I swear, yesterday I went to work in San Francisco. Usually on the way to work I see people begging in the BART, sleeping on the sidewalks, selling Street Spirit papers from all different walks of poverty. You do see the fakers; people who have nice bags, clean nails, fake injuries and fresh haircuts, they rely on you handing over your money while looking away. You see the ones that are struggling to improve their lot by selling papers& looking for work, often this variety of homeless have been staying in shelters and have managed to get clean clothes. There are also the hopeless who are like walking ghosts covered in grime, sleeping on door stoops having given up... and yet I did not see more than two homeless people yesterday, neither of whom I felt I could get a photo of without looking like a jerk... I'm heading to downtown Berkeley now... we'll see what kind of a postcard I can get down there for this year's "Poverty" theme on Blogger Action Day. In the mean time, I'm including the link below by the vlogbrothers (specifically Young Adult Author John Green) explaining kiva.org, which is an organization that I've left a link for on the sidebar. On one hand it's easier to give money to people in far away countries than to the poor people right here. It's sad that we don't seem to have better programs here that give people a hand-up, but I do respect the ones that are in place for international aid. Part of why we can give money to this organization and still have it go so far is because our dollar (weak as it is) is still strong in places of extreme poverty. Perhaps we need to set up a donation organization for the British to help out our empoverished... anyway, link for now, possible postcard to come, and I must head out to work.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Blog Action Day 2008 (Poverty)
Alternate Title (Slacker!)
I swear, yesterday I went to work in San Francisco. Usually on the way to work I see people begging in the BART, sleeping on the sidewalks, selling Street Spirit papers from all different walks of poverty. You do see the fakers; people who have nice bags, clean nails, fake injuries and fresh haircuts, they rely on you handing over your money while looking away. You see the ones that are struggling to improve their lot by selling papers& looking for work, often this variety of homeless have been staying in shelters and have managed to get clean clothes. There are also the hopeless who are like walking ghosts covered in grime, sleeping on door stoops having given up... and yet I did not see more than two homeless people yesterday, neither of whom I felt I could get a photo of without looking like a jerk... I'm heading to downtown Berkeley now... we'll see what kind of a postcard I can get down there for this year's "Poverty" theme on Blogger Action Day. In the mean time, I'm including the link below by the vlogbrothers (specifically Young Adult Author John Green) explaining kiva.org, which is an organization that I've left a link for on the sidebar. On one hand it's easier to give money to people in far away countries than to the poor people right here. It's sad that we don't seem to have better programs here that give people a hand-up, but I do respect the ones that are in place for international aid. Part of why we can give money to this organization and still have it go so far is because our dollar (weak as it is) is still strong in places of extreme poverty. Perhaps we need to set up a donation organization for the British to help out our empoverished... anyway, link for now, possible postcard to come, and I must head out to work.
I swear, yesterday I went to work in San Francisco. Usually on the way to work I see people begging in the BART, sleeping on the sidewalks, selling Street Spirit papers from all different walks of poverty. You do see the fakers; people who have nice bags, clean nails, fake injuries and fresh haircuts, they rely on you handing over your money while looking away. You see the ones that are struggling to improve their lot by selling papers& looking for work, often this variety of homeless have been staying in shelters and have managed to get clean clothes. There are also the hopeless who are like walking ghosts covered in grime, sleeping on door stoops having given up... and yet I did not see more than two homeless people yesterday, neither of whom I felt I could get a photo of without looking like a jerk... I'm heading to downtown Berkeley now... we'll see what kind of a postcard I can get down there for this year's "Poverty" theme on Blogger Action Day. In the mean time, I'm including the link below by the vlogbrothers (specifically Young Adult Author John Green) explaining kiva.org, which is an organization that I've left a link for on the sidebar. On one hand it's easier to give money to people in far away countries than to the poor people right here. It's sad that we don't seem to have better programs here that give people a hand-up, but I do respect the ones that are in place for international aid. Part of why we can give money to this organization and still have it go so far is because our dollar (weak as it is) is still strong in places of extreme poverty. Perhaps we need to set up a donation organization for the British to help out our empoverished... anyway, link for now, possible postcard to come, and I must head out to work.
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