Anne Dawson

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I'm no fan of Anne Dawson as a presenter but I'm glad she has her faith and isn't afraid to be open about it.

Can't really see the relevence of Julius's story to a thread about a freelance presenter like Anne choosing to work on different channels. She may be responsible for being a bit hard on the eardrums but she's hardly culpable for the woes of the world.
 
Yes, I suppose that's a good way of looking at it. Maybe I'm not always a very compassionate person. It just upsets me to think of an elderly person struggling to make ends meet. Why not give them the money? Let the addicts die! Maybe I am harsh, but I think we could halve our social welfare costs by saying find a job within 6 months or you're on your own.

Sadly finding a 'job, any job' is not that easy and there are people who, despite their efforts, are unable to do so in six months. I think they deserve our support and compassion. I'm not sure I feel that way about the relative few who don't make an effort at all and expect people to pick them up again. But for those for whom benefits, welfare and help are a last resort (rather than a career choice), I feel very great sympathy. There but for the grace of God (or any life-force of your choice!), go I … or any of us.
And as for addicts, well let's just say I've known people in that situation who would do anything to get off the stuff, but the hold it has on them makes that extraordinarily challenging.
But I agree that it is heart-breaking to see old people struggling, especially when they have worked hard all their lives to provide for themselves and their families and now struggle on what the state can give them back.
 
30 years ago I worked at a DHSS local office and paid the NFAs (no fixed abode) daily their £2.94 Supp Ben. I knew them all by name and if one didn't turn up I'd ask the others if they'd seen him. One chap David was a war hero in his 70s and was sleeping rough for years because he'd had all his money tricked from him and couldn't pay his rent at the boarding house where he'd lived. None of my regulars chose to live rough, most were polite but none had any chance of finding work without a permanent address, or a home without a source of income. All were regularly beaten up or pissed on by drunks. Julian your story highlights how easily someone can find themselves homeless through no fault of their own, but you're lucky you had the ability to pull yourself out of it and turn your life around.
 
I managed a hostel for 13 years and it was nothing like the one described here and I also visited many other hostels during my time working there. We housed 65 men at any given time, each man had his own room, we had a large dining area where the men had their meals, 2 tv lounges, a computer room, 8 project workers who worked alongside the men helping them with everything from housing applications to benefit claims. When a new man arrived we supplied him with fresh clothes and toiletries and we could refer them to local mental health and addiction services. Many of our guys had major problems and they certainly werent the easiest people to work with but we also had our success stories too. The building was clean, the staff were dedicated and even though life in the hostel certainly wasn`t perfect it was much better than sleeping rough and sadly we quite often had to refuse people because we were always full which was a sad sign of the times. Manchester was the nearest large city and when a man couldn`t find a place to sleep they quite often went to night shelters which are an entirely different thing. They are overnight emergency beds, sometimes the same building is used during the day for other purposes so the beds are camp beds, the staff are unpaid volunteers and they are there just to allow a person to get off the streets for the night. In a perfect world everybody would have a roof over their heads and be able to keep it but in reality many people aren`t capable of that and will always be on a merry go round of prison/streets/hostel/flat/eviction/back to prison/back on the streets again etc and many either don`t have a family or their family chooses not the have them. Homeless services aren`t perfect but I never found any which didn`t do the best they could with whatever they were given.
 
i often think ...''there for the grace of God go i''.....i am almost certain that when i lost my parents within 2 months of eachother...i could have become an addict ...to block out the pain or worse....but i am so grateful i have my wonderful husband and two wonderful sons whom gave me a reason to breath ...i cannot imagine being homeless julius...but i think sometimes it could quite easily have happened to me...
 
I am sorry for your loss, May. I understand how that feels for my uncle died 6 months before my mother, leaving me with nobody. It's great that you have a family. I don't and I don't think I ever will, but I do have two good friends, I have a brain, I am fairly at ease within myself and mentally very strong as a result of what happened. The whole thing about addiction though is that not everyone succumbs to it. You didn't, and nor did I. I think if people are weak enough to fall into addiction let them get on with it! Help people who deserve it and who want to improve. The others, let them die! I know it makes me sound like a cold person. I really am not. I can be very compassionate, but my views on some things are a little hardened. I remember how that barrister tried to belittle me, saying, "and where is your address? A shop doorway? Which shop would that be? The Butcher's? The Baker'? The supermarket?" to which I replied: "Actually it was a supermarket, Waitrose if you must know, so you can see I do still have some class. It has a lovely view of the stars at night.Did you know I speak three languages and have an offer to study at university? Maybe one day I'll do your job, and if I do, I'm sure I'm sure I'll do it a damn sight better than you, you insidious *******!" at which point they adjourned the hearing because I was so upset. But at that point I knew I had won.
 
Im sorry that you have had a tough time Julius,you never know one day you may have a family of your own.
Lynn
 
Thankyou Julius and im sorry for all you've endured too....addiction must be a terrible thing ....i can understand the slippery slope that many people must fall into ....i think every human has a breaking point ...and some just cannot hold on ...the money makers and pushers need to be banged to rights......its an emotive subject addiction ...i have a colleague who has recently suffered the loss of her 3 day old baby ...totally unexpected ...devastating...we had 7 women pregnant at my place of work...a nursery ...she nurtured babies for 8 years and it was so lovley when everybody had baby showers and excitement all over the place...total upset....i often wonder if this was me if i would "hit the bottle" it wouild be enough to make me im sure...she had babys nursery with his name all ready on the wall...and facebook pics went up from Daddy...addiction in this case would maybe be totally understandable
 
In my opinion someone is fishing for sympathy and if I've heard 'let them die' once...I think I've now heard it 4 times! I now realise that you'll never change such entrenched views - how cold and uncompassionate (not my words) can some people actually be. Anyway, I'm off to do something rewarding and by the way we all have our own personal hardships...only I choose to keep them to myself.
 
Julius, I am also sorry to hear you have had a bad time but do feel that your views on addicts are not based on fact but on emotion.

Please take some time to look at addiction and the predisposition to addiction... that will explain why some succumb and some don't.

Let me tell you a very personal story... I come from a military family (father and husband) and have seen first hand the results of PTSD.

My father was a POW in Korea for 2 years (long before I was born I might add). He was tortured and brainwashed by his captors and never knew when he would be released or if he or his buddies would die in that camp.

He was eventually freed and came back to the UK and they were all discharged without any support... some made it to a normal life, some didn't and some had something in between.

My dad managed to get his life on track, eventually met my mum, got married and had a baby (me)... life seemed normal. Then my dad started to have flashbacks to his time as a prisoner. One night he tried to strangle my mum thinking she was a Chinese soldier trying to hurt me. They tried to get him help, but no one knew about PTSD in those days and he was basically told to pull himself together.

He started to drink to calm his nerves and then that took over his life... my mum finally couldn't take anymore and left... I was five years old.

My dad then spiralled down into a life of drink and depression and as a single man had no one to help him or support him.

So Julius, in your view, should my dad have just been left to die? Was he just 'weak' or did someone else break him?

What I'm saying is, that people are sometimes fragile and life can damage them... they only need to take one small wrong turn which could ruin them if someone doesn't come along to help them back to normality.

Sorry for the depressing story.
 
I know Julius was talking about Joyce Meyors,she is in the same league as Benny Hinn to me praying on people's weakness and profiting from it.Lynn

Joyce Meyer's charity is called Hand of Hope. This is what they aim to achieve 'Our goal is simply to help as many hurting people as we possibly can, to alleviate human suffering'. They are involved in the following:-

Children's homes
Whether a child has ended up alone due to poverty, abandonment or death, we feel strongly that we are to provide safe homes for them. We are currently caring for more than 1,100 children in nearly 40 children's homes worldwide.

Feeding progammes
More than 71,000 children around the world don't have to worry about where there next meal will come from, thanks to our partners. At more than 590 feeding sites in more than 30 countries children receive a nutritious meal, help with schoolwork

Human Trafficking Rescue
We are working to rescue women and children in the United States, India, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Thailand, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Greece and Lesotho. We offer love, housing, schooling, job skill training, and biblical counseling to help rebuild and restore their lives.

Medical Missions
Every year we are able to provide free medical care to hundreds of thousands through 2 fully funded hospitals, 3 ongoing medical clinics and a dozen short-term medical/dental outreaches.

Prison Ministry
Since 1998, we have delivered more than 2.5 million gift bags to inmates worldwide. Over the years we've been able to share these gifts, which include personal care items and one of Joyce's books, as well as the Gospel message in more than 3,000 prisons in 41 nations.

Inner City
Through outreaches in the United States, as well as several around the world, we're reaching out to children and families in desperate need of help. We're reaching the homeless, prostitutes, disadvantaged youth, addicts and the impoverished with vital help and restoration.

Water Relief
We've been able to provide clean drinking water to families across India and in 20 other countries through wells and water tanks. To date we've dug more than 590 wells.

I donate money to this cause and can see that yes, these individuals are not impoverished but why should they be? God doesn't want us to be merely getting by but to have more than enough, some people's view of God is that he is mean and penny pinching, far from it.
 
I have spent a lot of time in America and have watched people give money to these ministries with the promise that there luck will improve if they make a donation,I don't believe in it all and never will.
Lynn
 
I have spent a lot of time in America and have watched people give money to these ministries with the promise that there luck will improve if they make a donation,I don't believe in it all and never will.
Lynn


i agree Lynn...i was a bit naive to it all but my hubby made me aware of these over the top ministries..quite creepy some of it...not keen at all.....cant stand humans preaching when they are ordinary humans too...
 
Thank you Tiddly for sharing your story, I am sorry to hear of what happened to your dad, and how it affected your family. No I don't think he should have been left to die. He must have been subjected to horrendous treatment in Korea and very badly psychologically affected as a result. Judging from what you have written it would seem he tried to settle down and have a family but the suppressed emotions / experiences resurfaced and he didn't have a support network. I can understand why your mum left him. Living with an alcoholic and someone with mood swings is difficult. I;m sure her primary concern would have been for your safety. At least your dad had a more valid reason for his addiction/ behaviours. But I really do think that people have to want to help themselves, and if they don't, all the support networks in the world won't make any difference. If he was a military man the chances are he may not have been so willing to accept help even if it had existed or been offered. But because it wasn't offered I guess you will never truly know. From what I understand the military place a great emphasis on self-sufficiency. From my extremely short stint in the Army I just knew that it wasn't the life for me. I may be physically and mentally quite tough, but I am sensitive at the same time, and a reasonably cultured person. I had nothing in common with the people I met there. While in some ways more is known about mental illness, there is not a lot of support even now, and still much remains unknown. But as you said, some people got through their bad experiences and some didn't. I guess it comes down to personality types. I still believe that a child can have a better life with one good parent than two parents stuck in an unhappy relationship. My father was a gangster who would go robbing bars and cafes in Vilnius. When he threw a man off a bridge my mother left him. They wanted to put me in a "naslaiciu namas" - a kind of orphanage, but luckily we got back to the UK things picked up from there. My father I think just had aggressive tendencies. he was a film actor by trade and always played low level parts in low-level crime dramas like "Nerami Rudens Diena." In between jobs he did whatever he could to get by and to support me.
Julius, I am also sorry to hear you have had a bad time but do feel that your views on addicts are not based on fact but on emotion.

Please take some time to look at addiction and the predisposition to addiction... that will explain why some succumb and some don't.

Let me tell you a very personal story... I come from a military family (father and husband) and have seen first hand the results of PTSD.

My father was a POW in Korea for 2 years (long before I was born I might add). He was tortured and brainwashed by his captors and never knew when he would be released or if he or his buddies would die in that camp.

He was eventually freed and came back to the UK and they were all discharged without any support... some made it to a normal life, some didn't and some had something in between.

My dad managed to get his life on track, eventually met my mum, got married and had a baby (me)... life seemed normal. Then my dad started to have flashbacks to his time as a prisoner. One night he tried to strangle my mum thinking she was a Chinese soldier trying to hurt me. They tried to get him help, but no one knew about PTSD in those days and he was basically told to pull himself together.

He started to drink to calm his nerves and then that took over his life... my mum finally couldn't take anymore and left... I was five years old.

My dad then spiralled down into a life of drink and depression and as a single man had no one to help him or support him.

So Julius, in your view, should my dad have just been left to die? Was he just 'weak' or did someone else break him?

What I'm saying is, that people are sometimes fragile and life can damage them... they only need to take one small wrong turn which could ruin them if someone doesn't come along to help them back to normality.

Sorry for the depressing story.
 
So her goal is "to help as many hurting people as we possibly can." is it? Maybe if she downsized to a normal house she might be able to help a few more. I'm sorry but to me she seems a hyporitical old cow!
Joyce Meyer's charity is called Hand of Hope. This is what they aim to achieve 'Our goal is simply to help as many hurting people as we possibly can, to alleviate human suffering'. They are involved in the following:-

Children's homes
Whether a child has ended up alone due to poverty, abandonment or death, we feel strongly that we are to provide safe homes for them. We are currently caring for more than 1,100 children in nearly 40 children's homes worldwide.

Feeding progammes
More than 71,000 children around the world don't have to worry about where there next meal will come from, thanks to our partners. At more than 590 feeding sites in more than 30 countries children receive a nutritious meal, help with schoolwork

Human Trafficking Rescue
We are working to rescue women and children in the United States, India, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Thailand, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Greece and Lesotho. We offer love, housing, schooling, job skill training, and biblical counseling to help rebuild and restore their lives.

Medical Missions
Every year we are able to provide free medical care to hundreds of thousands through 2 fully funded hospitals, 3 ongoing medical clinics and a dozen short-term medical/dental outreaches.

Prison Ministry
Since 1998, we have delivered more than 2.5 million gift bags to inmates worldwide. Over the years we've been able to share these gifts, which include personal care items and one of Joyce's books, as well as the Gospel message in more than 3,000 prisons in 41 nations.

Inner City
Through outreaches in the United States, as well as several around the world, we're reaching out to children and families in desperate need of help. We're reaching the homeless, prostitutes, disadvantaged youth, addicts and the impoverished with vital help and restoration.

Water Relief
We've been able to provide clean drinking water to families across India and in 20 other countries through wells and water tanks. To date we've dug more than 590 wells.

I donate money to this cause and can see that yes, these individuals are not impoverished but why should they be? God doesn't want us to be merely getting by but to have more than enough, some people's view of God is that he is mean and penny pinching, far from it.
 
I have spent a lot of time in America and have watched people give money to these ministries with the promise that there luck will improve if they make a donation,I don't believe in it all and never will.
Lynn

This post seems to have been hijacked somewhat so, whilst all the points made are valid and one can have nothing but sympathy with people whose bad luck is no fault of their own, this is a shopping forum. One final point : I agree totally with Lynn but, I suppose the point is, if these ministeries give you some form of comfort, then they are serving a purpose. When it comes to 'donating', I think the majority of us know where the moneys are directed, and who benefits from them. In my opinion, these organisations are legalised scamming. As this has absolutely nothing to do with Anne Dawson, I'll end it there.
 

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