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Ovid (2709)
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Stuff with the Perl Foundation. A couple of patches in the Perl core. A few CPAN modules. That about sums it up.
Get a job, hippy
One idle thought I should mention about those folks who claim homeless people are just lazy and should get jobs. Let's assume they all snap out of it and want a job. How do they go about it?
Many years ago I was homeless. And you know what? Employers didn't want to hire me when I didn't have an address. They didn't like that I left the phone number blank. I had no washer and dryer so even basic sanitation was very, very difficult (I lived near a beach with public showers and would take showers with my clothes on). Given these problems and the fact that there tend to be relatively few public services available to help homeless people, how precisely is one supposed to get a job?
I was damned lucky to get out my situation and were it not for a very fortuitous series of events, I could have been homeless for a long, long time.
(It's also worth noting that until you've eaten your first meal from a trash can like I have, you have no idea how soul-destroying it can be.)
I pour myself a cup of strong coffee. :-)
-- Jarkko Hietaniemi
Orwell (Score:2)
Re:Orwell (Score:2)
I'm going to have to pick that up, thanks. I enjoy reading Orwell and it would be fascinating to learn his background.
You could have ... (Score:2)
In a civilised society (and I'll admit I don't actually know whether you live in one) there is enough help from the state that no-one need live on the streets, no-one need eat other peoples' rubbish. Therefore I conclude that anyone living on the streets in a civilised soci
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
In a civilised society (and I'll admit I don't actually know whether you live in one) there is enough help from the state that no-one need live on the streets, no-one need eat other peoples' rubbish.
Right. Sure. Try it. It's interesting that those outside of a situation often have a peculiar idea about the situation of those inside of it.
Having an address is not about having mail delivered. It's about being able to put something down on an application so the prospective boss doesn't realize you're
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
I know for a fact that in *this* civilised society it is possible to claim income support and housing benefit, and to get help finding a home of some kind from the local council. That home might be a room in a manky "hotel" it's true, but it's a roof, with an address and a phone. Please remember, I did say that I don't know whether you live in a civilised society or not. Judging by your comments in this post, then you probably don't.
Yes, I agree that asking to have your mail sent
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
Therefore I conclude that anyone living on the streets in a civilised society is either mentally ill and incapable of helping themselves (in which case they should be in hospital, and I pay the state to take that responsibility) or is there by their own choice (in which case they don't want my help).
I really don't know how to read that other than to accuse the homeless of being lazy or crazy. Of course, you do say "civilised society", so perhaps that's a way out. I would definitely argue that the US i
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
Fair enough. I did read too much into what you wrote. My apologies.
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
Why in the world does the fact that he might have had unconsidered alternatives mean that we should not be sympathetic for his plight?
J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
Re:You could have ... (Score:2)
Survival guide to homelessness (Score:1)
Re:Survival guide to homelessness (Score:2)
That's one hell of a blog. Thank you. Interestingly, like the author, I also never slept in a homeless shelter. I ate at them a couple of times when I could get in, but I couldn't bring myself to sleep there. It stank, the other homeless people often made me nervous and it was far enough away from everything else that it was a rough trek for me.
Gary Numan wrote my theme song (Score:1)
Raise your hand if you've ever had someone break into your car...while you were sleeping in it...more than once. And then for kicks we can start a Pythonesque dialog of "at least you had a car to sleep in, all we had was..." :-)
What do you propose be done about it? (Score:2)
I am in favor of having private charities do most of the work for helping the homeless, and prefer the government stay out, but I do see some small role for government.
You talk of compassion: the government is not supposed to be compassionate. That is not part of its reason for existing. It never has been, and what's more, it is actually incapable of it.
You can vote to take care of homeless people. That's
Re:What do you propose be done about it? (Score:2)
With all that in mind (or not), what do you propose be done about the problem?
Which problem? The problem which pisses me off here -- and that's the one the root post and much of the thread is about -- is people's attitudes. There's no way people will voluntarily help the homeless via charity, direct action or the government if they assume the homeless are mostly just lazy and unwilling to work. If you can come up with a way to get people to realize that there just might be a bit more to life than the
Re:What do you propose be done about it? (Score:2)
Ah. I thought you also were bemoaning the lack of government assistance. But you appear to be saying the first thing to do is change attitudes, and the details of the help that follow such a change are not the point.
The ensuing discussion kinda threw me.
As this is primarily about attitudes