This has been a huge problem for me. I recently moved to San Francisco after many years of living in the Midwest. I was born and lived the first 10 years of my life in Delhi where poverty was no big deal. It was accepted and not questioned. After living in the States and doing all the chores that someone else would normally do for me in India (dishes, laundry, etc.), it became difficult for me to see people as anything but people and I began to notice poverty.
After 3 months in San Francisco, I'm noticing the pendulum swinging again in the other direction. I don't see anyone paying attention to the homeless, and I know a few pennies here or there aren't going to solve the problem, so I am once again starting to become cold and removed.
I cannot stand saying no to people on the streets, but I have not found a way to get them off the streets either. I promise myself that right now is not the time, and one day I will make a difference.
It feels naive and stupid to think this way. I am 22.
And those things make far more difference in the long run. I never give to beggars aside from occasionally buying a "big issue". By my understanding (which I'll admit is almost entirely based on second-/third-/more-hand information and a chunk of cynicism) you can make far far more difference overall by donating to relevant charities and other such groups if you want to help financially, or (as you say) donating your time and effort to those groups by other means.
[] the cynicism part comes from things like the woman who for three years now has been trying to get together the bus fair to Hull, or some years ago seeing someone who earlier had been sat on a corner begging get into a car that appeared to be his and drive away
In the USA? No, there aren't. They're mentally ill or serious drug abusers. Also, your money can go a hell of a lot further and help a hell of a lot more people even in in the US. But you can save a life for about 800 dollars in the developing world.
It is possible to help people who are homeless in the USA who are neither mentally ill nor drug abusers. The mentally ill are incapable of accepting or using the help available to them. The drug addicts prefer the drugs and being homeless to being off drugs. There is more than a little help available for people who want to quit drugs and if you want to see what kind of support is available for the homeless in the USA visit San Francisco, the only first world city I am aware of where one regularly has to dodge human faeces in the street.
I'm not saying they don't deserve help. I'm saying that your money can do more good elsewhere, which is not something I'm willing to argue as being blatantly obvious. If one subscribes to the idea that there is a continuum of "deserving" to "undeserving" poor most of the drug addicts fall under undeserving and the USA is no longer willing to imprison people indefinitely for being mentally ill so they're probably beyond help. Very possibly also better off because mental hospitals are the closest I have ever seen to Hell, but beyond help.
I appreciate your candor and honesty.
Ther are beggars and beggars. I suspect those in India wer truly poor and the solution was to go numb onthem.
The ones mentioned inEurope are begging for sport. It is actually organized crime type of thing. The can and should be policed.
After 3 months in San Francisco, I'm noticing the pendulum swinging again in the other direction. I don't see anyone paying attention to the homeless, and I know a few pennies here or there aren't going to solve the problem, so I am once again starting to become cold and removed.
I cannot stand saying no to people on the streets, but I have not found a way to get them off the streets either. I promise myself that right now is not the time, and one day I will make a difference.
It feels naive and stupid to think this way. I am 22.