I enjoy my strolls downtown. I enjoy people watching, the nice weather, friends’ company, etc. What I don’t enjoy is being hounded on the street mid-enjoyment by persons trying to get me join/root for their cause. I understand how difficult it is to stand on the sidewalk trying to hound people down, most of whom ignore you, however I always go out of my way to at least say hello, let you know that I support what you’re all doing, but that I don’t have time in my day-today life to actually help/contribute/give my time. I wish I could, but I don’t have money to donate, and between working full-time and attending classes full-time I don’t even have time to give. My walks downtown once every couple of weeks are all the free time I get… I just have OTHER things that need to come first. I’m all for a greener Halifax, for helping the earth and those less fortunate, and I do what I can (honestly). BUT, when I say “no thanks, have a great day regardless”, please leave me be, otherwise it makes me want to start ignoring you altogether like most others do. —wandering
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2013.
Yeah that’s annoying. You can’t go a block downtown without someone asking for something from you.
“You could walk down the street and give each bum a penny but you better stop at ten dollars or you ain’t gonna have any.”
Binder Hippies – Cleaner than panhandlers. Prettier than buskers. Still a pain in the ass.
I’ve started to wear headphones whenever I leave the house. I’ve observed a 98% reduction of unwanted hounding.
Talking in Clint Eastwood voice and wearing a Slavic fuck-you sneer works wonders.
Happy (belated) Birthday Mel. Did the HRPD cop/stripper that I hired find your crew?
doesn’t dalhousie have a course as well where they get students to go out and “spread knowledge of a cause” seems every september the population of them triples with fresh students talking about some african warlord or some other crap i really dont care about
But if you tell them you can’t afford whatever it is they’re asking for, you MUST let them try to make you feel guilty for whatever luxury you might have, big or small, because that’s what they do once you engage with them. They don’t take no for an answer and you have to be rude with them if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself responding to them. I tried to be nice too but I quickly gave it up when I realized the types of leeches they are. I don’t need people like that trying to make me feel guilty. If I want to give my money to a cause, it’s going to be a cause *I* believe in, not a cause they get $13/hr to believe in.
When I get asked for spare change I just reply with, “I don’t speak English,” then light a cigar with a lightly-singed American $1.00 bill.
how long do U haz to save UR moniez 2 get all that much limpbizket?