Author Archive: useadmin

I bought smokes and coke for my homeless friends…

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Just last week I bought one of my friends a pack of cigarettes and my other friend a can of coke.
Both these friends are addicts.  And both these friends are homeless.

Should I have done this? Was there a better a way to spend my money on my friends?

Sure neither cigarettes or coke are good for you.  Maybe the coke is the lesser of these 2 evils, but the amount of coke my friend consumes means it’s probably just as bad as the cigarettes my other friends smokes.

Maybe I should have bought my friends something useful and beneficial?

But that assumes I KNOW what they want or need.  What I may see as useful may be particularly un-useful to them.

I once walked past a man begging outside a fast food joint.  Another man went into the restaurant and come out with a burger and handed it to the ‘beggar’.  The ‘beggar’ muttered under his breathe ‘that’s the 10th burger I’ve received today, I don’t need a burger I need money for a room to stay.’  To me this powerfully illustrates how we can’t assume what another person needs or wants until we have looked at life from their perspective.

If look at my own spending habits, I’m not sure I always buy things for myself that are useful or beneficial. I do it anyway because I WANT to and for that moment it makes me happy.  Sure maybe I have the right to because it’s MY money and sure maybe the things I buy wont kill me…but is there really a big difference?  Are our motives are the same…?

You see I bought these ‘drug’s’ of choice for my friends because I wanted to a do a nice thing for them; without judging what they want or deem as useful or beneficial –   gift if you like.

Maybe that wasn’t a smart or wise thing to do from my perspective.  But when I took the time to look at things from their perspective it seemed like the right thing to do.

The race that stops the nations or spends the nation?

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Spend, spend spend…
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Is the Melbourne Cup and Spring Carnival just an excuse for us to spend up big….?

It is estimated that we will spend $53 millions this year on fashion alone.

$140 million on food and drink.

$806 million on betting through the spring carnival. The average bet being $8.50.  And it’s reported that during peak times a bet will be placed every 2 seconds.

It estimated that the average race goer will spend $1,200.

Overall $455 million will be spent.

This year the crowd at the Melbourne cup – was 104,000.  This is approximately the same number of homeless people in Australia.

Just think what else could be done with that $455 million to improve the life of this experiencing homeless and disadvantage in Australia.

Credo Bowls

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Credo Bowls
A big part of Credo are the bowls that we eat off. We have a tradition of having handmade and hand painted bowls. We recently just created a whole new batch. These bowls are a fantastic part of the Credo spirit and story as each bowl is hand painted by one of our Credo family. Each bowl not only carries the food in which we eat off but the shared stories we all hold and share in Credo.

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I taught a homeless man to code…

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I taught a homeless man to code
My preconceptions about homelessness have been shattered. I always thought homeless people were isolated, but Leo is part of a very supportive community. He says the hardest thing is not the practical challenges but society’s view of him. There is an assumption that homeless people are addicted to something or mentally ill, but Leo doesn’t drink or smoke; he became homeless after he lost his job and then his accommodation in 2011.

At the start of this project, I wrote a blog about it and was inundated with responses. Some were moved and inspired; others were more negative, suggesting I should focus on buying Leo food or finding him somewhere to live instead. This idea is a tricky one. I consider Leo a friend. If he said he needed anything, I’d jump through hoops for him, but I don’t ever want him to think we are anything but equals.

Australians in 2013: happy, confident – but not as friendly as we used to be

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Australians in 2013: happy, confident – but not as friendly as we used to be
img-thingThis year, 28% of us disagreed with the proposition that “accepting migrants from many different countries makes Australia stronger”; and 25% admitted to having “negative feelings” to migrants from the Middle East and Lebanon in particular. Markus takes this to be code for Muslim.

Intolerant Australia appears to be becoming more intolerant. Markus reports a sharp rise in discrimination. The 2013 survey revealed 40% or more of all new arrivals from Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, China and Hong Kong have experienced discrimination because of their colour, race or religion.

Markus is loth to tie this deteriorating situation directly to the politics of the boats. He found our attitudes to asylum seekers have further hardened in the past year: 33% of us now want all refugee boats turned back and only 18% support our treaty obligations to give refugees arriving by boat permanent residence in this country.

The Power of Outrospection

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BG46IwVfSu8
img-thingEmpathy isn’t just something that expands your moral universe. Empathy is something that can make you a more creative thinker, improve your relationships, can create the human bonds that make life worth living. But, more than that, empathy is also about social change — radical social change.

-Roman Krnaric

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The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

– Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Dawn of the Day

 

One Sleep from the Street.

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One sleep from the street: homelessness in our community

Join us for a discussion about the issue of homelessness in the City of Yarra.

Guest speakers from specialist organisations will give a picture of homelessness today. Come along to find out what role you might play and how you can help anyone you know who is homeless.

Featuring representatives from St Mark’s Community Centre, HomeGround Services and the Council to Homeless Person’s Peer Education and Support Program. Hosted by writer and broadcaster Tony Wilson.

This free event is sponsored by the Thomas, Samuel & George Ewing Trust. Bookings are essential. Click here to book online.

Time: 7pm to 8pm
Date: Tuesday 22 October
Venue: Fitzroy Town Hall Reading Room (201 Napier St, Fitzroy)