I am a great supporter of The Big Issue. "Working not begging" is a highly respectable ethic to run this organisation by and the employees should be respected for this. What many people do not realise is that the vendors buy their copies and sell them on, so they have to make sure they sell otherwise they will be even worse off. I for one can understand it is a hard trade as I have often been that annoying person on the street corner trying to shove a flyer into the hands of passers by and it is a soul destroying job I can tell you. Now that I have experienced this, I always take the flyers, or at least acknowledge the person with a polite "no thank you" as this is all we need: acknowledgement. It is in fact much nicer to vocally decline than to ignore us completely, the feeling of being invisible and non-existent is horrible and unusual, a strange spiral downwards into the angry pit of thinking that all these smart business people are looking down at your flyering inferiority. And I got paid an hourly rate! It didn't even matter whether the flyers were shifted in the grand scheme of things, I just had to stand there being ignored and nothing for me would change financially. But for the vendors of The Big Issue it is a hell of a lot different.
I met a lovely vendor at Vauxhall station a while ago who was in a wheelchair, Michael. I got chatting to him and he explained how some other vendors had stolen a stack of his copies, clearly because he was more vulnerable in his chair and was unable to chase after them. This is absolutely disgusting. His aim that night was to get enough money from the copies he had left to pay for a room for the night; he was also very unwell and due to go to the hospital with his support worker the following day. I gave him the money for the cost of the room and took his number so that I could check in on him. Unfortunately, I tried a couple of times to get hold of him, but to no avail. Some may question his sympathy inducing tale because of this but he was a genuine man; I could tell from his posture and the way he moved and spoke that there was no acting there. I must try to contact him again.
It is sad that we are often sceptical about situations and people, such as Michael's, I myself considered the possibility that I was being lead on, and feel irritated with myself that this even occurred to me. I know a few people who always assume that thise they are dealing with are being manipulative and conniving, but for no real reason other than that they go around being constantly suspicious of people's intentions. People can be nice because they are kind, and because they want to help, it is not always a selfish gesture, or fictional spiel to play on your empathetic side.
This is something I firmly believe and stick to. Clearly everything can't fit into my rose tinted world and there will be the odd person that is not genuine. I just think we should not live life worrying about this and assuming the worst conclusion....although you just have to accept that sometimes you will be caught out!...
I was caught out with my naïve approach to life by a homeless man in Covent Garden. He was trying to sell his last magazine, which he said was a Big Issue. I offered to buy it, and he took my money whilst popping the rolled up magazine into my large open bag. On reflection, alarm bells should have rung! As I left, passing his group of friends in the street I noticed they were all drinking beer. This saddened me slightly, because I'd much rather see the Big Issue earnings be spent on food or something else more useful, then again, everyone is entitled to treats and fun! This also made me realise I couldn't recall him wearing a Big Issue badge. I stopped and pulled out my magazine, to find it was the free Covent Garden Guide. AAARRGGHH. As I said, I support the Big Issue because it is "working not begging", and I think this man should invest in that to make his way. I was fuming at being tricked and stormed back to him demanding my money back. He said that he had already given it to his boss and while I continued to argue, it reaped no rewards. AND he was in another location with another magazine yelling out to the public that it was his last one. The cheek! I have since told this story to friends and some of them have laughed, some have been appalled, some have given him big kudos for being so crafty.
I suppose I do not like "the homeless" to all be generalised. There are adverts around warning you not to give money because it will be spent on drugs and people everywhere being moved on by the police. However, there are those that work and those that are lazy, those that are genuine and those that will con, those that aren't even in it for the money (yes I have had one vendor offer me a discount!) and those that will do anything they can to take advantage of you. We cannot pass judgement on any group as a whole, and we cannot look down on anyone.
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