Amazon Smile does not make me smile

 Thank you for sending me an invitation to shop at Amazon Smile so that your charity can get pennies out of my purchase. I am appalled by the effort. I will make sure that you know the ten reasons why Amazon Smile does not make me smile.

1) Amazon does not pay their taxes appropriately in the UK to support vital services for people. Their scheme is a pittance compared to what they could contribute to the global society. They send gift hampers to our MPs to get more tax breaks.

2) Out of £1000 purchase, as a charity, you will get only £5. How sad?

3) Amazon subjects workers to poor working condition across the world. How can you as a charity demand social justice and yet spit on your efforts?

4) Your charity is eating away your supporters' desire to give more to you. They will feel like ''oh well I am buying through Amazon Smile so, I do not have to give more. It is another ''slacktivism'' example whereby people become less charitable because they get the feeling that they are charitable by giving your charity... just nothing?

5) If I donate to you, I expect that you spend more time and energy developing schemes that support local regeneration of small businesses that contribute back to you and not give to Amazon who ultimately sends the money back to Luxembourg.

6) Is Amazon the kind of corporation with which you want to align your nonprofit?

7) With all the local shops closing in the city, why would you provide more free advertising to Amazon?

8) How many women and children work in deplorable conditions to make the products we buy on Amazon?

9 ) I wish you could use your mailing lists more effectively and use your time more effectively to leverage donations directly to you and not through a third party. 

10) If your charity is supposed to be supporting women and their families in a specific area, why would you not support the economic infrastructures of those areas?

I could keep ongoing. You are supporting Amazon to colonise every space, and unfortunately, you participate in the suppression of other human's expression of goodness and kindness.

https://www.alancantorconsulting.com/2014/12/no-dont-smile/

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191210005333/en/Amazon-Surprises-Hundreds-of-Charities-by-Fulfilling-Their-AmazonSmile-Charity-Lists-this-Holiday-Season

https://johnkenyon.org/why-amazonsmile-doesnt-turn-my-frown-upside-down/

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-does-amazon-smile-charity-donation-work-2018-5?r=US&IR=T

https://medium.com/@digitalculturenyc/why-nonprofits-need-to-stop-falling-for-the-amazon-smile-scam-f68d389c801c

https://nonprofitchronicles.com/2017/03/28/why-amazon-smile-doesnt-make-me-smile/

What defines us is how well we rise after falling

 

Put yourself in my shoe.

You will see life from a new height

Did your glass got filled with emotions today?

Yes!

The true refuge is in our heart.

More

We hear you

More

Ever notice the older you get the more you look like your birthday cake

Birthday Card

The Encounter

Painful

xxx-ooo

'll follow you, We'll follow each other and I ain't going no where.

xxx-ooo

1,2,3 Blink.

xxx-ooo

Do you have an alter-ego?

Do you have alter ego?
Do you have part of yourself that remained hidden to the naked eye.

I have many.

I have made this drawing. It is called ''All of the I we let go of''. Starting with Marge.. Show me yours.

Today, our wish is to let go of the pain we believe is true and remind ourselves how strong and resilient we are. There is only one goal and this is up. Dismantle the shackles and fly high.

 

Horrid Airbnb Experience - Getting in touch with Airbnb

After our adventure with B., the recovering alcoholic, I decided to look through Airbnb for some cues on B.
The profile of B. appeared OK. the people on the page did not complain of any issue with him whatsoever. Only one person said that ''he could not stay anymore in their property'' - does that mean that he could stay because he wrecked the place? or because they had a change of plan?

Who knows.

I could not even bring myself to put my dirty laundry out on Airbnb.
B. has mental health issues. Am I the one who needs to make this personal matter public on a social media platform?  So I wrote '' B. cannot stay in my property anymore and I hope that he will find a group of people who will be able to support him''. Is it the appropriate language to use?

I contacted Airbnb to let them know about B. - they gave me a call and kind of told me that I need to be careful with the people I am bringing to my home. I told them, yes but there was no indication that this person was poorly. Furthermore, don't you have a policy against discrimination on the basis of someone health?

Airbnb is a fabulous tool for people to share their spaces with others and learn from them. Yet, we have to be prepared to deal with some of darker side of what it means to be a human. I can not even imagine the number of people with no family and who are maybe sick who use Airbnb to have somewhere to sleep and have some sort of social support. Yet, if left alone, they go to annihilation. If I knew about B. situation, I would not have left B. alone in my property. But I did not know...

Mental health matters and within the use of the digital platforms, we need to discuss how people who may poorly use them to meet some of their needs and with this knowledge figure out how services providers could possibly support them better. Let's think

Horrid Airbnb Experience - Part 9

In part 8 - B. leaves. He reimbursed our TV. M. helped to get the car repaired. We thought it was the end. Until two weeks later, my phone rings...

It is the police in Walsall. They are concerned. They found B. disoriented in the garden of someone. B. claimed that his mother, sister, cousin have died and he does not have any family. B. claimed that his car has been stolen and he does not have any money and places to go. The woman on the phone tells me that she found my number on his phone and thought she will call me. I tell her what happened with B. when he was in our home through Airbnb. I tell her that my husband tried to call his mum so he must have her number. She asks me to get it so she can call his family.

I call my husband, retrieve the number pass it along to the police...

A few days later B. calls.

He is sober.

He tells M. what happened when he was in Walsall and tell him : ''Alcohol is Bad, man. I have never been so confused in my life. I thought all my family was dead, that my car was stolen, I was confused. I am really going to stop that shit''

... Would he?

Horrid Airbnb Experience - Part 8

In part 7, M. get the beers and key away from B., we hope that tomorrow he will leave and he will be no more in our lives.

I wake up, get myself to work and I go. I decide to give a call to the local charity that deals with people with addiction. They tell me that they cannot do much. They can possibly come to the house and try to talk to him. It is down to him to decide to get help. He cannot be forced to sober up.

M., on his side, force B. to take a shower. He tells me that he never saw ears that dirty. He helps him to get his car repaired by calling AA. He transfer money on our account to reimburse for the TV. B. begs to stay longer. M. tell him no.
B. leaves.
He is gone.

We thought it was the end until 2 weeks later, my phone rings and...

Horrid Airbnb Experience - Part 7

In part 6, B. comes back to the house with a pack of beers. I am alone in the house and call M. to come back quickly.

M comes back.
I tell him what happened.
I ask him to get the key from our home back and to take the beer away from him.
M. goes upstairs, confront him, take the beers and the key away from him.
He comes down to the kitchen.
M: ''He had already drunk 3 beers, can you believe this?
he is sick, there is nothing we can do.''

Tomorrow will be a better day, we pray.
He will be gone and we will come back to normality, we think.

Horrid Airbnb Experience - Part 6

In part 5, M. confront B. who is half of the man we first met. He cries and he is ashamed of himself. He promises he won't drink no more. We decide to keep him one more night and to help him with his car the following day.

The night comes. M. is called to visit his sister. I decide to go with him reluctantly.  As M. and I come out of the house. B. comes down the stairs and said that he is going for a walk. I do not trust him. M. said to me to not worry that he talked to him and everything will be fine.

We arrive in front of her sister house. I decide to go back to the house as I am not feeling well.

I go back to the house. No one yet. I can hear the clickety of the keys in the door. I decide to open it because I know B. is back.

He looks at me, scared.
In his a Tesco bag with a pack of 10 Stella Artois.

I am horrified. I decide not to confront him.
He goes upstairs to the bedroom.

I call M.: ''Come back to the house NOW''

Horrid Airbnb experience - Part 5

In part 4, M and I had filled up 7 bags of empty alcohol bottles and cans. Their content had all been drunk by B. It was time to find out exactly what happened from him

M. goes back upstairs to confront B.. I stand by the door to listen in. M. asked him what happened.

B.: ''I am so sorry mate, my car broke down. I could not go to work. I did not know what to do and it crashed on me and I got lost. Alcohol is horrible, mate. I want to change. I promise, I really do. It is just so hard.

He cries

M: You will be alright mate, you have to promise me that you are not going to drink anymore whilst you are in this house. It is time to take ownership of your life

B. I promise I won't. I am so sorry.

The pep talk keeps going. I decide to go to the kitchen to fix some food for B. He hadn't eaten all day and is still full of alcohol. I enter the room, drop the food. M. follows me out of the bedroom  and tells me.

M: Babe, this is bad. He cannot leave tonight. he is very sick. He hugged me and cried in my arms. He is very sick and still under influence. We called his mum but she was at work. We have to keep him one more night. I'll help him with his car tomorrow.

The night comes

Horrid Airbnb experience - Part 4

In part 3, M. and me cleaned the house to his normal state. We found out that B. had been in the house on his own for the past two weeks. M. knocked on his door and found out that he was still drunk even though we left him the night and the day to sober up. What happened.

M walked out of the bedroom in shock and went downstairs in the garden. He opened the bin and said to ,e:

M: ''He was still drunk, I need to know what happened in this house.''
I: ''Was he?''. '
M: There were drinks all over the bedroom and onto the floor. 
I: Really?

We opened the bin. We put some gloves on. We emptied it.
We started to categorise what we found
We found

• beers can - Stella Artois was the favourite brand.
• bottle of JD
• Wine bottle - red, white, pink
• Plates
• Cutlery
• Chicken Wings
• Pizza
• Chips

We filled 7 recycling bags with bottles and cans.

The content of those containers had filtered through his body.

I: '' But What happened for him to go from gentle to out of control?''

We were soon to find out.

Horrible Airbnb experience - Part 3

In part 2, our home is wrecked and smelly. B. cleared as much as he could and hid in his bedroom. We went to sleep. It is now time to wake up. 

We both woke up slightly upset but truthfully, sad for him.
I went out to grab some breakfast for M and me before putting out head down to clear up our home.
On my way back, the neighbour came out of the house.

Neighbour: ''I was worried. Where were you? Who was this man in your house? 
All the window were opened. There were never any lights inside the house at night. He left his clothes all over the garden for days. He came out of the house at night, then came back in like a ghost. He was very weird. I was ready to call the police to be honest. Is it a friend of yours?''
I : ''So, he was alone in the house all this time''
Neighbour: ''Yes, he was. No one else was in the house.''

I leave the neighbour with her questions. I have my answer. No one apart from B. was in the home. He did not have any party. All the drinks were his.

M. and I decided to leave him sober up. We took off all the cover of the sofa, washed them. We ook the carpet out of the house. It was covered with chicken wigs. We cleared up all the plates and clean thoroughly the kitchen. We could not do much with the stank. it was impregnated in the fabric of the house. It will leave eventually.

Around 4-5pm, we decided to knock on his door to see if he was better.

M: ''Hey B. Can I come in''
B: ''Yeah''
M: ''Are you OK? Mate''
B: ''Yeah''

He spoke to him. I do not know what they discussed. I could not go in the room. I was scared.

M. came out shocked. He went outside to the bin, open it and started to take the bin out.

He said: ''He is still drunk, I need to know what happened''.

He went outside and opened the bin