I have been trying to avoid the news after my mini breakdown over the sadness and inhumanity reported daily by the media both mainstream and alternative - however I saw the story about the girl who was not allowed on a last night bus as she lacked 20p and the driver was not prepared to let her go to a cash point - 8 minutes she pleaded with him according to reports and the cctv footage - she was then brutally raped and beaten on the walk to meet with her mother who had agreed to pick her up.

There are many if's to this story and the blame ultimately does lie with the man who felt he was entitled to rape and beat the victim - but what strikes me as so very sad is that in those 8 minutes not one person on the bus offered her 20p - how have we become a society that can watch as a lone girl is turfed off the only bus home for being 20p short? the sort of society that steps over a dying man or crosses the road to avoid being approached by a homeless person - we spend a lot of time blaming 'elites' for the wrongs in the world - and I do understand the part they have to play - but individuals who go that extra mile are getting fewer an further between. The fact that it is an 'extra mile' is unbelievably soul destroying in itself.

I despair. There is only one person in this story that should ever be able to hold their head up again. Total and utter disgrace. And these people would call themselves civilized...

If she had some kind of ID the driver should have been able to get an IOU sorted for her with the depot for payment later.

Of course stagec*nts who got the privatised bus transport pay peanuts for drivers wages so its not surprising drivers are reluctant to help people out...

Money is a dead end, it has played its part but those of us with brains KNOW that it is over now. The information is getting out there slowly, eventually the inevtiable will happen I hope. I just won't be around to see it is all. It'll take another few hundred years for humanity to 'get it'.

Yeah I read this story elsewhere
That bastard of a bus driver is just as guilty as the scum who raped the poor young woman.

If I was the bus driver, I would have driven the girl to her front door. Absolute bastard that driver

I'm sorry to read your post thor, though I am happy to read that you are taking steps to avoid things like this effecting you quite so frequently.

It surprises me that people can still afford 'public' (what a joke) transport, tbh. I know I struggle to get anywhere unless it's walkable. It really is a choice between one or two meals or a return on a bus for me, most of the time.

You're right though, there are many 'ifs' to this story. I can see it from the driver's point of view, in one sense, in that people, kids especially, just can't afford travel most of the time and will try and chance it. A bus driver's lot is not a happy one, and he himself was probably under pressure re fare evasion and whatnot. Discretion is the key here, especially if it was a young woman late at night all on her own. So, it's not an excuse my any means.

It's all very sad.

If the driver argued with her for 8 minutes, surely she could probably have got to the cashpoint and back within that time anyway?

But like other people have said the driver was probably jaded and cynical. And everyone else probably thought it wasn't their problem. But 20p. At 3am. Jeez.

Thing is, the papers will say how awful it was and what a terrible story it is, then go back to moaning about scroungers and how it's poor people's fault they're poor and encouraging people to have that sort of mindet where they think anyone who needs help is taking the piss.

thoreau wrote:
I agree. 20p! I can never understand the workings of people who ignore little easily remedied things like that.

As for the "elites",I don't see how there could ever be any great positive change while so many people in the "grassroots" have pretty much the same kind of mentality as those in power. Not so much "them and us",this is humanity. And there is something really fundamentally wrong with it. After all,all these millenia,and nothing has changed with us. Everything we touch,no matter how much good potential it has,eventually gets put to use for destructive,subjugating and corrosive purposes.

If we were any better,the "elites" would have been long gone by now.

Sorry. Depressed nagative mood.

I still have some faith in humanity, mainly because I have faith in myself. I can't think about what other people are doing or wait for other people to take action. If I'm in a position where I'm the one who can help then I'll do it.
I hope I'm making sense It's about personal responsibility.

I didn't realise there were other people on the bus. What were they doing? Waiting for someone else to reach into their pocket? Had no change? The amount of people who don't seem to have insight is staggering. That young woman could be them one night, or their daughter, sister, whatever.

The mass of humanity seems nuts and as thick as shit. Are people like us here in the minority?

20p

That really was quite beautiful to read irre

I am often accused of having too much faith in humanity and it is that naive faith that means I get so upset about stuff - I know there are good people out there and that the news focuses on the bad stuff to keep us fearful - just sometimes though the senselessness and lack of any kind of humanity is too much - like you said 20p....

i almost always give money to bums/homeless.or food.

or in london victoria park, i helped a drunk homeless to stand up from laying in his own vomit and gave him about 10pounds and told him to get some food or even more drinks with that if he likes.i cleaned his filthy pullover with my bare hands and talked bit to him, encouraging him a bit.

there was dozens of bystanders witnessing this and they all looked at me first as if i just landed from mars or something, then, as i stood up and left, they all aplauded

saying "oh thats so nice".

i dont know whats so nice about that and why they couldnt do the same.as human, you dont just walk by a homeless who lays with his face is his puke on a sunday morning walk in the park and pretent everything is alright.

everybody protecting his little bits that they have, down to pocket change money thinking its theirs and noone elses ever, that is why we are where we are.

that said, if i was on that bus,id have paid the girl a taxi and would have spitted on the floor in the bus and called everyone in there a pos.

yeah i know in dailymail comment section everyone says how terrible this is and they would have given money, yeah riiight

i know i would have and i would have spat on the floor, symbolicaly on all of them.

ill rather be tagged a criminal and share with the ones in need than be some uptight asshole "model citizen" thinking mine is mine whatever comes.

id even give if it was my last money btw.who cares if you have to live with always no money or almost none, who the fuck would care about the last pocket change.

if life is so miserable then show courage and walk into the next tesco and collect a meal right in there, eat it there.you might get arrested and get the next couple meals in prison, but youd have made a statement.

thats better than go home and be proud about being model citizen while being a fool with never having money despite working ass off.

im not suprised, people are idiots and bend over whenever even not asked to do so.

haha, with this attitude, the ruling class will never be even remotely brought near falling down.

posting from the comfortable internet how bad stuff is and pretend how shocked one is, yeah thatll help.

@ Thoreau

I wouldn't say it was naivety at all It's empathy that makes us upset, and I think it's empathy that gives us faith in humanity. After all we are human and if we feel empathy and love, then others must too. We know what goes on in the world, we know how utterly evil and fucked up people can be, it's not like our faith in humanity is because we live in a fluffy bubble and view the world with rose tinted glasses. I'd rather live in the heart and have faith and empathy for humanity, than be cynical and negative about the whole thing. Having faith in people is the only option really if you're a loving positive person. The alternative (cynicism, etc.) is not an option for me.

I hope I made sense, I've had coffee and not long woken up

@irre - made perfect sense to me and i am in agreement - I guess I say naivety as it sometimes feels as if I am a bit of a wally to care as I do knowing what I know - but I would not choose to not care - I would not like the me that not caring would create.

@hada - I agree with you as well - I remember when I was about 5 or 6 and I first became aware that such a thing as homelessness existed - I asked my parents why the people couldnt come and sleep at our house - when told that that was not an option I went to the back garden with my blankie and refused to come in as an act of solidarity - I lasted about 2 hours before the thought that my teddies would worry because I hadnt told them where I was going drew me back in - I was an odd child.

irrepressible wrote:
Very eloquently put, irrie, and my thoughts exactly!

Mandy

you know here in swizterland, church housed homeless, which is a very nice move.

then paying members of the church started signing out in protest of that, i.e. removing/stopping funds and the church stopped housing them.

some religious people would be sent straight to hell by jesus, metaphoricaly speaking, as its all made up in the first place.

It is disgusting .

I thought busdrivers had a responisbilty to accept under 17's onto the bus regardless.

It does beg the question though why the girl involved was getting on a bus to go home at 3am

From what I've read the girl was quite young (as in 15-17)

I find it unbelivable that no one offered to pay her bus fare, that's just so wrong

I've done it for people and so have many many others, and many more will.

One bad case doesn't mean mean humanity has broken down. Was it a DailyMail article by any chance?

in spanish gran canaria island every bus is free for everyone.


in the uk, you better bring some money, bc nobody gives a fuck about anyone but themslevs.

everybody is like that because they are afraid to lose the precious ,uhm, nothing they have.

i swear living standard in uk is about equal to kuba or serbia, but the people proudly defend it to death, feeling superior.

been raped?dont worry, nobody cares

No it's not right for you to dismiss the UK .

You are living here no?

Everyone in the UK is not a selfish asshole

The majority of people will help any in need

dawnbreak wrote:
nah, im not living in the uk, im bit restricted to travel at the moment

dawnbreak, i been places, i can tell you the uk is far from being kind or something like that.

dawnbreak wrote:
This is a very good point, Dawn. For every similar instance there will be at least ten where people did step in and remember to be 'people'. Unfortunately, that doesn't sell newspapers, however.

This is why I don't tend to read 'em.

Ab Origine wrote:
Yeah, I hear you Ab. I wouldn't wipe my arse on the things