Turbohot

A dead street sleeper was found slumped over a table in Hong Kong McDonald's. Apparently she was dead for several hours before anyone took any notice, and the customers ate around her all that time, without knowing that she was dead.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a6681166.html

I'm reading that it highlights the issue of homelessness in Hong Kong, and that the MaccyD staff should have taken notice much earlier.

Are we lot, in the UK, better than that? Do you think we are less impersonal, more compassionate and forward with our approach of helping one another? Or are we as impersonal that we would dine around the dead without even noticing that she's as rigid as dead; literally?

piehole1983

iTrader: (7)

I like to think I'm pretty good with other people's welfare. As an example, the wife and I were walking along a street in Benidorm with our 10 year old son and I spotted a man lying on a grass area who appeared to be dead. No other way to describe it really. Hundreds of people had walked by, stared at him and walked on without checking him. I asked the wife to take our son on ahead out of sight and I jumped over the fence to go check him. Thankfully he was ok but very very drunk and seriously ill looking. He asked me to leave him alone which is fair enough, he's a grown man. I double checked that he didn't want help and I carried on. In general, I don't think too many people care about others though.

dpb

They're quite callous though aren't they the Chinese , it really is dog against dog .

Couldn't even see that happenīn in Africa , unless disease was expected

Turbohot

Well, you checked him, and even double checked with him, good on you.

But generally, I often hear people say in our individualistic society that they presume they'll get told by the perceived vulnerable to sling their hook, or be called nosey for asking if he/she is ok. And that's the reason they do not even bother to act e.g. at least checking whether that he/she is ok.

Ok, there must be the dog-eat-dog attitude going on, but how much do we help, trust and respect one anothers' lives, here in the UK? Will you pay attention to some street tramp's or any regular person's non-responsive looking body lying around for hours or sitting frozen-still at a MaccyD table, or just ignore it? Or, would you ignore it because you won't pay much attention to a tramp or a regular looking thing, anyway, so you wouldn't know whether they're dead or alive?

To my knowledge, the loneliness suffered by old people in this super civilised country is quite severe. 'Old' might as well be an upgraded form of a tramp. I wonder how many old people die lonely in their houses and found after days of their death by their 'cosily wrapped up in their own lives' younger and healthier relatives who hardly every visit them.

dpb

Thousands I'm sure , but that's just our culture ( best place in the world to get old apparently though...... )
Just wouldn't happen most other parts of the world, grandma stays with everyone else regardless



Who's the more civilised?

donny andi

iTrader: (3)

They would of got my attention ....if the chips were still warm and un touched

gazzawrx

iTrader: (11)

Lmfao, id be more interested in the big mac tbh

dpb

no uncle MacDonald in Indian , must be relief !



http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/0...193719666.html

Turbohot

Can you be a bit clearer, please? I'm sure you mean profound, but I'm having difficulty in understanding it. Must be my old age.

Very caring indeed.

Hm. Never tell them there that I eat beef burgers here. Remember that.

Ooperbum

I met a homeless guy last week. I talked to him and the amount of hate he had from the public was disgusting. People telling him that he is scum and his own fault. He was just released from the Army a few months prior. Bought him breakfast and gave him £30 to look after him self. Some fooking selfish people in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!

Turbohot

I saw a busking ex-soldier in a nearby city's centre. He was in his own little world, making small sand structures on the pavement for some pennies for food. I wanted to go up, see what he was making and talk to him, but I was dragged away by the company I was with. I will be going back there to see his work and to talk to him. Whether I give him some money for his art is immaterial, which I will, anyway.

BoozyDave

iTrader: (8)

one of the staff members should have checked on her sooner

I was talking to some homeless people when we were up in Scarborough. There was 3 of them in the sheltered doorway of an empty shop on a side street. Someone had complained to the police and an officer was telling them to move on, they were asking him where they can go, the council wouldn't help them, they couldn't even get housing benefit, not even a 1 bed flat between them .
I went to the local shop and bought them some biscuits and crisps and some bottles of water. The next morning they were still there, I went into Greggs and got them a bacon sandwich and hot drink each (it only cost me £6 and it was worth it to see the looks on their faces and the happiness it gave them)

What are they supposed to do?

They would be better off pretending to be immigrants that can't speak English

jonc

Don't you mean callous.

Peedee

iTrader: (4)

I think homelessness is a difficult one. You don't know their past. If I could be guaranteed that they had fallen on hard times through no fault of their own, I would happily help. On the flip side, if they're homeless because they've sniffed everything they own up their nose or injected it into their **** or whatever, i have no sympathy. Its not my fault they chose the wrong path. It's a shame, because there are a lot of homeless folk who are genuine and deserve help, but there are a lot that aren't.

JTaylor

You don't think drug addicts deserve help then?

Lillyart14

I think the stereotype of British public is along the lines of 'he's homeless because he's probably a druggie/alcoholic', which sometimes is so far from the truth it's incredible.

I was homeless myself for almost a month several years ago and it wasn't a pleasent time. Nothing to do with drink or drugs, more to do with messy break-up, losing the house, car and job within two weeks. It was especially tough at night on the weekends when people whould just stumble past you shouting abuse at you. Best thing to do was curl up in a doorway and face away from them. You get less abuse if you look asleep/dead. Fortunately, a friend rescued me and put me on his sofa for a few weeks to give me a chance to find a job and rebuild my life. Pretty harrowing experience for a 21 year old.

I moved out of Ashford about 6 months ago but before that there was a homeless man, mid 30s bloke called Martin who had everthing taken from him when he lost his job/wife/car/home. It was clear that he had turned to the bottle because of it but he wasn't pissed out of his mind or violent. A couple of times I'd walk past in the evening and buy him a bag of chips from the kebab shop (only £1.50) and sit there and eat my food with him. He was properly grateful and I explained my own situation to him.

Last I heard of him was when the Council found him a small flat in Canterbury, so hope he's doing well.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

That's the attitude that gets them ignored, the term tramp, the not worthy, dirty, etc.

If you say homeless it catches the heart.

dpb

Well in china , we have children run over with motorbikes unattended to and people still sure they can be cured with ground down animal parts - from a far away continent

mrtheedge2u2

There are people who stand at the entrances to supermarkets here in Amsterdam and most are ok and do not hassle or anything. Anyway, a few weeks ago I walked out of one near a GGD clinic where they get methadone etc and handed a bloke a can of coke and he looked at me disgusted and said quietly "what, no money?" so I just ignore him from now on

jonc

Well here you also have kids in gangs carrying knives and guns killing each other and paedo's abusing babies and children. We also have extensive animal testing and experimentation just for cosmetic products, we invade countries and destroy lives of people in far away countries. But I wouldn't go so far as to write off the whole of UK as callous nation. People here in the UK will treat the homeless much in the same way as China and and anywhere else in the world. I don't think anyone in the UK can claim any moral high ground over the people of China any more than they could of us.

dpb

Peados wouldn't even survive elsewhere,but then ordinary people also get taken away and disappear

scoobypaul_temp

iTrader: (2)

If someone falls on hard times through no fault of their own, but then turns to drugs (or drink), to numb their pain or help them escape the reality of the hell that they have found themselves in, would you help them?

People easily forget that not all are fortunate enough to have a good support network (friends, family etc) around them when things start to go wrong. Sometimes when people are down on their luck, things get out of control very quickly, and it is very hard for them to get back to 'normal'.....

jonc

You're going off on a tangent. This thread is about how the homeless are treated, if you want start bashing Chinese people you should start a new thread.

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

Point 1, Hong Kong is not China, it's urban China pushed to an extreme of high population density mixed-in with an entrepreneurial, independent-minded edge. Point 2, the keep-your-head-down, mind-my-own-business mentality that led to this unfortunate woman being ignored as she was for hours in a McDonalds is very likely born far more out of an instinct for self-preservation than callousness. Living somewhere like that, it might be harder to keep that sort of instinct in check than you imagine.

dpb

She certainly managed to keep her head down !

Maybe its additionally MacDonalds policy that's at fault

fat-thomas

iTrader: (4)

Maybe the crap food that MaccyD sell killed him.

JTaylor

Agreed. People make bad life decisions, it doesn't make them bad people.

hodgy0_2

I think people often forget how "fragile" ones circumstances can be - it is easy to become complacent

a couple of poor decisions, a few unfortunate events, like redundancy or financial fraud committed against you

and it could be you

there but the grace of god go I

my father always taught me to be kind to people on the way up, because you never know who you are going to meet on the way down

dpb

Could been stray dog

Turbohot

Dpb tends to that, Jon. He brought in Indian people's love for the holy cow in this thread as well. It could be because either he doesn't efficiently grasp the context, or just wants to stir some $hit as usual at his earliest opportunity regardless. Say something against Africa, and then he'll go 'meow!' With his claws out at you, because he has developed some African connections for himself.

Basically, he's just a minor wind up and most times he doesn't know what he's talking about! Take no notice.