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Thursday, June 10, 2010
Group Hug, Anyone?
"For one moment our lives met, our souls touched."
You'd probably get arrested if you did this in this country, though.
But what an uplifting video! Warms the heart of your cockles, doesn't it?
The results for "Free hugs London" on Google would suggest that it went down reasonably well in the UK as well: http://www.google.com/search?q=free+hugs+london&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=v&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=rNkQTL2gOJeW4gbD_YH5Bw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB0QqwQwAA
You obviously havent been round a university campus recently then?
Unfortunately it only ever seems to be members of extreme evangelical Christian groups who pull stunts like this. Free hug...and an obligation to attend a meeting on the meaning of Christ.
Actually, I saw a guy doing the same thing under the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus last year. I suspect a large number of his "hugees" were tourists, but still!
My brother until recently worked in a home for autistic adults. There are the grand total of four patients in this home, and it costs no less than £12,000 a week to run.
There are at most three staff there, (two overnight), earning very low salaries, 400 man hours a week costing maybe £4000. Nearly all the primary costs are management costs, those of the quangocracy that happens to rule the nest, lawyers, accountants etc etc etc., their offices, secretaries and paid for vehicles, the sentries of barmy regulations.
My brother is very caring, and one of the boys had a habit of setting off across the road outside the home, and had to be distracted to some other activity for his own safety.
The only way to stop him was to get hold of him in a bear hug and talk to him until he found some other distraction. My brother did this most successfully, but was reprimanded for touching the ’students’, even though he was in the act of saving the boy’s life.
He chose to resign rather than face a disciplinary procedure for quite literally saving this student’s life on many occasions. And he did not want to see the consequences of this horrific example of bureaucratic murder.
He asked what he should do if the student was going to be killed by a car, and was told he had to let him walk, and not restrain him by touching him. I do ask you.
Apart from the total nonsense that these idiots inflict on humanity, the cost of keeping them all employed when they contribute precisely nothing to the vital services provided is the problem with its cost.
The fact that they don’t give a damn about the people in need is obvious. Kill the quangocrats, the bureaucrats and the slime, not the autistics, the old and the needy. You could halve government spending before you need to cut even one front line service.
The NHS is exactly like this. Kill the bureaucracies that are throttling front line services, and we can all afford to live, and help each other.
People do do this in the UK, my flat mate used to go regularly in Cambridge city center - the reactions you get are really interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely need more of this sort of thing, very uplifting!
No, in fact a friend of mine, Francesca Steel, did it in Trafalgar square a few years ago for an article in Times2.
ReplyDeleteThe results for "Free hugs London" on Google would suggest that it went down reasonably well in the UK as well: http://www.google.com/search?q=free+hugs+london&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=v&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=rNkQTL2gOJeW4gbD_YH5Bw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB0QqwQwAA
ReplyDeleteYou obviously havent been round a university campus recently then?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it only ever seems to be members of extreme evangelical Christian groups who pull stunts like this. Free hug...and an obligation to attend a meeting on the meaning of Christ.
The ones with the pretty girls warm the hartles of my... I mean the cockles of my heart!
ReplyDeleteActually, I saw a guy doing the same thing under the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus last year. I suspect a large number of his "hugees" were tourists, but still!
ReplyDeleteThe Free Hugs thing has been around for a while now check out their website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.freehugscampaign.org/
And a funny take on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJfYAJJYMqg
Scotland is way ahead.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgzBrxXwzdI
Hugs,
Alan Douglas
I prefer a slightly more market-oriented solution:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJfYAJJYMqg
It happens in Burnley every year
ReplyDeletehttp://www.burnleyexpress.net/burnleynews/Burnley-marks-International-Hugs-Week.6277990.jp
There was a tramp outside our local Tesco with a "Free Hugs" sign last week; strangely he didn't seem to be getting many people taking him up on it...
ReplyDeleteHUGS ARE VERBOTEN
ReplyDeleteMy brother until recently worked in a home for autistic adults. There are the grand total of four patients in this home, and it costs no less than £12,000 a week to run.
There are at most three staff there, (two overnight), earning very low salaries, 400 man hours a week costing maybe £4000. Nearly all the primary costs are management costs, those of the quangocracy that happens to rule the nest, lawyers, accountants etc etc etc., their offices, secretaries and paid for vehicles, the sentries of barmy regulations.
My brother is very caring, and one of the boys had a habit of setting off across the road outside the home, and had to be distracted to some other activity for his own safety.
The only way to stop him was to get hold of him in a bear hug and talk to him until he found some other distraction. My brother did this most successfully, but was reprimanded for touching the ’students’, even though he was in the act of saving the boy’s life.
He chose to resign rather than face a disciplinary procedure for quite literally saving this student’s life on many occasions. And he did not want to see the consequences of this horrific example of bureaucratic murder.
He asked what he should do if the student was going to be killed by a car, and was told he had to let him walk, and not restrain him by touching him. I do ask you.
Apart from the total nonsense that these idiots inflict on humanity, the cost of keeping them all employed when they contribute precisely nothing to the vital services provided is the problem with its cost.
The fact that they don’t give a damn about the people in need is obvious. Kill the quangocrats, the bureaucrats and the slime, not the autistics, the old and the needy. You could halve government spending before you need to cut even one front line service.
The NHS is exactly like this. Kill the bureaucracies that are throttling front line services, and we can all afford to live, and help each other.