Muddy shoes out in the cold
One of the weirdest part of my jobs is having to deal with homeless people. Homelessness in the UK, especially for the actual citizens of the country, should really be taken with a pinch of salt.
Now I know there are people living with problems that are bigger than them and while I feel sorry for anyone suffering because of their situation, I find it conflicting that people choose to be homeless.
It turns out that in the UK, there's some type of shelter available for anyone that wants it. However, the caveat is that you need to quit whatever illegal substance you consume. You know, drugs.
I also find it strange that homeless people can buy drugs. It doesn't fit what I understand homelessness to mean.
In Nigeria, when someone is homeless, they barely have anything to eat. It is not a choice, it is condition you're either born into or fall into. Homeless people cannot even afford food, never mind drugs or the alcohol I see homeless people consume in the UK.
Anyway, so, yeah, I get to see a lot of homeless people trying to gamble. Which, again, is kind of weird to me considering that these are people that are presumably supposed to be suffering.
I guess for the homeless fella trying to access a bet shop, it'll be an opportunity to feel "normal" like and entering a warm shop with all these normal people is like tourism for them. I imagine their own world is dark, cold, miserable and filled with rats.
At the same time, I know I shouldn't but my mind can't help but veer to my own country and compare. Comparing how even homelessness means very different things in both countries.
Homeless people in the UK are fully clothed, sometimes even wearing better shoes than me. They drink better beer than me and take drugs that only rich kids in Nigeria can access.
Oh yes, back to my job. So, yeah, a lot of homeless people try to bet at the shop but we don't accept their money for obvious reasons. They get pretty pissed about it and sometimes really try to go at you for not letting them gamble like everyone else. I generally don't know how to feel about it.
There are levels to homelessness
I'm sure they are aware they aren't allowed to bet. They are just acting angry to see if you'll be the one guy who bends the rules for them. Acting angry typically gets people what they want, so they become conditioned to do it to get everything they want.
Yeah I was amazed at how a ton of homeless are so because they want to be, because in order to have shelter they would need to stop doing all the bad things they do, but since they don't want to stop being bad, they continue to be a burden for society.
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I have never seen homelessness or heard about it from this perspective before. It is really sad and I can’t but wonder what goes on in their heads to choose to live that way.
There are grades to homelessness. Homelessness abroad is different from homelessness in Nigeria. It's only abroad you'll hear them say 'I was so poor that I had to sleep in my car for months'. How are you poor and still have a car please?
Give it to us, Nigerians are very unique. Even in homelessness, we're unique. LoL😂
Lol even poverty has grades 😄
Yeah homelessness is a difficult thing in the “western” countries. A lot of it is caused by addiction unfortunately and that addiction can be complicated itself - some people get addicted because their unscrupulous doctor gave them way too many pain pills and they took them consistently leading to the addiction. It’s a shame because it’s all driven by money.