free movement of people - I reject it since it has negative consequences for me!
For some reason you are unwilling to come right out and simply say what you think about IKEA, thus leaving me to read your mind. Presumably your argument goes something like this:
"Ingvar Kamprad is Swedish, Ingvar Kamprad used forced labor in the GDR, therefore all Swedish people must pay for these sins by putting up with foreign beggars on their streets".
Re: Responding to Beggars
#60For me it isn't a question of being duped or scammed. It's a question of whether the gift is really going to help them. It turns out this is a very difficult question. When you give money to a beggar, you are saying "great job! here's a bonus to encourage you to keep begging!". At the same time, these are usually people who are in need. I also know that substance abuse is close to certain. I don't have a good answer. Most of the time I give nothing. Occasionally I'll hand a guy a 20, without regard for his story or whether I'm being scammed. It's a gift given freely.
What I know for sure is that I can be polite to them. Recognize them as humans, not treat them as lepers. If they engage me in conversation ask their name, where they are from. But usually ignore them on the ask. Because I can't rationalize that it would help.
But it's not an easy question.