No Happy St. Paddy's at The Big Issue. By Uncle Monty.

No Happy St. Paddy's at The Big Issue.

Story By Uncle Monty.
Caption Photo By Alex Albion.

..
I’d only been back less than 6 hours in England

from Norway, when I made my way to get my

weekly stock of The Big Issue at its London

Covent Garden distributon spot on this early

morning of St. Patrick’s Day, 2oo9.

..
I’d had less than five hours of sleep, but I like to

get to my Big Issue pitch as early as I can in the

mornings. It was just after 9 O'clock, when I saw

Big Issue distributor Sam Woodlock herself with
her own magz cradled in her hands and offering

them for sale to London bypassers. When she saw

me, she told me it would be about 5 minutes be-

fore the magazines for vendors like me would be

at the spot. I then asked Sam if there was any

business and she said she’d just started and

so she said neither yes nor no to my

question of her.

..

Minutes later there was Steve Farrell pushing

the dolly with two crates of magazine bundles

inside them ready to sell to Big Issue vendors.

He didn’t look happy at all, did Steve. In fact,

he looked awfully grumpy and distant. And

even though I was no more than a couple of

feet away from him at most, he never once

greeted me or asked me anything or enquired

about my latest trip to Oslo. Just like Sam

had done so earlier before him. They simply

don't give a damn about any of the vendors

other than taking their money for the weekly

wholesale purchase of The Big Issue.

..
It is impossible to hold any kind of full con-

versation with such folkz for reasons I still

have not figured out why. So I got neither

a “Good Morning” nor "How are you?" nor,

of course, a “Happy St. Paddy’s Day” from

them at The Big Issue. But I soon did when

I got to my Long Acre pitch from friends and

customers there who were happy to see me

back from Norway. But not Sam and Steve.

They really don'’t ever give a hoot or a

damn, which is usual for them.

..

Big Issue Distributor Sam Woodlock.

..
And even though I have known Steve and Sam

now for going close onto the start of the fifth year,

I am still treated with no personal trust or respect

or acknowledgement from them. With her fading
suntan from her recent trip to Tenerife, the first

thing Sam Woodlock did on her return from there

was to count out my money like I am a silly child

who cannot count money properly. Yet, other

distributors accept what I give and don't bother

to hold me up while they insist on counting

my money, but no so with suspicious Sam.
Again, no trust.

..

Steve Farrell, like Sam, is the same or worse.

He always counts out my money for my stock as

if somehow I am going to cheat or short change

him and/or The Big Issue. Never, ever, do they

ever either say "thankz" or "nice of you" for

one's purchase of the magz. It's all to do with the

lack of manners and courtsey, isn't it? You bet!!

..
On this morning of St. Paddy's, Steve, as usual,

insists he wants my money first before he’d

even give me my usual bundle of 50 copies

at £35- cash. He counts out my money like

he expects to be cheated and demonstrates

absolute distrust towards the vendors and

me by his negative manner and dark

body language. When I offered my greeting

to him, Steve Farrell immediately held his

hand out to take my money instead of giv-

ing me a reciprocal greeting. Steve is always

so moody at the best of times it seems, too.

..

I’ve know these folkz Steve Farrell and Sam

Woodlock, mind you, for years now and yet they

treat me like I'm a complete stranger to them.

Ironically, I oftentimes leave The Big Issue

distribution spot myself thinking that they -

themselves are still strangers in my own life.

They offer no mutual respect or friendship

because they refuse to give such no matter

how long one knows them. And do they

trust me? Of course, NOT!! Even when they

have no reason whatsoever not to do so.

Perhaps it’s to do with their own past social

and personal baggage that they still carry

around with them and never let go. I suspect

that they may have been badly hurt by others

in the past and so they now hide themselves

from getting too close to others for fear of getting

hurt yet again. Pity, isn't it? Life is too short to be

shorten further by refusing to embrace others

at any given moment that passes by in

whatever life we may lead.

..
I also keep asking myself, why are these Big Issue

people like Sam Woodlock and Steve Farrell so cold

and so impersonal to those who come from where they

have also been on the streets of homelessness and with

societal rejection? They have no empathy or sympathy

for their own kind of homeless people.

Strange, but true!!

..
And, why do they - Sam and Steve - try to treat me

like I am a piece of scum or a 'dick' to them? It makes

me so angry inside when I see them constantly behav-

ing like they did yet again on this St. Paddy morning

when others do not do so towards me. If I can meet

presidents, popes, princes, prime ministers, paupers,

prisoners, public personalities, patriarchs, pensioners,

pilgrims, pious people, priests, paratroopers, police

personnel, and what have you, with all due respect

from them to me, then why in heaven's name do

they still treat me like a number instead of a full

and decent human being by such Big Issue dis-

tributors like Sam Woodlock and Steve Farrell?

I wonder? They have no right to treat me

or others like they do without

just and proper cause.

+

So "No Happy St. Paddy's Day at The

Big Issue." What else can I then say?

I'll say no more for now. Ah except, yes, a

HAPPY ST. PADDY'S DAY to one and all.

Including yes to you, Steve and Sam.

But, don't bother ever to give me such!!
..
This story, incidentially, of mine herein is the

first one that I have written and uploaded

entirely and directly from my Big Issue pitch

with my Dell laptop on my lap and my mobile

dongle doing the cyberspace trick ... Bravo!!!

Truly, Uncle Monty.

St. Patrick's Day, 2oo9.

..

:: UPDATE ::
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post

"No Happy St. Paddy's at The Big Issue. By Uncle Mo...":

"Whats your problem, if you don't like how the big

issue operates why are you still selling the magazine

you retard, people like you are so stupid."

...
(now) from judy, a friend of monty's. said...
this is judy, a friend of monty's. to 'anonymous'

you have proved what monty has said about the bad

attitude by some big issue people like you. your comments

proves that. they do more harm than good. stop hounding him.

stop being retarded & stupid. the problem is you & not monty.

i have always bought the big issue from him. no, he is not a re-

tard or stupid. it's you 'anonymous' who hides. monty does not.

what he says he states with his name. you don't. so what you say

does big issue more bad harm. monty said to me that he has no

problem with big issue. he has a problem only with people

like you & your bad attitude to sellers like monty. why don't

you treat him & your sales people properly?. you should for

big issue's sake. i will defend monty's right to air his gripes

about big issue reps like you. i was homeless before i married.

i work with abused children. the streets are hard. don't

make it harder for street people trying to make something

off buying big issues to sell to buy food. from me to you

my own comment is go get stuffed 'anonymous'.
3/22/2009 09:52:00 PM
...
"Nordic Oslo, Now Gone Islamic."

Next Story By Uncle Monty.

:: By Uncle Monty ::

Islam has now taken root even in this most

unexpected place and this most historically

"unIslamic" culture that is the Norwegeian

capital of Nordic Oslo. Islam is the utter anti-

thesis of Norway's long and deep traditional

and religious history of Evangelical

Lutheranism.

+
Deeply Lutheran Norway is about as "unIslamic"

as any place could ever be in Europe. Yet, Islam

is thriving and growing freely there at every

new day with three major Muslim Mosques

already booming with immigrant Muslims to be

seen every where all over Oslo and also dressed

in their Islamic best at Friday Prayer Day.

+

Frankly, I was shocked to see so many Islamic

folkz and their big mosques inside Norway. I visited

such to try to find out how Islam has now taken root

at what was once strictly Lutheran, Christian and

Nordic Oslo, that has now gone Islamic and beyond.
There is utterly nothing Nordic about Islam. And,

there is utterly nothing about Islam that is Nordic.

+

Norwegians are a dolichocephalic people of Northern

Europe. How alien Islam can thrive and live among

such non-Islamic people, is a strange story indeed.

Except when you figure out that it is the Muslim

foreigners that have emirgrated to Norway that

helps explain how Islam has now taken root in the

midst of the old Lutheran country that is Norway.
+
More of this story coming soon ...

...