While still in the Faroe Island ...

``Monty, I am writing regarding your blog, which you have been handing out printed copies of on your pitch. Whilst I respect your right to express your views on your blog, please remember that you have signed a Code of Conduct which states that vendors are not allowed to do anything to bring the Big Issue into disrepute. Please be aware that whilst you are wearing a Big Issue badge you are representing the Big Issue and cannot be handing out material that is offensive about The Big Issue or Big Issue staff. If you do hand out any such material you will be in breach of the Code of Conduct. Regards Paul (Joseph)
Outreach & Distribution Manager (London), The Big Issue, 1-5 Wandsworth Road
London SW8 2LN 020 7526 3487 07931 536128. ´´(His e-mail is dated Aug. 3rd, 2oo7. Received Aug. 10th, 2oo7, by me at Torshavn, the capital of the Faroes Islands, and thus
I now respond herein to Paul's warning directed at me ...)

Here is my open response:
``I received the above e-mail from Paul while here with Contessa Maria at The Faroe Islands ...
I gave Paul a copy of my open newsletter when he visited me at my pitch with Steven Robertson of The Big Issue Foundation. This occurred a few days before I left to attend the 5th World Homeless Cup of 48 nations at Copenhagen. I then left there with Maria to take a short break here at the Faroes ... The point is that I did NOT give out my newsletter inside copies of the The Big Issue nor did I give it to the general public, but I strictly handed it to friends of mine ... and to folkz I know like Paul Joseph ... Indeed, my right to express my opinion about anybody or anything applies to me and The Big Issue ... Listen to what The Big Issue co-founder John Bird says and read what he writes ... John is like me, he says what he thinks and that's how it should be.

``The right of The Big Issue to not publish my letter regarding John Duffy's comments about "mugging old ladies," gives me the right to find another public forum to express my personal views ... And there's nothing better than using my own blog to say what I think ... Freedom of speech is not the exclusive right of any one party, but rather is inclusive for all of us of which such happens to also include me and you ... I cannot criticise Big Issue's John Duffy while I wear a Big Issue vendor badge, but John can criticise me to all his heart's content while he works for
The Big Issue ... Funny, I think!! "What is good for the goose is good for the gander," isn't it?

``Paul has failed to recognise what I have stated, but rather has focussed his attention on my
method of communication and not the message I have detailed for all to read ... there is not a single word of criticism of John Duffy's outrageous comments about "mugging old ladies" nor any compliment for my open stand against what he stated ...

``Let me assure Paul Joseph, who I happen to like, that I will distribute my next newsletter -- Vol.1 No. 2 -- to whoever I wish or to anybody who may ask me -- like Sam did, a BI distributor, when she came before and visited my pitch to obtain the same copy I later gave to Paul -- Vol. 1 No. 1 -- but her real intention, I suspect, was to see if she could catch me distributing my newsletter inside The Big Issue copies I was selling ... She didn't, of course!! I gave her a copy she so requested from my wheelie bag ... even then, Sam also officiously warned me that I could not distribute my newsletter by inserting my newsletters inside such copies ... which I was already well aware of and have'nt nor do I intend to do such either then, or now, or in the future ... My written and printed thoughts have broad wings that will find plenty of opportunity to be distributed and shared no matter what ...

``I understand what Paul has stated and that he speaks for The Big Issue management as a whole and I am glad and pleased about what I have stated and have no shame for what I have done to raise my anger at being unrighteously painted as possibly being someone among others who goes around "mugging old ladies ..." No way!! It's also interesting to note that John Duffy, as far as I know, has made no apology nor retraction for his terrible statement ... about the homeless ...

I think he should, but then again I'm only a lowly vendor of no importance to The Big Issue and who cannot dare to compete against the 'almighty' Mr. Duffy's and his pronouncements no matter how outrageous and offensive they are ... to all homeless folkz ... no matter where or who they are ...
``One last comment for now: Always remember "I say what I believe, NOT what I am told to believe."´´
And of passing note: I also took The Big Issue inside North Korea's Pyongyang and got no thankz for that. I took The Big Issue inside the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz; to South Africa's
hometown of Archbishop-Emeritus Desmond Toto while in Cape Town; even inside The Holy See or The Vatican I took The Big Issue yet again!!; and not to mention to the Medina of Morocco, to the 5th World Homeless Cup of 48 nations, to China's Beijing (at where John Bird lost his passport while visiting there); and now to The Faroe Islands ... Such visits have been paid for so generously and so lovingly from Maria to me. Bravo, my dear Contessa and thank you so kindly for your magnifience towards this old soul almost 64 years old. While The Big Issue, for its part, has not given to me one word of interest or thankz for taking its homeless publication to almost the four corners of the world and have photographed those displaying it for all to see. Yet, even Lisa Woodman, BI Publisher, wanted first to know first if I wanted to be paid for use of my images from North Korea showing the magazine cover being displayed by one of my bodyguards ... Woooooooooooooow, what's wrong with those folkz? And the exclusive photographs I took of Beyonce hereself holding up The Big Issue with his own mugshot on the same week's cover got nowhere with The Big Issue after I asked ex-amount of money for their right to use my imaginative images ...

All I got was dead silence and no offer even to buy the images of Beyonce ... As a retired news
pohotographer I don't intend on selling my photographic skills and my exclusive photos for peanuts to anybody. Prior to my news experience, I was a forensic photographer that photographed vile scenes of murdered bodies and unbelieveable crime scenes of utter violence and sub-human behaviour ... I hold, by the way, an undergraduate degree -- a B.A -- in sociology and criminology and did two years of Gradute School in political science and divinity ...

But so far all have I gotten from anybody at The Big Issue ... is condemnation from Paul Joseph, John Duffy, Sam, et al, and its other management figures who seem to think they know what's best no matter when in fact they oftentimes do not ... in my opinion ... they don't see talent, they see only criticism!!

I can and will stand firmly without fear or favour even as a two-penny vendor that they seem to think I am ... maybe!! Just maybe ... After losing my uninsured house and everything by a catastrophic fire, I was left pretty much homeless ... such has been a learning experience that I hold no self-pity about. Life is to live to its fullest no matter what befalls you ...
Remember: "Be Thou Not Dismayed ..." My personal faith has always sustained me no matter
what comes next down the road ... we are all here only for a very short time and so don't worry
if others want to condemn you or deny you what you are ... Truly, Monty. +Sunshine Day, 2oo7.