Ultimate Blog Challenge - What do you think the world needs more of?

Welcome back to Day 21 of October's Ultimate Blog Challenge. Today's question is

What do you think the world needs more of?

During this series I noticed about myself that the more general and open a question, the greater my struggle. 

Take yesterday: What do you prefer to wear for work? This was specific and easy to answer.

What does the world need more of??

I like to go with the first things that come to mind:

Peace. Food for everybody. Clean water. Access to education. 

Photo by Hanna Morris on Unsplash

How can we achieve these goals? Or who can achieve these goals?

People.

People who care, and people who not only care but do something about it. 

People who have the connections and the means. 

And people who do the littlest things to help. 

People who understand that they have to put their own convenience and greed aside in favor of the greater good. That's where it gets tricky. No one likes to give up conveniences. I am the first one to admit it. I value my personal freedom, and I enjoy the things I have worked hard for. 

My husband has developed flight shame. This is one of the reasons we haven't been travelling to North America in five years. While it's a noble thing to consciously not contribute to CO2 emissions, it restricts our desire to have fun. Plus it sort of pisses me off that while we are cutting back, others, as soon as Covid restrictions were lifted, went back to their old habits of jetting everywhere. I would understand and support this if they were visiting their long lost relatives, but it's just weekend trips and vacations in sunny Thailand while the rest of us suffered from fog, sleet and general winter depression. 

It's the same people who feel the need to replace a perfectly fine mobile phone or car by the newly released (insert brand name). They will purchase (and dump) as they please because they can.

"Man gönnt sich ja sonst nichts" we like to say in German. It's the entitled justification for consumerism. It's hard to translate, but what it means is we are working hard, we should treat ourselves every once in a while. 

While it's OK to do so for people who actually do work hard and contribute to society, it enrages me to witness how people who are on welfare because they're too lazy to work, assume the same mentality and demand the state tax payers provide them with (insert goods). 

German TV dedicated an entire series to system parasites who are proud to reveal on camera how they rip off the state year after year. Should they ever have their benefits cut because they failed to perform their most minimal duties, they dare to rail against the civil servants. 

Just because this bitch at the authorities' office is too lazy to do her job, I don't get my money now. And because I don't have any money, I couldn't pay the utility bill, and as a consequence, my electricity has now been cut off. To make matters worse, they charge a fee to turn the power back on. 

Hold on. 

• The bitch is too lazy? Look in the mirror! Who's the lazy person here? The woman has been nothing than helpful and patient with you. 
• The office is the institution that in addition to your monthly citizen's income, pays for your apartment, heating costs and health insurance contribution! 
• My money? Where do you think the money comes from? What did you do to earn it?
• You don't have any money? You did get money. What did you spend it on? Cigarettes and beer.
• A utility company will send several warnings, will agree for you to pay in instalments and will only cut your electricity as a last resort. Actions have consequences. Non-actions have consequences. Don't blame them, blame yourself. Bitch. 

Enough of this. While the TV channel seems to find new idiots every week, I do hope that they are still a minority, and that most of the welfare recipients are grateful and actively trying to get back on their feet because that's the original idea. 

I am also glad that Switzerland, just like Germany, has the means to support their people, so nobody needs to go homeless or hungry. At least that's the theory. 

There are no exact figures due to the lack of a systematic survey. In Switzerland only 543 people are officially registered as homeless. 

Overall, however, it is estimated that around 2,200 people, or 0.02%  are affected by homelessness. In the U.S. it's 582,462 individuals or 0.18% of the population. 

In Switzerland 2% of the citizens are registered as unemployed, in the U.S. it's 1.92%. Interestingly the percentage of job vacancies is 0.52% in Switzerland and 2.41% in the United States. 

The difference is, you can barely notice homeless people in Switzerland. We don't have tent camps in the cities, there are no trailer parks, and you will spot very few people in their sleeping bags at train stations or house entrances. Why is this? 

We've got a lot of options when it comes to finding a place to sleep, eat, take a shower and find clothes. Most are low-threshold services run by private aid organizations, often with a church background, and some are subsidized by the cantons (states). 

There are usually three rules for the private acommodations: No drug use, no pets and night rest from 10pm. If the shelter is run by a state or city, the additional rule is that you have to be in the system, meaning your stay in Switzerland must be official and legal. All sans-papiers have a problem. Is sans-papiers a universal term? It has become established, especially in France, in connection with illegal immigration and illegal residence. This means that the person concerned has no identity document, either because their home country has never issued one, or the individual is fully aware that their nationality will not be recognized when it comes to apply for refugee status, and therefore assumes their nationality of choice that will guarantee them benefits, but of course they can't identify themselves as such.

Photo by Steve Knutson on Unsplash

A journalist who wanted to experience what it means to be homeless, had spent his first night outdoors, and no surprise, he didn't want to do it again. It was cold, it was uncomfortable, it was scary. So the next night he registered at a shelter. While he admitted that it was super clean, quite nicely equipped and surprisingly homey, he slept even worse. People were coming and going, and in the bathroom he found remains of IV-drug consumption. By night three of his experiment he found what seemed the ideal place to stay, and if you have watched the movie "The Terminal" you know what's coming: the airport. Innovative people had found niches underneath escalators where they hid their sleeping bags. Genius. It's warm, there's bathroom facilities, and there's restaurants where passengers leave uneaten food. 

So back to the topic at hand. The people who provide these shelters and goods, they are a great example of what the world needs more of. 

Homelessness if often a consequence of addiction, which is often a consequence of neglect and abuse, which again is often a consequence of addiction, which is often a consequence of neglect and abuse, so I think what the world needs more of in the first place is people who work to prevent this downward spiral:

• Parents who raise their kids right by role-modelling good values
• Governments who pay subsidies to childcare organizations in order to allow working parents to make a decent living
• Governments who pay teachers decent salaries and provide appropriate resources in order to educate, and if necessary, further support students' leaning needs, so that, down the line, kids end up in stable jobs
• Laws that make sure there is enough affordable housing, instead of approving more and more luxury real estate
• Laws that tax alcohol and tobacco even higher

The latter is debatable, since even the steep price of up to CHF 9 (=currently USD 10!!) for a pack of cigarettes, doesn't seem to keep young people from taking up the nasty habit, but at least it'l provide funds to clean up some of the damage.

OK, I'll wrap this up here. Over to you: How do you think homelessness can be fought? And in general, what do you think the world needs more of?