I shouldn't let myself get riled, I shouldn't, really, but happening upon an article by the Calgary Sun I find myself quite incensed.
If you couldn't bring yourself to click on the link the gist of it is that Charities in Alberta spend in excess of half a million dollars hauling away useless donations. Don't click on the link, I just saved you the pain of reading the article.
Now it must have been a slow day in the news, and somebody was told in no uncertain terms to make something up, because - really...
A few observations & suggestions.
#1) How much do the charities make per year - off of free donations and volunteer labour? To me it seems that it's the smallest of reasonable expenses any business could hope to incur. I mean, their product is supplied free - and the decision not to sell something is frequently theirs and theirs alone.
#2) Who decides what is salvageable and what isn't? How many times have I wanted to root through a charity dumpster because I've had the suspicion that they were throwing away perfectly saleable merchandise (and once I did, found a stack of old books that I traded for $100.00 in credit at a local bookstore...not Fair's Fair.)
#3) Perhaps - nay, indeed likely - if they laid out the "rubbish" provided them by donors they'd find a fair measure of it hauled away - free of charge - by patrons that couldn't afford to shop their inflated prices. I know artists, myself amongst them, that would love and even pay for access to the materials they don't deem fit to sell. I'm talking to you, Salvation Army and Interfaith Thrift Store. Sometimes I wonder why their dumpsters are so secure - is it to prevent others from using them, or others from finding and reusing items they'd rather you paid for?
In short, a lousy article making a full page whinge out of local charities whining the quality of their donations isn't nearly what they'd like. Too bad, you should know better. What will the next article be - "Scheduling and Screening Volunteers Costs us Valuable Hours in Administration"?
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Always testing new ground, the Dallas Police Force announces that it will keep found money turned over to them by a child and "We're going to put the money to good use. It's not going to be wasted, but put to good use for the City of Dallas." Note the straight face the police officer keeps as he says this. Now I have a few observations - is this even legal? I doubt anyone in the Dallas Police Force even cares, "legality" an abstract thought that has little to do with their jobs. "Put to good use.." is I think is a euphemism for "already drank/smoked/snorted it away. They're testing new ground, the moral is, find something, pick it up, keep it yourself. Don't subsidize the police force's bad habits, theft apparently amongst them. And where's the PR guy telling them that for two thousand dollars they just bought themselves ten million dollars worth of bad publicity? Who thinks these things through? A thinking cop is about as much of an oxymoron as an honest lawyer...
Link: http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Dallas-decides-to-keep-cash-found-by-honest-teen-121609364.html
And before you dismiss this as "happened there and not here", rest assured your local police force will be paying close attention to see what fallout there is from this and adjusting their policies accordingly.
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I'm waiting in line at Safeway. I've taken a quick break from work to run over and pick up some cat food and coffee, about the only things I consume these days.
I'm in the express line, there's always a line at Safeway but this one seemed the shortest.
There's a new clerk, fat, pleasant, he's trying to get the product code for a bun, he's calling for help.
I could have went to the "Self Serve" line, but I consider that a scam as well, wait to ring in my food myself, my god, I'm paying the highest price in the city for groceries, more even than I would at 7-11, at least make an effort to serve me...
Fat clerk is confused. He's new, there's no one there to help him and the line inches forward.
There's always a line at Safeway. Always always always.
It takes him 20 minutes to get a price check on the bun, meanwhile the other lines seem to be moving quicker. I switch lines. He's flushed, fumbling, he knows he's cocking up and I'm irate, it's not his fault but god-damn, why can't the most expensive, the most prestigious grocery store in the city afford to pay their staff just that little bit better, train them just that little bit more?....
I want to call the manager, but I'm late enough as it is, this was to be a quick stop.
Now it's half an hour and I'm paying for groceries, 2 minutes shopping, 30 minutes in line. At Safeway.
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"Police in the US now rival criminals, and exceed terrorists as the greatest threat to the American public."
And you know, whatever they do in the US, we're never too far behind. Read more here (The New Statesman).
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