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Aberdeen homeless are "filthy human beings" & "sleazy, smelly, bike stealing bandits"


Guest Giles Walker

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Guest Mark Paterson

Hello, I hope I can put this issue to close with this but I somehow can't see that happening. I wrote the artical(or story) about Stan the homless man. The story does not have a go at homeless people in the slightest, its a story about someone scamming members of the general public out of their hand earned cash. It may to be a serious issue, but fraud is fraud! The intro(which has caused all the fuss) wasn't written by me but by someone else and that were the comments everyone chats about came from. On reflection to some of the responses the writter of the into did appolagise for some of the things he said, but i'm sure none of you guys and gals checked that on the kaplank kapow blog. Did you? The bottom line is it was a story, nothing more.

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Hello, I hope I can put this issue to close with this but I somehow can't see that happening. I wrote the artical(or story) about Stan the homless man. The story does not have a go at homeless people in the slightest, its a story about someone scamming members of the general public out of their hand earned cash. It may to be a serious issue, but fraud is fraud! The intro(which has caused all the fuss) wasn't written by me but by someone else and that were the comments everyone chats about came from. On reflection to some of the responses the writter of the into did appolagise for some of the things he said, but i'm sure none of you guys and gals checked that on the kaplank kapow blog. Did you? .

You were doing ok until:

The bottom line is it was a story, nothing more

A story in what sense: A fictional story? Or more like a newspaper article that is based on fact? Or was it an opinion piece? The sentiment expressed in your 'story' was of a serious nature so don't try and backtrack by suggesting it is in some way trivial.

In essence your piece fails as it is based on completely unreliable anecdotal evidence, is poorly written and full of jumbled logic and haphazard conclusions. One example being:

It makes you curious as to just how much money we donate to charities or people trying to earn their way in the street actually finds its way to these causes?

Overlooking the confusing layout of this sentence (who or what are 'these causes'?), ponder for a moment, how many more people would be on the street if it wasn't for the work of charities who support people facing the prospect of homelessness? People begging on the street are, categorically, at the bottom of the heap, so think twice before making sweeping generalisations based on worthless evidence. It's not helpful, it's not noble, it's not civilized.

Body found in bushes identified - Evening Express

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Overlooking the confusing layout of this sentence (who or what are 'these causes'?), ponder for a moment, how many more people would be on the street if it wasn't for the work of charities who support people facing the prospect of homelessness? People begging on the street are, categorically, at the bottom of the heap, so think twice before making sweeping generalisations based on worthless evidence. It's not helpful, it's not noble, it's not civilized.

While i get what you mean there it would be more believable if a large proportion of the people who beg on the streets in Aberdeen didn't have council houses or alternative accomodation in places like Torry.

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Guest Giles Walker
Wasn't it stereotypes that started this mis-conception about the homless? Giles, I think you will find that rather than wearing Nike Dunks, I prefer to fund small Thai children by purchasing adidas. As well as this, I enjoy buying T shirts from primark and jeans from matalan, generally a little on the big side for sheer comfiness. You've nae exactly hit the nail on the head with your perception of me, have you? But then, thats just something else you've misinterpreted altogether. I was also far from hurt by this entire thread, the reason my post appeared so late was just because nobody seems to have heard about your little musical mind gathering on this here internet location. All in all, I'm so glad I've found a way to kill 20 minutes of a boring evening by managing to get under your skin so effectively. Really, I'm having a rad time, now what the fuck else should we talk about?

I ain't mad doggy, i'm enjoying seeing the sheer levels of anger in your posts that's all.

Now stop being such a cry baby and let's get back to being besties again.

The trial continues...

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What would be more believable?

I think he means that he thinks most homeless folk are not, in fact, homeless at all. There was a story in the EE a while ago about street beggars making 18K a year purely through people's spare change, then going home to their council flats at night. Surprised they made it back if they had all that change jingling around on them...

It must be true. The EE said so.

:up:

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I think he means that he thinks most homeless folk are not, in fact, homeless at all. There was a story in the EE a while ago about street beggars making 18K a year purely through people's spare change, then going home to their council flats at night. Surprised they made it back if they had all that change jingling around on them...

It must be true. The EE said so.

:up:

It's more the fact that i know people who work for outreach places in Torry (and the Foyer's Torry project) and they are familiar with the ones who scam on the streets and rock up to their council flats/houses at night after a hard days begging. This is a shame because it is to the detriment of people who are actually living on the street (at no point did i say they were all doing it).

I have never read the Evening Express and i tend to base what i say on my opinion and things i have seen or heard myself or from people who i trust.

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the ones who scam on the streets and rock up to their council flats/houses at night after a hard days begging. This is a shame because it is to the detriment of people who are actually living on the street (at no point did i say they were all doing it).

Possession of a council roof isn't the sole criteria of an ordinarily functioning, independent human being. You could have a flat but still suffer from all manner of physical and mental health problems which prevent you from getting a job like the rest of us.

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Possession of a council roof isn't the sole criteria of an ordinarily functioning, independent human being. You could have a flat but still suffer from all manner of physical and mental health problems which prevent you from getting a job like the rest of us.

Yes, but they are more than adequately catered for by other benefits.

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Perhaps. You could only say so by looking hard at every individual case. What I meant about council flats is that you could have one yet still lead a chaotic, stressful and painful existence.

So what? Everyone has pretty shitty times in their lives, the majority don't sit on Union Street begging for change.

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Guest Giles Walker

Some really good points being raised, i was wondering when the EE "18k a year" 'fact' was gonna show up in here. I also remember reading, a while back, that there was more sheltered accommodation in Aberdeen than there was homeless to fill them, i don't know whether this is still the case nowadays.

My slightly sympathetic stance on the homeless probably comes from my time at college a long time ago. There was a 16 yr old kid in my class who stayed in sheltered accommodation and sold the Big Issue. He had come home one day to find his mum had taken up with a new man and they had decided he had to go, he had ended up homeless as a result of this. He somehow managed to stay very upbeat about the whole situation and through him i met a few of the characters that hang about on Union Street (including Archie the old dude with the bulbous nose who hangs out on the stairs of that church next to pizza express) because of this i personally don't judge that maybe a few people that have lead the 'chaotic existence' spoken about before choose to drink or self medicate as a result of this.

This is just my opinion though and i don't feel like i should have to force it on anyone the way some of these Skateboarders do (Patty excluded, i had heard the story about 'Stan the sketchy Arab salesman' before i read that blog post and it never included any parts demonising all Aberdeen Homeless at that point)

I don't see a problem with my 'Rose tinted shades' it's better than being consumed by hatred and confusion.

So... are Aberdeen homeless "filthy human beings" & "sleazy, smelly, bike stealing bandits" or not?

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You compared the 'shitty times' that 'everyone has' to the kind of unspeakable neglect and abuse which many of those on life's bottom rung will have endured.

Everyone reacts differently to "bad" things. For every one person out there who chucks in the towel there's an equal amount who suck it up and get on living their lives. A lot of these people don't suffer from "unspeakable neglect and abuse" and their attitude detracts from the people who actually do, which is sad. I understand perfectly.

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