Came across this the other day. Street cam, Philadelphia.
It's rough. When you see the people standing stock still, I guess it's drugs?
m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxL5Hm3mIBk&pp=ygUZcGhpbGFkZWxwaGlhIHN0cmVldHMgbGl2ZQ%3D%3D
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The 'richest' country in the world - just sent $60 billion to that crook in Ukraine.
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Sound rather harsh. No doubt you have provable fact to support your position (and not just rubbish put out by weirdo conspiracy theorists).
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“Provable facts”. We are I the post-truth world. You can spout any rubbish you like on the internet and it will be spread by gullible fools. Just ask Mr Trump.
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Rough? 25$ for a car wash? Shocking!
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Luxury....Have a trip round the Tondo in Manila....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=frFYG9cOhj4
Ted
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>>Have a trip round the Tondo in Manila....
They don't appear to be overly unhappy with their lot in life, unlike the people in Philadelphia.
Like the slums of Victorian Britain over 100 years ago, you'd think things would have moved on in the world by now.
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I thought that too, Perro. I noted that most people seem to be smiling and also they looked very clean with freshly laundered clothes. There are open places where a few washing machines and lots of gorilla buckets seem to be well used.
The groups that compile these films are sponsored and the money goes to buying street snacks for the myriad of kids running around. It looks like street vendors can easily sell their entire stock of food at once, judgjing by the crowds,
I'm not sure the electrical systems would pass any BS rules, there's a massive spiders web of cables above the streets and the smaller alleyways often have a dozen or so mains cables snaking along and being walked on. Plenty of scooters and motorbikes parked up as well !
Ted
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>>I thought that too, Perro. I noted that most people seem to be smiling and also they looked very clean with freshly laundered clothes
Maybe that's the answer, Teddy = less is more!
The ole woman and I, married in the same year as the Duchess and you btw, were saying only a few days ago that folk were happier back then, even though our cars broke down on a regular basis, and we only had B&W TV with 2 channels :)
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I'm reading a history of the Irish potato famine (the big one) just now. There were an estimated 8 -9 million people in Ireland by 1840 and most lived in appalling poverty. The 1841 census put houses in four grades, the lowest of which were windowless one roomed mud walled cabins.
Nearly 3/5 of the population in the west of Ireland lived in the lowest grade houses, and 2/5 of those west of a line drawn through Londonderry and Cork.
Family assets not untypically consisted of a pig and a manure heap.
Furniture was a luxury. In 1837, the 9,000 inhabitants of Tullahobagly, C. Donegal, had between them
10 beds
93 chairs
243 stools
And yet it appears that "their natural condition was turned towards gaiety and happiness" as recorded by Sir Walter Scott after a visit in 1825.
I marvel that the Irish have any time at all for the English. Time and again, their land was stolen, given away, and rented back to them. The gale system meant that they were permanently in arrears and could therefore be turned off the land at will. What a life.
The only good things about it were that the lumpers didn't take a lot of cultivating. When the crop wasn't blighted of course. And there was 'turf' for heating.
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>Family assets not untypically consisted of a pig and a manure heap
They were lucky! When I were a lad...
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>> >Family assets not untypically consisted of a pig and a manure heap
>>
>> They were lucky! When I were a lad...
Aye, we used to cover oursens wi manure to keep warm......
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>> When you see the people standing stock still, I guess it's drugs?
>>
I believe that it is a side effect of 'spice' - a widely used term for synthetic cannabis.
Nasty stuff, strength and composition can vary widely.
www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/drugs-and-drug-use/common-drugs/synthetic-cannabinoids-spice/
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Spice…
I remember being asked by grandparents to buy them ‘a quarter of spice’, meaning 4oz of sweets.
I don’t know if it was a local Bradford expression or a more widely used name for sweets.
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>> I remember being asked by grandparents to buy them ‘a quarter of spice’, meaning 4oz
>> of sweets.
>> I don’t know if it was a local Bradford expression or a more widely used
>> name for sweets.
Certainly used in the West Riding; x has got some spice was a common classroom expression at senior school though I guess Yeadon was near enough to Bradford for there to be linguistic crossover.
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Spice is one of the reasons my daughter moved from Central Leeds a few years back. She wasn’t at all fazed by most people living on the street and used to chat to a few regulars. However the sight of people draped (inactive) over street furniture and being followed by late night (all too active) drunks meant it was time to move on.
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Ah, I see. Thanks, had no idea.
Don't know about anyone else, but I have an internal struggle with scenes like these. Half of me says "thank god my life isn't like that, right, National Trust tearoom this afternoon", and the other says "how the heck can this be happening to these poor people, what can I do to help", and you give a fiver to some charity or other knowing four quid of it is going to the chairman's Mercedes.
I'm probably a bad person.
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Fairly close to how I think CC.
I do think it is really sad that people get to these situations because once you're there it must be virtually impossible to get out of it without humungous amounts of support from friends, family and "the system" and, of course, will power and self determination.
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Every 8 weeks I collect "my drugs" / "old man's tablets" from the local pharmacy about 1 mile away in the nearby village.
I wait until say 10.00, or later, before going along - before 9am a small queue outside and constant flow for about an hour. Methadone handed out.
Last time I went it was about 11 am that 2 men say 50-60, "turned up late" they were definitely not 100%. After a small disagreement they settled down after the pharmacist asked them to tone down.
There must be a huge number of people in that village & surrounding area "with problems".
As my eldest son always says "Our whole family live in a bubble insulated from most of the problems many / most families face"
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Lot of space between "many" and "most".
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Depends on the sample
Many may apply to a town.
In that town there may be areas with even more than average issues.
Certain streets or blocks of flats in an area can defined as most.
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Or people from outside the area collecting prescriptions after having visited more than one doctor for the same 'ailment', either to use the meds themselves or to sell on.
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"As my eldest son always says "Our whole family live in a bubble insulated from most of the problems many / most families face"
When Mrs FC retired from the job she told people that she just wanted to get into that bubble most of the population where kids playing football and dogs fouling the pavement are the biggest issues they face in their lives. Oh, and running out of organic broccoli in Waitrose :)
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"Waitrose"
Oh for a public service pension LOL
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TBH I am happy to live in my middle class bubble in a small town just outside the Cotswolds with Waitrose my closest supermarket (LIDL and Tesco also get a lot of my money)
Closest city is Bristol - like all large cities has some very nice bits, lots of congested high density urban sprawl, and some truly unattractive and unpleasant.
Some are destined to struggle through life - some should take more responsibility for their own predicament, and some will struggle through no fault of their own. I have sympathy for the latter group who deserve support in a decent society.
To what extent should those in the "bubble" sacrifice their comfortable existence to help those who they have never met, and unlikely ever to meet - Personally I have no problem with some increase in tax providing it does not significantly compromise my quality of life and activities.
Whether this renders me a "bad" person through very explicitly limiting the support I would provide to those less fortunate, or is merely realistic and honest is for others to judge - personally I prefer the latter.
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>>Methadone...
I was given morphine by the air ambulance doctors once.
Awful stuff - didn't react to it at all well.
Have had horrible side effects from prescription pain killers as well.
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My experience is that every major city in the USA is like this. Doesn't matter which state, red or blue, rich or poor. It's so bad that in many places we no longer stay in the city of the airports we fly to because the risk is so high.
When you fall off the wagon in the USA there is no support whatsoever. Being paranoid of "big Pharma" in the UK is just that, paranoia, but the reason most of these people ended on on opioids in the first place is because of doctors overprescribing them.
Which brings you around to their truly backwards healthcare system which perpetuates the cycle and fails to rescue people from it.
My view after spending a lot of time there over the last 20 years is that the USA is little more than a third world country with a space program and iPhones.
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Healthcare systems can’t be the only reason though. Canada, its neighbour to the North, has an excellent health system, one of the best in the world. Vancouver, one of the most beautiful cities in the world with a booming economy has a massive drug problem. I have driven though East Hastings which is a mile or two from the centre and major tourist area and the scene is similar to the posted video.
Fentanyl is the main problem. Hugely addictive and easily available. Addiction is found through all strata of society
youtube.com/watch?v=URcDZ8HjTtQ&si=am68XZ3HdKhGrsCu
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,Canada, its neighbour to the North, has
>> an excellent health system, one of the best in the world.
Canada ranked 32nd, so hardly excellent. Cuba is ranked higher.
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>> Canada ranked 32nd, so hardly excellent. Cuba is ranked higher.
Having broken my hip in havana, I have first hand knowledge of the Cuban health care system. It was dirt cheap and excellent. In fact it was so cheap it didnt breach my insurance excess, so couldnt claim it back.
However, because I could pay the paltry sums required, I got service the average cuban could not afford or have access to.
It was 70 quid at a private clinic, for an X-ray, Scan, no waiting, all with the latest german kit, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon plus an extra 20 quid for the crutches at a diplomatic only supplier of medical equipment (10 dollars bribe required) Again unavailable to the locals due to the US embargo.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 17 May 24 at 20:31
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How the other half live - Dog
