Helping for the homeless.

[jenny lucas]

Again, this boils down to the toughest ethical question of all - Am I my brother's keeper?

What obligation DOES anyone in the entire world owe to another?

Do I (I speak now as a taxpayer funding the NHS and the Benefits system) pay for this woman's health care and housing? And if so, why this particular woman?

Should I not preferably give to someone in even direr straits?

How does a human being establish a 'hierarchy of need' (who's straits are direr in escalating order?)

Do I pay for this woman simply because she is 'in front of my eyes' (ie, through that article), rather than someone suffering 'worse' but 'out of sight' (ie, still in another country)?

I genuinely don't know the answer, and I doubt many folk do - because unless one takes the 'extreme sibling' POV - ie, that not a single human being in the world has ANY right to withhold funds of any amount from anyone whose strait is direr than their own - (hands up who is for that one, except Mother Teresa?)(who actually did it!).

Hoiw 'dire' do MY straits have to be before I 'don't have' to pay for someone else? Or is it simply down to the same level - if I have threepence and someone else only tuppance do I give my 'spare' (excess) penny to the person with only one?

And that is even BEFORE we come on to the issue of 'deserving' straits.....but let's leave that one out. Let's not think of those who smoke themselves to lung cancer and then expect expensive operations etc etc (ie, the 'contributory negligence' issue)(it applies to my late husband by the way - he cost the NHS money because of his smoking-related cancer)(though he also saved the NHS money for years as he had a very health lifestyle once he gave up excessive smoking in his twenties - does that balance out the 'deservingness' etc etc?)

These really are intractable moral issues, and at the very least (ie, taking out the 'contributory negligence' to the direness of one's straits), would genuinely require a true, full on Communist Society (or a Commonwealth of Saints which is probably the same thing but with 'added God'!).

So, Am I My Brother's Keeper?

Which equates to 'What right have I to more than I need for subsistence and survival, if there are others who lack even that?

[jenny lucas]

I could, with reference to the article you quote say, for example:

'This woman probably has family in Roumania' (or wherever her citizenship is based)

'Roumana probably has some kind of healthcare system, however poor in comparison with the UK's' (simply because it's a poorer country?)

'Is there any reason other than compassion (!!!!!!!!!!) why she should not be given a ticket back to Bucharest?'

In other words: Is This Our Problem? (Are We her Keepers'.......)

[Chris From The Gulag]

Questions that are legitimate ( Shades of the Grenfell Tower inquiry ) but ... the answer is already here and now ... almost like a post mortem ?

Like CarerLand ... carers tend to react , not act ... and so it is the world outside ?

[jenny lucas]

The whole issue is heartbreakingly sad.

[Chris From The Gulag]

That is one view nobody ( I hope ? ) will disagree with on this forum.

To take it further would be nudging the barriers of politics.

Politics and carers ... NEVER shall the twain meet !

[Colin _1706]

I think that what most people don't realise is that the austerity cuts are a political choice and not a necessity.
When the cost of PIP and UC is running far higher than before the cuts started, what was the point? Removing public money and giving it to vast and wealthy corporations to inflict death, pain and suffering on hundreds of thousands of people is a crime worthy of Justice in the Hague.

My local Labour Councillor refused to answer my emails talking about the killing of the moist vulnerable people in OUR society by political policy. The truth is a bitter pill to swallow, but the people who are there as public servants must swallow that pill and look at what they have done and will continue to do. Killing innocent elderly, sick, impoverished people is not a financial solution to anything, it is infact genocide of a whole sector of society.

I agree it is very sad and it is also shameful and hateful.

[Chris From The Gulag]

Perhaps all those back in the early days ... 2004 / 2005 / 2006 ... who took issue with the use of a certain phrase I used then will now tend to agree with it ... and then , me ?

Even on CarerWatch , a couple of doubters ... strange given what we all were working on collectively.

And that was before the artillery was brought upto the front line ... Austerity followed by Universal Credit.

" A Social War raged by the Government against it's most vulnerable citizens ! "

[Chris From The Gulag]

Tory councillor calls for homeless people's tents to be torn down.

Kathryn Kelloway faces criticism after urging Cardiff council to clear its city centre.

To add insult to injury , her declared interests :

Social Care Agency Worker ( New Directions Recruitment ).

The mind boggles ?

[Chris From The Gulag]

Two posts today on this thread ... this is the second ... could not be more different even if I tried ?

Shock and sadness as popular homeless Hull man Alex Smith, 37, dies suddenly.

Alex, who was only in his 30s, has been described as " Lovable " and a " Man who would give away his last penny ? "

Emotional tributes have been paid to a “loveable” homeless Hull man who has died suddenly leaving rough sleepers across the city shocked and devastated.

Alex Smith, 37, had been intermittently sleeping rough in Hull for years, primarily alongside his best friend Craig Thompson.

The pair, who met as pupils at South Wolds Boarding School, were inseparable, and last year they made a shelter for themselves in Pryme Street in Hull city centre.

Alex was last seen on Tuesday morning at a breakfast club, according to fellow rough sleeper and friend Lennie Norris. However, just a day later, the homeless community was told he had died, leaving them shell-shocked and consumed by grief.

Yes ... a HUMAN face to add to this thread ... makes a difference , doesn't it ?

[Colin _1706]

I think we all know why there is a huge rise in the homeless and the Tory party blaming the end products of a broken society is par for the course. So lets us instead on the positive things we can all do which was the purpose of my thread.
They are people, they are human beings, they are parents and grandparents and as always its up to the decent British people to brush aside the rampant political idiocy and genuinely help our own people no matter what nationality.

Nuff said.

I am progressing my collection of things for the homeless centre today