Ocean King
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Homelessness & poverty—the ever-growing reliance on charities
Brian Seaton Lead Trustee at Small Charity Support Posted 1 year ago
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Recently, one of those “breaking news” e-mails landed on my desktop. It was about the latest financial catastrophe – a substantial rise in mortgage interest rates.
As one of life’s little coincidences, the news-flash arrived just as I was rummaging through some files about social disasters with significant charitable impacts, including homelessness and poverty. So I thought I would reproduce the words of one of them here.
The words have an even more poignant impact if quietly sung to the Christmas Carol tune “Away in a Manger” (apologies - I know it's a bit early for that 😉).
O'er there is a stranger, The street for a bed,
On a pillow of cardboard, He laid down his tired head.
The clouds in the dark sky, Looked down where he lay,
A sprinkling of raindrops, To round off his day.
On a pillow of cardboard, He laid down his tired head.
The clouds in the dark sky, Looked down where he lay,
A sprinkling of raindrops, To round off his day.
The traffic is flowing, The stranger awakes.
He gathers his blankets, But no breakfast he makes.
The good folk of the city, Look up to the sky,
Avoiding his sad eyes, And passing him by.
He gathers his blankets, But no breakfast he makes.
The good folk of the city, Look up to the sky,
Avoiding his sad eyes, And passing him by.
"Be near me, my good friend, I have nowhere to stay.
Don't shun me forever, And help me, I pray."
But do we this Christmas, Have enough tender care?
Or will we with ears shut, Just pretend he's not there?
Don't shun me forever, And help me, I pray."
But do we this Christmas, Have enough tender care?
Or will we with ears shut, Just pretend he's not there?
I have to confess that the words were, foresightedly, written by my son. But it’s not a new problem - the inevitable consequence of greed. It is just one part of a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ well-known “A Christmas Carol” about the money-focused greed of Scrooge. It was recorded by the Stanmore Choral Society, back in 2017.
Unfortunately, things seem to have got much worse, rather than better, since 2017.
So thank goodness for all the charities - large and, particularly, the many small ones - doing their best to fill the ever-growing gap in public social services.
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