AN AMATEUR ANTHROPOLOGIST’S STUDY OF THE RICH/POOR DIVIDE

As a group of volunteers we have collected unwanted furniture and household goods to pass on to people in need, helped to re-house homeless families, and given support to the unemployed and low waged.

From a community worker’s point of view it seems a very simple thing for us to state that for over 50 years we have organised ourselves at a voluntary group to help others; but it’s far more complicated to explain why we have sought to work in a way so different to the norm - that of trusting everybody and rejecting nobody.

We have deliberately tried to be open and non-directive with people, i.e. no rules, no regulations; just common sense. Accepting them and their situation as they are and seeing how the authoritative vacuum we create can actually draw people in as volunteers, bringing their ideas and energies into the group. This allows for young people to join a team with responsibilities. As volunteers they respond enthusiastically to this way of working (helping to rehouse homeless people) therefore proving how successful this ‘open door’ style approach is, especially as many unemployable young people have used our work experience to lead onto gaining paid employment.

Over the years we have built up many good contacts and a good reputation of responding efficiently (as many people will testify). We are now however looking for a new team leader to carry on not just with the physical side of the work but also to continue to further develop the social, innovative way of working - that of being open and none directive in the way we treat and respect each other as a team of volunteers.

Our work with the homeless has helped us quite naturally to think about poverty in the ever widening gap between rich and poor. Over the years we have heard it said that Britain is a broken country and people are suspicious that those at the top are liars, thieves, and crooks. This is confirmed by much professional research which reveals that blatant 'tax-loophole' cheating is running at about £120Bn annually, not to mention money fiddling/laundering/hoarding, plus public apathy has allowed them (the rich) to salt away £11trn in off-shore accounts - this explains why the country is being run on the cheap.

To put that into some sort of context, our GDP is under £3trn. Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay have imposed a windfall tax on the off-shore savings of their super rich - if they can do it so can we! You can Google it, or use the latest thing of Chat-Box or Chat GPT if you want to check out these facts.

Looking back at the way we have worked over the last 50 years, has helped us develop, what we think is a common sense type mission statement:

MISSION STATEMENT

All and every person from birth should be invited to take their place as an equal member of the human race in all aspects of life.

It is our belief that from cradle to grave, all endeavours should be made for everyone to share in all aspects of the joys, ideas, promises, struggles, advantages and disadvantages of life.

This should be our natural birth-right, the ABC of becoming a person and a responsible citizen. This simple secret and charter of life should therefore be the base for our personal philosophy in life - that we are all equal and here to help each other.

And just to clear up the belief of some who feel we’ve all got to be competitive, please note that there is natural balance between competition and co-operation in a healthy, just and fair society.

In other sections of our website we seek to explain (in story form) something of what we have discovered about the mystery, the history and the true nature of self-help.