Introduction
Learn about kindness and how to talk about different aspects of kindness in this new Discussion episode from English Plus Podcast. We will discuss kindness between neighbors, altruism, Mother Theresa, and the Red Cross.
Audio Episode
Discussion Questions
You can choose any question and leave a comment about it in the comment section below. Just make sure you refer to the question in your comment to make it easier for me and for other people to reply.
Love Your Neighbor
Read the stories first, then think about the questions that follow.
A young woman, called Kitty Genovese, was walking along the streets of a middle-class neighborhood in New York at 3.00 am, when she was attacked. She screamed for help and managed to escape. A few minutes later her assailant caught her again and she continued screaming for half an hour whilst 38 neighbors watched transfixed from their windows and did nothing. They didn’t even call the police. Kitty died of multiple stab wounds.
In another town in America, a man went to a garage sale and bought an old tool box for $ 15. At home when he opened it up, he found $5,500 hidden under some plates at the bottom of the box. He returned the money to the woman he’d bought the box from.
- Which seems to be the strangest story — Kitty Genovese’s or the man returning the money?
- What do you think? True or False?
People did nothing to help Kitty because they:- prefer to protect themselves rather than get involved and risk being killed.
- no longer have a group or tribal feeling which binds them together — we are all too individual and we always put ourselves first.
- convince themselves that there are already institutions in cities to deal with this kind of problem; they don’t need to intervene because the police will intervene for them.
- are basically selfish and just don’t care about other people.
- What do you think? True or False?
The man returned the box because:- he was a noble altruist.
- he was simply afraid he might have been caught.
- What would you do in the following situations?
- You see someone suspicious hanging around outside a neighbor’s door. (And if it was a little old lady?)
- You see someone of a different color skin being beaten up by four of your color skin.
- You see a mother violently beating her screaming child.
- You see some children teasing and taunting another child.
Are You an Altruist?
What would you do? And why?
- You see an old lady struggling to cross the street with some heavy bags.
- You ignore her, she should get herself a shopper’s trolley.
- You help her to cross.
- You help her to cross and then offer to carry her bags home for her even though she lives in the opposite direction.
- At a party, there’s one more chocolate left on the plate.
- You take it and eat it when no one’s looking.
- You offer it to the others first.
- You insist that someone else have it though your mouth is watering.
- You run over a cat in your car/on your bike.
- You carry on driving.
- You stop and knock at the presumed owner’s door.
- After calming down the owner you offer to take the cat to the vet.
- A neighbor’s car alarm goes off in the middle of the night.
- You close the window and put your ear plugs in.
- You call the neighbor but do nothing more if there’s no reply.
- You rush round to investigate.
- You are driving along a country road in the dead of the night. A bedraggled person of unknown sex tries to flag you down.
- It’s probably some drunken maniac.
- You drive past and feel terribly guilty that you didn’t stop.
- You stop immediately and give whatever assistance is needed.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
What do you think?
- Nobody does something for nothing.
- I would never give money to charity.
- There’s no point in giving money to beggars, they only spend it on alcohol.
- Events like Band Aid are motivated by publicity rather than humanity.
The Red Cross
Read this very short introduction of the Red Cross, then think about the questions that follow.
In I8S9 a young Swiss businessman saw something which was to change his life and influence the course of history. The young man was Henry Dunant who witnesses the carnage following the Battle of Solferino, in Italy. He was deeply moved by the dreadful suffering of the wounded from both sides who were left largely uncared for.
This appalling scene was the birthplace of a magnificent human idea. Henry saw every country creating a body of trained volunteers who would care impartially for the wounded of all sides, protected by international agreement. His vision led directly to the founding of the Red Cross, the signing of the First Geneva Convention, and the adoption of the Red Cross, and later the Red Crescent, as an international symbol of protection.
Today the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is the world’s largest voluntary organization, with a global membership close to 250,000,000, and a National Society in almost every country of the world.
- Why is it important that the Red Cross is a totally independent non-political organization?
- Which of the following services do you think the Red Cross offers and why does it offer them?
- First aid at sporting and public events.
- Working in shops, organizing bazaars and car-boot sales.
- Tracing separated families.
- Message sending.
- Beauty care.
Episode Transcript
Disclaimer
I am using an automatic transcript service as it is not possible for me to do it on my own and I cannot afford human transcription at the moment. The service claims to have about 95% accuracy, which means there will still be some mistakes, so my apologies for having a less than perfect transcript, but I hope I can afford human transcription soon and I will solve this problem. However, the service is pretty good, and the transcript is almost perfect.
Transcript
Welcome to a new episode from English plus podcast. Today, it’s a new type of episode and it’s going to be discussion. This will help your speaking skills and it will help you think about different topics to talk about. And in today’s discussion episode, we will focus on the topic of kindness. Now Ben and I will discuss different things that have to do with kindness.
[00:00:30] We will talk about kindness between neighbors. We will talk about altruism. We will talk about mother Teresa and the red cross. So we have a lot of topics to talk about, but all within the big topic of kindness. So without further ado, let me start today’s episode and start to talk about kindness between neighbors.
[00:00:49] Now, first of all, let me welcome Ben to the show. Thank you for joining us today. I’m glad to be here. Well, Ben first let’s start talking about kindness itself. What does it mean to be kind? What is kindness? Well, I will have to say that kindness is. To be gentle, to be caring, to be helpful. And usually when we talk about a person who’s kind or kindness in itself, we’re not talking about when you do things and expect anything in return.
[00:01:17] It’s just like being generous. You know, you give things to people without expecting anything in return and to be kind, to be gentle, caring, and helpful. It’s kind of the same thing. Just like being generous. You treat people this way? Not because you expect anything in return, you just do that because you are like that.
[00:01:36] This is who you are. I believe this is kindness. Well, I kind of agree with you here, but it’s always easy to think about kindness out of context, or to think about it in an abstract way. And then we’re all kind, but the true test of kindness is in situations. I mean, you know, if we are not under pressure, we might all be kind.
[00:01:59] We might. I mean, I know some people can be mean even when it’s not necessary at all, but in general, the true test of kindness is in difficult situations, not in regular everyday risk-free situation. And to see what I mean, I have two stories for you. We will talk about a young woman who was attacked and we will talk about another man who returned something he found from a thing he bought from a garage sale.
[00:02:23] Now, let’s start with the story of the woman. I will read the story. Then I will discuss some questions with Ben. And of course the purpose of this episode is to introduce you to the topic of kindness, of course, but we would like to help you think about these things and maybe think with us, Maybe try to think about it on your own, pause the episode, give some answers on your own, then compare your answers with what Ben says.
[00:02:47] Of course you might disagree with Ben. You might disagree with me, but at least you will have an idea of how to discuss certain things. I mean, the ultimate goal is to talk about kindness, of course, but is to learn how to discuss things in English. And our example for discussion today, our topic for discussion today is kindness.
[00:03:06] So now without further ado, let me start talking about this young woman. This young woman called kitty was walking along the streets of a middle-class neighborhood in New York at 3:00 AM. When she was attacked, she screamed for help and managed to escape. A few minutes later, her assailant caught her again and she continued screaming for half an hour.
[00:03:27] While 38 neighbors watched transfixed from their windows and did nothing. Katie died of multiple stab wounds. So that was our first tragic story, of course, but that was our first story and we will discuss it in a minute. Our second story happened in another town in America. A man went to a garage sale and bought an old toolbox for $15.
[00:03:51] At home when he opened it up, he found $5,500 hidden under some plates at the bottom of the box. He returned the money to the woman he bought the box from. So the second story is not tragic or anything. It’s just like when you buy something and then you find something hidden in it, whether you return it or not.
[00:04:11] Well, the man did return the money, how we will talk about this and we will see how kind that is. But my first question to you, Ben, which seems to be stranger. The story of kitty or the story of the man, what do you think. Well, I guess the story of kitty is stranger, because if you think about it, I mean, the story of the man, he has, some people would return the money.
[00:04:31] Some people wouldn’t, but whether they do return the money or they don’t, it doesn’t matter, you can expect people to do this or that, but it’s difficult. To accept that people 38 people watched this young lady being attacked and actually being killed. It was a murder scene. It was murder and they just did nothing.
[00:04:52] But what did you expect them to do? But I don’t know. I wouldn’t say that I would rush and help. Maybe that is a little bit dangerous, but at least call the police. Well, maybe some of them called the police, but I didn’t say that in the story, but maybe some of them called the police, but it’s already too late.
[00:05:09] Until the police arrived at the scene. Young kitty was already dead case, I guess. I don’t know. It’s kind of difficult. It’s difficult to imagine yourself in a situation like this, but at the same time, it’s difficult to think about seeing something like that and just ignore it or just watch it. Or maybe even worse, you know, in our times people start to pick up their phones and they don’t even call the police.
[00:05:33] They just record the scene and then post it on Facebook or on Instagram or something thinking they’ve got some kind of a scoop or something. That’s really sad when you see things like that. It’s really sad when you see something, if you don’t want to react to it, maybe it’s up to you. I wouldn’t judge a person for reacting or not reacting to a situation like this might be dangerous.
[00:05:54] I understand that. But to react in a way that you stand there and you record everything while this might be even more dangerous, because if the assailant sees you, he, or she might come after you, you’re right about that. But unfortunately, people do it anyway. Now let’s get a little bit specific. I want to ask you some specific questions.
[00:06:14] My first question is yes. We talked about Katie. We talked about her tragic story, but why do you think people didn’t tell why didn’t people help giddy? Well, I guess people maybe prefer to protect themselves rather than get involved and risk being killed. That might be one of the reasons, or if you think about it, maybe just people are basically selfish.
[00:06:39] I’m not saying everybody is selfish. Yes. More and more people are getting selfish, but. Those people, especially those people who watched kitty getting killed, they were basically selfish. They just don’t care about other people. Yeah. I agree. These might be valid reasons why they didn’t react. They didn’t do anything.
[00:06:57] They didn’t tell poor kitty or maybe people no longer have a group or tribal feeling which binds them together. You know, in the past everybody had this group or tribal feeling. I’m not saying that it’s. Always positive to have a tribal feeling, but sometimes it is very positive when we use that to take care of each other.
[00:07:17] When we use that for discrimination purposes, of course, it’s not a good idea, but when we use that to take care of each other, I guess this group feeling or tribal feeling is very good. And yeah, we can say that people no longer have a group or tribal feeling, which binds people together nowadays we’re old to individual and we always put our first don’t you think?
[00:07:38] Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I mean, not everybody is like that. It’s just an opinion after all, but you see it day in and day out. People taking care only of themselves and that’s not bad. Of course, you have to take care of yourself. Of course you may be in some situations, put yourself first because you need to achieve things and you can just cater for everybody’s needs.
[00:08:00] But you know, if you just do things for yourself, I mean, that’s sad. There is really joy in helping people in interacting with people being part of their lives. You know, it’s not all about you. Yeah, that’s right. But going back to kitty and the reasons why people didn’t help her. I guess also we can think about it.
[00:08:19] And you know, sometimes we convince ourselves that there are already institutions in cities to deal with this kind of problem. So we don’t need to intervene because the police will intervene for them. So it’s not my problem. It’s the police’s problem. So I don’t have to intervene. And if poor kitty dies, that’s not my fault.
[00:08:37] That’s the police’s fault. And of course it’s the assailants fault. It’s his crime after all, but that’s what we tend to think sometimes. Don’t you think. Yeah, I guess so I guess that, you know, sometimes because we think that it’s not my responsibility, so I don’t do do anything about it, but that is the core of kindness.
[00:08:55] I mean, to be kind is to do things that you don’t have to do. If you just do the things you have to do, that’s not kindness at all. You can’t be kind when you do the things you are paid to do or the things you have to do, but to be kind is to do things you don’t have to do, but you’re doing them just because they’re good.
[00:09:13] Yeah, I guess so, so. These are the reasons the, or at least the possible reasons why people didn’t tell poor kitty. Now let’s move on to talk about the story of this man who returned the money. Why do you think the man returned the box? Well, I guess it’s this one is a lot simpler. Maybe he was just a noble altruist.
[00:09:34] Yeah. Maybe, but, uh, talking about altruism because this is especially important word for our discussion today. Can you explain what the meaning of altruism is? Oh, yes. Sure. I mean, altruism is the adjective that comes from altruism. Altruism is unselfish concern for other people’s happiness and welfare. So just simply being unselfish and you are concerned about other people, not only about yourself, that means you are an altruist.
[00:09:59] So maybe the man was an altruist or maybe he was simply afraid here might have been caught if he didn’t return the box. Yeah, that’s right. I mean, sometimes people can do good things just because they’re afraid. But you can never tell. Right. But do you think it really matters? I mean, when you do the right thing, does it matter if you’re doing it just because you want to do the right thing or because you’re afraid if you don’t do the right thing, you might get into trouble.
[00:10:26] Of course it is ideal to do the right thing because you really have a strong feeling to do the right thing. But even if you do the right thing, just because you’re afraid you might get into trouble. That’s also a good thing, right? I mean, that’s what laws are for. I mean, you know, some people don’t steal because they’re afraid fine.
[00:10:44] That’s good. They’re not stealing, they’re not committing any crimes because they’re afraid of the police or the law enforcement. And that’s a good thing. I’m not saying it’s the perfect thing a person shouldn’t think about that just because he’s afraid. I mean, you do good things because you want to do good, but not all people like that.
[00:11:01] Some people need to be afraid. And some people just do good things because they are good, but let’s face it. We’re not all good. Some of us are purely good or so to speak. And some of us are just like a mixture. Maybe most of us are a mixture of good and bad, and some people are really bad and they need those laws and the law enforcement to hold them off from doing those bad things.
[00:11:25] All right. So now I have a couple of questions for you, and I want you to give me an answer. Of course, it’s your opinion. And for our listeners, remember we’re doing this Ben and I were discussing kindness, but it is an opportunity for you as well. To discuss with us. I know that you cannot actually discuss with us because this is a podcast.
[00:11:46] I mean, you’re just listening to the episode, but you can pause, you can think about it, you can talk about it and then you can listen to what Ben says or what I say. And you can compare your answers, you know, just like try to practice discussing something. And there is an important thing about discussions.
[00:12:03] I mean, when you think about a topic to discuss the first time when it happens in real life, when it happens in real life, when you have to discuss this thing with someone, or when you want actually to discuss this thing with someone, it becomes easier because you have thought about it before and other relevant topics will become a lot easier when you do it this way.
[00:12:21] So, let me continue and ask you a couple of questions. What would you do in the following situations? But here, before I do that, let me just focus on this specific structure that I use now here, when we talk about hypothetical situations and that’s what I’m going to ask Ben about. And when we say hypothetical, of course, we’re talking about things that are based on possible ideas or situations rather than actual ones.
[00:12:44] So we’re not talking about actual situations or ideas. We’re just talking about possible ones. And to talk about this, we don’t usually ask questions in present. Simple. I wouldn’t go and say, what do you do in the following situation? What do you do in the following situation? That means I already know that Ben does that and I already know that Ben is in the situation and he has a common reaction to this situation.
[00:13:07] You ask him, what do you do when this happens? That is when I already know that I’m talking about an actual situation, but when I’m talking about a hypothetical situation, a possible situation, but not actual, I would say, what would you do in the following situations? And Ben would answer, I would do that.
[00:13:26] So basically that’s the second conditional, what would you do if you saw this? What would you do if you. Past simple, past simple, whatever you want to ask, what would you do if you found yourself in a room with 10 people you didn’t know, and it was dark. So, I mean, those hypothetical situations, I just wanted to mention that here, because my questions to Ben here are all hypothetical.
[00:13:49] So Ben, what would you do in the following situations? What would you do if you saw someone suspicious hanging around, outside a neighbor’s door? Well, that is simple. I would call the police. Well, wouldn’t you just go out and investigate yourself? No, to be honest, I didn’t do that. I mean, this person might be dangerous and I wouldn’t risk going out.
[00:14:10] Maybe I wouldn’t be a match to that person. This person might be armed and I wouldn’t be able to stand an attack from a gun or something. And anyway, the police would handle it much better. I would definitely call the police right away. So that was about the first situation. What would you do if you saw a teenager stealing some sweets from a shop?
[00:14:29] Well, this one is difficult because I would want to punish this teenager, or I would want to get this teenager punished for his or her own sake. But at the same time, I would find it difficult to just tell the shop owner or the security there and to feel responsible or guilty that I pointed it out to the police or the security.
[00:14:51] And this teenager got into trouble because of me. But I guess I would tell the security about this person, because it might be better for him to be stopped. Now, rather than later, because later this thing might get worse and he might get into more trouble, more serious crime. I mean, this is, I know shoplifting and just to sweet.
[00:15:12] So it’s not a big deal. Yeah. It’s not a big deal, but it would turn into bigger deal if this person gets all right. What if it was an old lady? Not a teenager. Oh, wow. That will be so difficult. No, no, I would definitely not tell anybody about that. I would just go to the lady, talk to her. I would try to buy the things she wanted to steal.
[00:15:34] I mean, not every time, it’s not something that I will do all the time, but I would try to pay for the things she stole. And I would try to understand if she had any problem, maybe kind of tried to help her by just linking her with the right people. Maybe, I don’t know. But I would definitely not say anything about that.
[00:15:52] Okay. So my next question, what would you do if you saw someone of a different color skin being beaten up by four of your color skin? Okay. That’s all about racism, right? But for me, it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t care. What color is the person being beaten or the people who are beating this person, because that is four people against one and it’s definitely not fright.
[00:16:17] It wouldn’t matter what color of skin in this situation. All that matters is that. There are attackers and there’s a victim. So I would definitely call the police. I wouldn’t get involved to be honest, because there are four people and they’re beating this person. Maybe I would try to shout. Maybe I would try to tell them that there are people here, so they might leave this person alone.
[00:16:37] And at the same time I would call the police and wait for the police to come to solve this problem. But I would definitely let them know that somebody has seen them. So that might just. Scare them away. And by doing that, I would save this poor person getting more beating up. All right. Next question. What would you do if you saw a mother violently beating her screaming child?
[00:16:58] I would definitely stop her, try to take the child from her, but I would try to do it in public, in front of people. So there would be witnesses. I mean, this is a serious thing, trying to take a child from his or her own mother. That’s a serious crime. If there is nobody watching. So I would make sure there are witnesses to see what I’m doing.
[00:17:15] And to see why I’m doing it, but I would definitely stop the mother and not stop for any reason from not telling the police about what I saw, because the police need to take care of it. That is a serious thing. You cannot beat your child like this. Not for any reason, especially we’re talking about little child screaming child, so it’s definitely not ethical or not acceptable at all.
[00:17:36] Okay. And now for our final question, what would you do if you saw some children teasing and taunting another child? So obviously we’re talking about bullying here. Well, it depends on who I was in this situation. If I was a teacher or a principal or some administrative person in a school. Yeah. I would definitely take action.
[00:17:57] But if it happened only on the street, I would definitely try to save this kid from the bullying children, but that wouldn’t help much. I mean, I might want to talk to the kids’ parents, but I don’t think I would, to be honest, you know, because that’s kind of awkward. I throw out, I wouldn’t want to get involved.
[00:18:13] But I would just try to get the bullies of that poor kids back. That’s all. All right. So that was the first part of our episode. And now, before we move on and talk about the second part of the episode, I would like to remind you that you can find a lot of material on our website, English plus podcast.com.
[00:18:29] You can go there. You will find the link in the description of the episode. You will find show notes. You will find transcripts, interactive activities, PDF downloadable worksheets. Depending on the episode, of course, but you will always find something to take your English to the next level. On our website, we have a custom posts for every episode we create.
[00:18:47] So you will find a link to the custom posts. It’s not just a link that will take you to our website. Now it’s to the custom posts of the episode. You’re listening to. And if you like the content we’re creating and you would like to support us on Patreon and become our patron, there is also this link that will take you to our Patreon page.
[00:19:03] You can go there, become our patron, help us reach more people and create more of the content you like. And now let’s continue. We talked about kindness, altruism, et cetera. Let’s move on and talk about mother Teresa. Now, let me start by giving a little introduction about mother Teresa, about her life. Of course, one person who no one could really accuse of having ulterior motives for helping others, his mother, Teresa of Calcutta.
[00:19:26] She was born in Serbia in 1910. Her father was a rich merchant who gave generously to the church and fed the poor at his table. She did very well at school and spurred on by her father’s example. She decided to become a missionary. She joined the order of Loreto nuns in Ireland, and then moved to Calcutta in 1928.
[00:19:48] She opened a house for the dying, another one for abandoned babies and established medical services for lepers. Later she opened centers around the world. And as a result of this work, she won the Nobel prize in 1979. Since then her work in Calcutta has been interspersed with visits to various disaster victims around the world.
[00:20:09] From the Bhopal pollution victims to those of the Armenian earthquake. Her only possessions are two white saris. A bucket in which to wash and her devotional books. So that was mother Teresa. I mean, you must have heard of mother Teresa, but you might not know about her life. So that’s why I wanted to just give you a little introduction.
[00:20:30] But our question is based on figures like mother Teresa, and especially because not everyone sees mother Teresa as a saintly figure, I’m not saying that I don’t, to be honest, I really love mother Teresa and love what she did to humanity. The example she gave humanity, but to talk about some people who didn’t see her this way, some people didn’t see mother Teresa as a saintly figure in 1995, a TV documentary suggested she had been receiving money from dubious sources.
[00:21:00] And again, there are always haters. But that doesn’t matter. And to be honest, what I care about is what this woman did to humanity and the example she gave to humanity. And that’s more important than anything else. I wouldn’t care about those rumors or anything, but let’s be objective and say that some people don’t really believe in the motives of those people who are just kind to other people.
[00:21:24] And from this one, let’s discuss a couple of sentence has been a night. So Ben, what do you think about this sentence? Nobody does something for nothing. Do you believe in that? Well, maybe technically, yes, because you always do things for something in return, but it doesn’t have to be something materialistic.
[00:21:43] I mean, sometimes you do something and the thing you want in return is just this feeling of happiness or this feeling of fulfillment that’s rewarding in itself. And you don’t want anything else. And that’s a good thing, but sometimes yes, people don’t believe in giving anything without getting something in return and they want something materialistic or sometimes they even want to take advantage of the people they help.
[00:22:06] And that’s the worst type of the so-called givers, because they’re not givers at all. They give you something, but they want to control your lives. So I would say that nobody does something for nothing. That is true in my opinion, but it is not always bad. Because even sometimes, I mean, let’s take the other kind of examples.
[00:22:24] If we think about people who do good things to be famous. I mean, if it doesn’t hurt anybody and if it actually helps people, let’s say that you helped some poor people in a place where there is some kind of disaster or whatever, if you do that, it’s a good thing. Okay. Maybe you do that because you want media attention or you want to be talked about as a philanthropic figure, but this doesn’t matter.
[00:22:47] The good deed is done. I mean, that’s my own philosophy. If you do something good and you don’t want to take advantage of the people. Yeah. That’s that’s key. I mean, you don’t just give them something and then you enslave them. No, that’s definitely out of the question, but I’m saying if you do something good, even if you do it to be famous, I mean, yeah.
[00:23:06] Some people do it just to be famous or for different reasons. We don’t have time to talk about all the reasons now. I mean, some of them, they just do philanthropic action or charity just to cut down on the taxes. They paid the government. So it might be, you know, a clever or business decision for them, but it doesn’t matter whether they do it for business decisions, whether they do it just to be famous, if they’re doing a good thing, I always tried to think about the good thing they did.
[00:23:31] And the people who benefited from that good action and maybe that kind of encouraged other people in power or other rich people to do the same. So why not? If there is someone benefiting from what they’re doing, I don’t care about their motives to be honest. Well, that’s an interesting way to look at it.
[00:23:46] So let’s move on to the next one. I would never give money to charity. What about you, Ben? Would you ever give money to charity? Have you actually ever given money to charity? Really, to be honest, no. I tried to though the obvious reason, because I don’t have a lot of money, but, but that’s not a, that’s not an excuse of course, because you, it’s not about the amount of money you give it’s about, if you give at all.
[00:24:11] But I prefer to give help to volunteer in some places. I mean, technically to donate my time more than my money might be kind of selfish. And, you know, you always think to yourself that, yeah, I need that to buy this, to get this, this is necessary, that’s necessary. And you try to convince yourself that.
[00:24:30] You’re not really sure if the money you’re donating is going to the right places to the right people. So I prefer to help people directly rather than just give money to some people that might steal it. Maybe that’s not true. I mean, some charities are doing a great work and maybe there are worth.
[00:24:46] Donating to, but to be honest, no, I don’t do that, but I wouldn’t say I would never give money to charity. No, maybe. Well, maybe one day I will, to be honest, I have to say that I’m kind of the same. I never give money to charity maybe to my shame, but yeah. I mean, I always think about, it might not go to the right places or something.
[00:25:03] Maybe that’s. Just an excuse. Anyway, let’s move on to the third point. There is no point in giving money to beggars. They only spend it on alcohol. Well, that’s a tricky question or that’s a tricky thing to think about because yes, some beggars are alcoholics or maybe drug addicts. And if you give them money that will just make their situation worse, they will drink more or they will take drugs or they will spend it on gambling.
[00:25:28] I don’t know, but that’s not an excuse not to help. People. I mean, sometimes you might want to help people. You might want help, beggars just get them food. If you know that this person is hungry, you don’t want to give them money, just give them something they can’t sell. They have to use, uh, if, if you have this inside you, and sometimes you just feel like you want them.
[00:25:48] To give money to this person. It’s kind of a personal judgment thing. I personally, I don’t have a general opinion. I don’t have a general decision about whether to give beggars or not to give Beckers. It’s a kind of a personal thing. You do it on impulse sometimes, but I tend to give them something they need to consume and they can sell just to be on the safe side.
[00:26:08] But sometimes, you know, just, you just feel like giving money to those people. It’s a personal judgment. It’s just a moment. And you do things on impulse. Okay. So we talked about mother Teresa and based on mother Teresa story, just want to say again, we’re definitely not insinuating at all. Especially me.
[00:26:27] That mother Teresa was doing this thing for something in return. Personally, I love this woman and I love the example she gave to the world. And I have nothing against her. Yeah. Maybe some people have their doubts about her, but that’s definitely not. But based on the doubts and based on these ideas, I had those three questions or three discussion points that I discussed with Ben.
[00:26:50] Now let’s move on to our very last topic for today, and that is the red cross. Now let me start again by telling you the story or a very short story about how the red cross started and what the red cross is. And then we will talk about some services the red cross gives you might not expect. So let’s start with a story about the red cross.
[00:27:08] In 1859, a young Swiss businessman saw something which was to change his life and influenced the course of history. The young man was Henry do not who witnesses the carnage following the battle of Solferino in Italy, he was deeply moved by the dreadful suffering of the wounded from both sides who were left largely uncared for this appalling scene was the birthplace of a magnificent human idea.
[00:27:36] Henry saw every country creating a body of trained volunteers who would care impartially for the wounded of all sides protected by international agreement. His vision led directly to the founding of the red cross, the signing of the first Geneva convention and the adoption of the red cross. And later the red Crescent as an international symbol of protection.
[00:27:59] Today, the international red cross and red Crescent movement is the world’s largest voluntary organization with a global membership, close to 250 million and a national society in almost every country of the world. So that is the red cross. That is how it started. And maybe it’s one of the greatest ideas in the history of humanity.
[00:28:21] But let’s talk about the red cross and we will talk about some services. You might not expect that the red cross gives, but first Ben, why is it important that the red cross is a totally independent nonpolitical organization? Well, that is obvious. If they were dependent on some political support or they belong to a political party or something, there will always be a grudge.
[00:28:45] And imagine these two parties battle, and there are wounded people. And if there is this kind of grudge, they might cut off the help of the red cross, have their own red cross to help the wounded ones from the enemy as they would call it. I mean, definitely the red cross would be partial and the red cross was meant to be impartial and to help the wounded, whoever they are.
[00:29:06] Even if they’re bad people, they’re bad people, but they need help now. I mean, they can get better and then you can, uh, sentence them to death later. If you know what I mean, they might be murders. They might be killers, but at this very moment they need help. And the only humane thing to do is to help them.
[00:29:24] And that is the mission of the red cross. And that has to be impartial, independent, and definitely nonpolitical. I can’t agree more. Definitely. They have to be independent, but now let’s move on to talk about something interesting. I will ask you a question about certain services. Now. Obviously everybody knows the main services the red cross or the red Crescent gives, but what about those following services?
[00:29:46] Do you think the red cross offers these services and why do they offer them? The first service is first aid at sporting and public events. Well, yeah, definitely. That’s a common thing. I mean, apart from wartime activities, this is probably the most well-known form of aid that the red cross offers because you know, certain incidents might happen in those public events.
[00:30:11] Some people might have some mild situations. Th they need the help and usually they don’t need to be, be hospitalized. They just get some help on the ground. That’s all. All right. So what about working in shops? Organizing bizarres and car boot sales. Well, that’s kind of strange. I don’t know if they do that.
[00:30:30] I don’t think why would they do that? I mean, they’re the red cross, the road or the red Crescent. Why would they do something like that? I don’t think they do well, obviously they do. And that happens when they’re raising money. These are money raising activities as the red cross is a self-financed charity.
[00:30:45] Nobody finances, the red cross. And that’s why they have to be independent. They’re self-finance and the only way they get money is by collecting donations by raising money through charity or right. Yeah. That makes sense. So what about tracing, separated families? Yeah, definitely. That happens in the times of war.
[00:31:06] I mean, one of the tragedies of war and natural disasters is the separation of families using its worldwide network centered in Geneva. The red cross is constantly striving to reunite families, no matter how long the separation. The British red cross, for example, manages to trace on average one person every day of the year.
[00:31:26] Oh, I didn’t know that about the British red cross. It’s a very interesting thing to have an average of one person a day, but yeah, it happens, but it doesn’t always happen just because of war, as we said, it happens because of natural disasters as well. So my next question or the next activity, do you think that they do message sending, what do you mean by message sending.
[00:31:45] I mean, you know, in the times when you can send a message to someone, can you send it through the red cross? I guess so. Yeah, because if we think about the same situations in war and natural disasters, people get separated again, and many people are cut off from the families because. Normal communications have broken down or something.
[00:32:04] Relatives may be taken prisoners of war. If it was war or move to refugee camps or shelters in these circumstances, the red cross message service is often the only means for families to keep in touch. That’s right. And my final one might be a little bit surprising, but what about beauty care by now? You know that yeah, the red cross does all these things, but do you have an idea why they do that?
[00:32:28] Wow. I don’t think so. I haven’t thought about that before I already missed working in shops. I didn’t think they worked in shops. They organized bazaars and stuff like that. I definitely don’t know why they would have anything related to beauty care. Well, no, let me tell you that. The cosmetic camouflage service.
[00:32:47] That’s what they call it. The cosmetic camouflage service aims to help people cope with this figure mint and blemishes, including scars, birthmarks, and conditions such as vitiligo. The red cross also offers beauty care techniques for the blind. Volunteers demonstrate to women with impaired vision, how to apply their makeup.
[00:33:08] The service is intended to give confidence to visually handicapped people, offer independence and provide an interest which can be shared with other women. Well, that’s, that’s really good. I mean, I didn’t know about that before, and it’s really important what they do in this field. Yeah. Actually, they are also contributing in the beauty care section, but definitely they’re not doing it for stars and Hollywood and stuff.
[00:33:35] No, they’re doing it for the people who are really in need of beauty care. Like the examples I gave. So Ben, thank you very much for being with us. I guess, that’s everything we wanted to say for today. Thank you very much for having me. I was very happy to be part of this discussion. Okay. And for our listeners, we would like to thank you very much for listening to us.
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[00:35:09] This is your host, Danny. I will see you next time.
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