The Father Bob Show #104 - Napoleon’s Piles
We reflect on the dire situation of living conditions for “regular” people in Melbourne, the conundrum of portraying the work at the FBMF while maintaining the privacy and dignity of clients, advocating for migrants. Check out Sister Roberta at http://www.melbournebtv.com
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Theme music is provided by the Monks and Choirs of Kiev Pechersk Lavra performing “Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church“.
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July 30th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Couple of things
1. I use a RSS reader, and I was using this link:
http://fatherbob.thepodcastnetwork.com/feed/atom
which The Podcast Network had been returning a “Server returned HTTP Error 500: Internal Server Error” since mid-June!!!
Thought you stopped your Podcast, I did.
2. In one of your podcasts since #99, you mentioned that you were looking for volunteers.
Make a list. How can you expect people to help if they don’t know how to help, eh?
3. wasn’t able to download this podcast (file not found)
July 30th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Hi Dale,
Thanks for the heads up on the download problem - there was a typo in the filename. Not sure why you haven’t been able to get the blog as there have been no problems for me or anyone else.
We have done several direct appeals with no responses for volunteers to pick up food on a Thursday night and take it to the bus, or to get together with a group of friends and take the bus out on another night (bread is available 5 nights a week if we have someone to get it).
Cheers, Michaela
July 31st, 2008 at 6:54 am
>Not sure why you haven’t been able to get the blog
They’re probably using something other than …/feed/Atom as their feed url.
Oh well, having changed url, it works now.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
[...] The Father Bob Show #104 - Napoleon’s Piles [...]
August 12th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Heya, Michaela, Father Bob,
I’m only new to the whole podcasting phenomena and I really enjoy the show. Bob, you, as a person of interest, a man, as it were, who has given his life over to the helping of others are both an inspiration, and with reference to the subject of the Father Bob Book, would be of great interest to a great many people.
I guess the hardest problem with helping the poor, the needy, and those who just need a steady reference point is getting others on board, bridging the gap between saying and doing- I don’t believe there’s a singular way to resolve that problem, but a number of approaches, in a barrage as it were, will eventually push on through the barrier of apathy- one of the most powerful motivations is a human reference, knowledge that someone before, many people before, have helped the poor, made a difference in the world. In this your life would be a revelation.
With regards to the difficulty of asking people for money, or to use their faces I know where you’re coming from, I work as a collector for a medical research group on the telephone. We’ve lists of past supporters that we go through with each campaign- the theory being that if they’ve supported once, they will support again. And again, and so on. This is all well and good when the supporter is a well paid Doctor. I believe too much money causes too many worries, so asking for them to give money to sick kids works quite well in my mind. I do however have a problem asking a kindly old pensioner lady, whose heart strings were once plucked for the cause who is begged for money again and again for fifty dollars to the cause.
With regards to my job, it’s a necessary part of it. If we didn’t get the fantastic support we do, we wouldn’t be able to get the doctors, counselors and care workers to do the marvelous work they do.
The common argument heard is “The Government should do something about it” this is true in part. There are a great many people (myself included) who for want as little to do with the government and it’s various agencies as possible. Some people can’t access them for various reasons. I’ve a friend who was homeless for three years because he couldn’t produce ID. He didn’t know anything about his parents, he was intellectually challenged and had serious substance issues; if it weren’t for the private charities, the churches, the foundations, et al, he would have slipped through the gaps, into freeganism or crime, but more likely the latter.
We beggars, it seems, are a necessary evil, and those who will help us are those we have to ask. If only we could find some way to get the other buggers to help- offering them big cash prizes has limited success when it comes to asking for charity.
Great show, I enjoy hearing Bob and his weekly doses of the state of the world so far as the people are concerned- Keep it up,
Cheers,
Tom