3/17/2009

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
"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 ...
...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

_U SHOULD NOT EXPECT THEM TO BE ANY DIFFERENT THAN THEY ARE _
_THEY ARE NOT SOPHISTICATED, MATE_
_U CAN ONLY HOPE THEY WILL MEND THEIR WAYS_ MANY PEOPLE ARE LOST_
_THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER BUT THEY DON'T_ ONE THING ALSO, YOUR THING
ON MUSLIMS IN NORWAY SHOCKED ME_
_U MUST KNOW THAT ISLAM IS SET TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD_ AGAINST
CHRIST'S BELIEVERS_
_GO IN PEACE, BROTHER MONTY_
_U ARE A GOOD MATE JUST LIKE THOSE OTHER PEOPLE SAY_

Anonymous said...

Dear Monty ... The world is full of cynics like Woodlock and Farrell ... Take care Uncle ...
Ida ...

Anonymous 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 retard 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 header 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'.

Anonymous said...

Listen up Judy ----
Our Monty goes out of his way to infuriate anybody he doesn't like. He slashes and cuts people up to pieces on his bloody blog. The innuendoes he makes against his victims make him one of the best in the business of slander. When I read his blog I hold my nose for it reeks of dead corpses. He koshes people on the head or sticks a long knife in them. Will
our "Uncle" Monty ever stop complaining about some body or
some thing that gets his goat?
I fear never ----
I admit he is a stand up character
that should be more pitied than blamed. That's our Uncle Monty for you. I agree he can write and photograph jolly good. But what for? To cut down people he doesn't like. He attacks first, then asks questions later ----
I'm sorry Judy you want to defend him. Are you scared he'll turm on you with his vicious blog, if you don't? ---- I am tired of people who want to defend our "Uncle Monty" even when he should be condemned for his tireless rants
with those unfounded allegations.
Beside his nasty slander and deliberate defamation if he decides to do his vomit on you or me ---- I must stay ANONYMOUS to protect myself from the bad curse of our "sweet"
Uncle Monty ----

Anonymous said...

I am writing to correct some inaccuracies in your posting.

Sam and Steve do not receive stock ‘wholesale’ to sell. They volunteer their time to sell magazines onto vendors in the Covent Garden area. The money taken goes to The Big Issue.

All coordinators at our 6 on street distribution points are instructed to count out money before handing over magazines, as are Big Issue staff who sell magazines from Big Issue offices. I think you are unreasonable in criticising the coordinators for doing this – were you purchasing any item in a shop or café the staff would count the money when you went to pay for your product.

I would like to point out that our coordinators are there to supply magazines to vendors in the local area, and do so very efficiently. They are often busy and may not be able to indulge in the banter you obviously expect of them. In the time that Steve and Sam have worked at the distribution point at Covent Garden they have worked with thousands of Big Issue vendors, including new trainee vendors. Feedback from other vendors is that Steve and Sam have been supportive and encouraging to vendors, and as the manager responsible for all Big Issue sales in Central London, I endorse them wholeheartedly.

I interpret your posting as being malicious and unfair to Steve and Sam, and would support them if they decided they no longer wanted deal with you because of it, meaning you would have to purchase your magazine elsewhere.

Paul Joseph
Outreach & Distribution Manager(London)
The Big Issue