talkmagic.co.uk

Offer to swap your magic beans for their cow

Don't hate me but....

I was walking through the city last summer the day after I'd been dumped and indeed, I was honed in on by a bib down the street. The coversation went as follows

"Hey! You have a miniute?"
"Nope, have you?"
"Eerr....yea..."
"Well I've got this deck of cards here.."

I proceeded to do a few tricks and left with her details. Anyways, I found it funny. Nothing came of it mind!

Grimshaw wrote:How about the Derren Brown thing ' My wall isnt four foot high ' or ' My Dad doesnt speak Spanish '.

Which really works, by the way...

I got accosted once by somebody trying to ban bullfighting in Spain. I told them I greatly enjoy watching a good Spanish bullfight (which I do), and they were so stunned they just let me walk away.

Whilst walking through Wigan with a friend one day, we were accosted by weirdos wanting money.
The first one wanted money for old people to which my friend replied "I don't like old people. They smell funny"
Later on we were accosted by one for money for children.
SHe must have done this before because without pause she said "Do you realise how insensitive it is to ask an infertile woman for money to help other peoples kids?" and walked off.
I laughed hard.

(please note my friend is not actually infertile - so it was funny )

I've got no problem with people trying to get a petition signed for something that they believe in as long as they're not overly pushy or forcefull.

It's because those people working for those agencies don't actually care one hoot for the charity, they're more bothered about the commission that they'll get if they sign you up. That's why they make me so angry.

Colin was going down the street once with a friend of his who had been in the French Foreign Legion. They were accosted by someone asking for money "for the African orphans". The friend said, "I'm the one who made most of them orphans in the first place."

Prepare some blank business cards with:

Your story has touched my heart,
never before have I met anyone with
a tale so sorrowful and full of woe, I am
sad to learn that there are others with so
much more need than I have and I am
ashamed at my shallow and selfish lack
of previous understanding of the situation
you describe. Please accept this expression
of my sincere sympathy.

NOW #*%$ OFF AND QUIT BOTHERING ME!!!!

Wow!

Such kindness and compassion!

None of you are going to like this but.....

If you hate dislike these people so much, the problem is yours, not theirs. Anger, while understandable, is never justified. Any of you who think that it is are deluded.

Please bear in mind, this is just my subjective opinion, not objective fact, and I'm not trying to wind you up, just provide a different, kinder perspective. I've just come off a solitary retreat (a thing Buddhists do) and I'm feeling particularly inspired by compassion. Please forgive me if I've come on a bit strong, but I think my point is valid.

Also, I think it is a little unfair of you all to be making judgements about the motives of people you don't know. For all we know, these people might be really inspired by their work. They might be acting out of an ardent desire to be of benefit to other beings. Of course, they might not.

I have to say, I don't like being approached by chuggers myself. But my tactic is to say "I'm happy to give you some time, but not any money, because I'm skint" (which is true, pretty much always). I spend a couple of minutes chatting, maybe show them a trick or two and hopefully leave them in a happier, more positive state than they were when I met them, which can only be a good thing. Having said that, I have in the past responded negatively to these people myself, which just goes to show what a hypocrite I am!

Lady of Mystery, notwithstanding my earlier comments, it seems to me that that particular chugger behaved inappropriately to you. Even though I try to be kind to chuggers, that would have annoyed me (I'm not perfect, after all!). If the same bunch are in town still, maybe you should get the fellows name and lodge an official complaint. After all, he may not actually be aware of how inappropriate his behaviour was and unless this is pointed out to him he will probably continue to behave in such a fashion. By lodging a complaint, you would actually be doing him a kindness in that you will give him a chance to examine, and possibly change the way he acts. But if you don't complain, then how will he know what effect his behaviour has on people.

I hope I'm not coming across as a bit of a fascist. I'm aware I've made a number of posts recently that have been somewhat critical of people on this forum. It's just that kindness is extremely important to me. I am strongly affected by kindness, and witnessing kindness can move me to tears.

Er, I should probably stop now, before I embarrass myself!

Lots of love to you all
Gary
x

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I totally agree with you Gary that charity is a great thing. I've done lots of fund raising myself, I've run marathons, jumped out of aeroplanes and spent 2 days baking cakes all to raise money for various charities.

It's just the hard sell and the pressure that these chuggers put you under that I don't like. It's not just that one, I've seen them put the pressure on to lots of people in the streets, usually teenagers or old people and that's just not fair.

Hmm,

that's a valid point.

I wonder if it's worth making a bit of noise about this. You know, charity is good but no means no, sort of thing.

Using guilt tactics is definitely not the way to get people to be generous and people like that may be doing more harm than good by their behaviour.

I wonder if their is some sort of organisation that monitors the behaviour of charity workers, a trading standards sort of thing.

I think I'll look into it. If their is a body like that it may be worth contacting them. Surely these charity collectors have a code of practice they have to adhere to.

love
Gary
x

The charity angle is fine, it's the high pressure and just plain aggresive tactics used which are questionable. It also ignores that fact that many people have already quietly chosen to support particular charities - it's a matter of personal choice, not a compulsory act.

Mark Waddington wrote:I have literally said to them before "sorry mate, i dont speak english"

That's exactly what I say. There must be more people using that tactic as the response is a quick-fire quip back.

Try making eye contact and then when about a meter away, pushing your open palm to about six inches from their noses. The only verbal comment I have ever had is "ooh, in my face".

Reading through this thread it seems I've forgotten how to spell the word there!