JanerBlog: July 2004 Archives

There's this beggar who hangs around the front of this coffee shop in Kzoo, just a few blocks from Paul's house. He's asked me for money for food several times. I never had cash on me before. I dunno if he's homeless, only that he asks for money, and that he's probably pretty successful, because if you're like me, and you're about to dump $3 on something as trivial as coffee, you'll probably feel guilty enough to at least give this guy some spare change.

So he asked me for money for food yesterday, and I had cash on me. I went in the coffee shop, and bought him a whole meal: big gourmet sandwich, chips, juice. It was a better meal than I'd eaten all day.

When I gave him the sack, he gave me a look like "What the hell is this?" He didn't say thanks, and when we were less than five steps away, he immediately turned to a guy standing in front of the coffee shop and tried to sell the food for cash.

Sad.

If you ask me for food, I will give you food. But I *will not* help you with your addiction. I have watched addiction destroy enough people who are near and dear to me, and I have no desire to help perpetuate it with a total stranger.

I will still take it on a case-by-case basis, and try not to harden my heart to people who *are* genuinely asking for a hand-up, but that guy's not getting any more money out of me. I make it a point to give to homeless shelters, hospices, local missions, food kitchens and community centers, to ensure that people like that gentleman, (there but for the grace of God go I, and boy do I know it...) have places to go and resources to tap. But damned if I'm going to hand someone money so he can go and get blitzed.

Sigh.

Thoughts?

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News from Iraq

http://66.241.226.47/davidsblog/archives/000094.html

"Bechtel, which is in charge of spending billions of dollars here, is protected from having to answer questions from the press by a government agency. But just in case there’s a Bechtel guy reading this, Capliph Salah, the headmaster at Salah Al-Deen high school (where the kids already have it hard enough, there aren’t enough books for them to take home texts to study at night, one teacher predicted 50 percent of his students would fail their final exam) would like to know why none of the new electrical wires that were installed in his school actually work."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1254037,00.html

"The US government spent just 2% of the $18.4bn (£10bn) it had obtained from Congress for the urgent reconstruction of Iraq before formally ending its occupation last week.
The White House budget office report, the first detailed audit of the reconstruction, showed that the US occupation authorities had spent nothing on healthcare or water and sanitation, two of the most urgent needs for Iraqis. In contrast, a total of $9m was spent on administrative expenses. "

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story?id=6186837&pageid=rs.Politics&pageregion=single1&rnd=1089037754535&has-player=true&version=6.0.11.847

"This is our doing," King says, looking out at the Green Zone across the river from his hotel. He seems unable to believe that his country has created such a disaster. "This isn't America, what's going on in Iraq," he says. "It's not the America I know. This is scary. If this is America, then we're in deep shit."

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