given that it’s not a generalisation (so you want a British spelling, right?), i’m sure that you have reservations as well. and this is not to speak of only poor people, but people in general.

your point is valid, as far as bourgeois-thinking a la luis bunuel is concerned. but in my opinion, nothing’s wrong with giving alms. isn’t this more of a ‘reality’ rather than an isolated situation?

oh well, je suis desolé, i think i’m out of wit. pardon my discombobulation. see you.

I recognise the fact that NOT ALL poor people are muggers or dirty, or use money for drugs or cigarettes. But that’s exactly the point. Since it is also a fact that some of them are, why would I (what’s your word? — aha!) risk making their situations worse by giving them money WHEN i have my own way of helping them in which I am so sure that whatever I give goes to the right places.

“I’d rather do nothing than do more harm.”

But doing nothing is worse than doing something even that will harm them. Of course you are not sure if it will really harm them but at least you took the risk. After all, the worst thing that you can ever do to a person is to ignore them, right?

“I’d rather do nothing than do more harm.”

But doing nothing also is worse than doing something even if you know, of course you’re not sure, that it will harm them. After all, the worst thing that you can ever do to a person is to ignore them, right?

I do understand where you are coming at. I just feel that you’re generalizations are quite offensive. Not that I’m offended immensely, though just a little I must say, for reasons that I get along with these people.

Be careful with stereotyping. And pardon my use of the word bragging. It’s sort of “intensifying an assertion.”

Chard: Are you sure that all those children are just using the money given to them in buying cigarettes, betting in kara y krus, or perhaps in purchasing solvents and rugbies?

Exactly. I am not sure. And because I am not sure, I choose not to give alms because they MIGHT do any or some of the things you enumerated. I’d rather do nothing than do more harm.

Nothing wrong with not giving alms because you doubt their sincerity but asserting that ALL people living in urban settlement are muggers, snatchers, or dirty freaks is a different thing.

I never said that. I only mentioned the mugging incident to explain why I AVOID going to squatters’ areas. Thinking that they are ALL criminals doesnt necessarily follow.

And bragging your occasional support and visit to orphanages makes your point a bit misleading, if not contradictory.

I mentioned my occasional visit to orphanages to show that one can help in other ways than giving alms on the streets. And you can call it bragging. But tell you what, I wasn’t.