when I was in london, we were walking down an alley and one of our group nearly tripped over a man in a sleeping bag. Freaked her out.
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when I was in london, we were walking down an alley and one of our group nearly tripped over a man in a sleeping bag. Freaked her out.
I don't give to beggars.
About them goin on holidays...well I think it depends on the person.
I ignore beggers. Why should I give them my hard-earned cash? They want some they should work for it.
Granted I'll probably take this back in a few years after my mother kicks me out and I end up a begger myself :p
Stryker is waaay too small, I've never seen a beggar or bum here. Except my brother.
I'll give money to the street musicians and such but no one who begs. It's especially annoying when there's no way to avoid them stopping you and telling you a whole story.
Dont belive in Karma then? :p
That guy has the best shorts ever.
I give them money if they are playing an instrument.
I've never seen a beggar where I live (though apparently there have been some - there's a rumor among kids that the police take them all to Santa Ana :eyebrow:), but I visited Pakistan for a while last summer and I saw a lot there. The people I was with there were always locals, and they said to ignore the beggars, partly because of things like what Hambone said:
The people I spent time with there said other things about beggars, like how they'd kidnap and injure babies and use them to gain sympathy. I still wonder how much of it all is true :-/Quote:
Originally Posted by Hambone
They have to be offering a service for me to give money, and that's really dependent on my mood whether I do. I used to give them money until I started to earn my own money...then I started to look at them with dismay.
It's odd that I would expect them to get jobs and stuff but they wouldn't be in this situation if they had jobs. Drives me insane and I just resort to the 'if you give them money you aren't showing them how to survive on their own' argument. Similar to how we've been giving money to impoverished nations for decades now with no result.
We actually met a beggar and his dog just like that when I was in Edinburgh with my girlfriend. I wanted to ignore but, feeling more sympathy for the dog than the man, my girlfriend went to Mcdonalds and bought them a Happy Meal. I'm convinced they use those bloody dogs as a tactic to score money off of animal lovers.
I usually just ignore people who're begging for money, and or say I don't have any. One time on the freeway on ramp I gave some left overs from PF Changs (chinese restaurant) to this dude who was standing there with a sign. I don't mind so much giving them a bottle of water or food, but money is a different story.
There are at least 3 Big Issue (magazine whose aims and sale are to help the homeless) vendors in the High Street alone, and there is a Nomad Society shelter available, and YMCA nearby.
There was a fellow in Lewisham, London, near to where I used to live; he used to beg near the bus station. He would disappear for brief periods; my dad would joke he had made enough money to go to California.:p
If I'm in a really superb mood I'll give them some change, otherwise I walk past as though they weren't even people.
As long as they stay 10 feet away from me they're fine...
I ignore, not much beggars where I live (Singapore). And I don't really care about them anyway.