5/26/11

Dickie Birds.


What Happened At 1st Anniversary
Protest Against The Big Issue.
By Uncle Monty.
Photos By Gary Day & Alex Albion.
Part Two of Three.
-.-
There is something so provincial and so parochial about
prickhead Peter Bird one would almost expect to find
cattle instead of people at The Big Issue London HQ.
-.-
With his shirt all hanging out and his rough working
pants and his cheap rucksack in his hand, one might
 almost think he was a farm hand rather than a manager-
 in-charge of the £4.8 million Big Issue edifice that was
bought, no doubt, off the backs of the UK homeless
 years ago by his pigface brother Anthony John
 Bird, 65, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The
Big Issue, which is sold weekly in the British Isles
 by homeless street people for peanut pay while the
hideous and greedy Bird Brothers clean up with
their non-stop cash flow off the backs of such
exploited Big Issue vendors.
...
While doing my 1st Anniversary Protest (1AP) at
the HQ last week to mark the hateful and spiteful
suspension of me by prickhead Peter Bird, I saw 
him repeatedly commit dalliance as he stood, or
repeatedly came in and out, at the HQ main door.
 He first arrived at 9:00am with a PCSO cop in tow.
-.-
The prickhead himself had an air of conceitedness
and a smirk on his ugly face that only a prickhead
 like Peter Bird, who is fiftysomething, could muster
without a trace of shame along with his diabolical
 and callous name.
-.-
And if that wasn't enough, Peter Bird also talks and
walks like some country bumpkin despite his urban
 London Paddington-rearing as a post-war child of
poor immigrant Irish Catholic stock. With his cava-
lier and cocky attitude thesedays, the prickhead
ignorantly deigned neither to acknowledge me nor
 to speak to me in any civil way as he repeatedly
walked right by me with one or two of his dickhead
 employees. Not that I expected any love, grace
 or respect from such a shallow and selfish prick-
head, who has always been overshadowed by his
 pigface brother Anthony John Bird, the so-called
 "UK Homeless Guru" who knows no more about
real homelessness today than a real homeless
monkey having escaped from some zoo!!
-.-
No sign did I see of the pigface himself as I
 sat for 8 hours at The Big Issue London HQ
 to undergo my 1AP.  Nor did I see any of
the Covent Garden vicious distribution staff
like Samantha Woodlock, and her "pretty face" 
hubby Tom, Big Gob Billie Bickley and that
hack poet of their's called Steve Farrell Wood!
Nor did I see The Big Issue's super Oli Brown,
 Calvin Driver, ex-tuffy John Duffy, nor what's his
name the guy who manned the vendors wanting 
Big Issue stock at HQ and nor that young punk
Adam with a big chip on his shoulders. But
I saw several new faces there and a number
of regulars like stiff and cold and granny-type
 Linda Driver (shown below) as she arrived at
 her usual time of 8:00am to open up the HQ.
 I suspect she'll soon be retiring with that
snowhite mop of granny hair on the top
of her frozen head.
-.-
Linda Driver After Finishing Her
Daily Stint at The Big Issue HQ.

-.-
If she and Peter Bird were a cold sight to
see again at my last Thursday morning 1AP,
 then it wasn't helped by the sheer filthy mess
around the front doors of The Big Issue HQ
that looked like something out of New York's
Black Harlem with trash, fag butts, thrown away
coffee cups, soda cans, and unswept sidewalk.
The black marble slabs and the office windows
 were also filthy and full of grime as if for
weeks nobody has bothered to keep things
 looking nice and clean. There was no pride. It
was a dirty mess for any Big Issue visitor to see.
Hopefully, Prince William and Kate, now the
 new Duchess of Cambridge, didn't happen to
visit. Such was as filthy as the hate and spite of
 the Dickie Birds Peter and John that I now call
 "prickhead and pigface" with my utter and
lasting contempt for them. Whatever, clean
 up your filthy mess you dirty buggers!!
-.-
Vile & Sly Peter Bird:
Let Me Show Him To You Yet Again.
-.-
If Peter Bird and Linda Driver represent some of
 the coldest and hostile characters at The Big Issue,
 then Helena Drakakis was like warm sunlight to-
 ward me when she stopped out of curiosity at my
protest spot as she was heading to work at her
 journalist job as one of two Associate Editors
 of The Big Issue. Helena came over all bright and
bubbly and so warm and I was delighted to meet
 her for the first time, especially after reading many
 of her well-written articles. She said she'd visit
 my blogz, but I have heard nothing back from
 her and not that I expected such after the sod
Peter Bird and stiff Linda Driver no doubt
 helped to bad mouth me to the gifted Helena
Drakakis. And, not that I have any desire to
 be interviewed by or for The Big Issue while
the vile Bird Brothers still prance around and
 sit all pretty at HQ. The day they're gone, is
 the day I shall jump for joy, I really will ...
They may be gone much sooner than most
 folkz think, however! In any event, I wish 
Helena all the very best!
And take care, my dear!
-.-
Helena Drakakis, Associate Editor, The Big Issue.
-.-
He lost his Big Issue vendor's badge, he told me.
From nearby Surrey, the vendor was told that he could
 not have a replacement or new badge - now listen to
this UNTIL HE OBTAINED A POLICE REPORT
for his missing badge!! I tell you, it's outrageous that
any vendor should be forced by The Big Issue to go
to the police to obtain a police report for such a
petty thing. And to waste the time of the police
on such a useless matter is just further proof of
how mindless and mean The Big Issue continues
to be against its subjugated street vendors. It
also degrades and belittles the vendor to have
to go to a police station all because of The
Big Issue's mindset to criminalize their vendors.
-.-
Now Dead:  The Colonic Jerk John Branagan. He
Was Big Issue Badge No. 296, in 2oo8. Nasty Cad!
-.-
Then another vendor told me that his friend had
been suspended for two whole weeks by the same
ugly Peter Bird for having used another vendor's
pitch while the vendor was himself away!!
 It sounds like what that old dead turkey John
Branagan (shown above) did to me by reporting
me for having allegedly used his National Portrait
Gallery pitch, which I didn't since I had just finished
visiting the gallery with Contessa Maria, while he
was away. I was forced to waste one whole morn-
ing going to The Big Issue Vauxhall office - with
masses of vendor files like a British cop station -
to see Paul Joseph, then in charge of vendors, all
because of such a colonic jerk like the now late
 John Branagan. The Big Issue loved him and so
did stiff Linda Driver, but not me. I hated his
 gutz like so many of the vendors did and still
do despite him having hopefully gone to hell
where he belongs ... Upon his alcoholic death,
at age 60, they printed a gushing obit to the
colonic jerk that made me sick to read
 in No. 864 of TBI, Sept 14-20, 2oo9.
http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html
-.-
http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-ideal-home-by-uncle-monty.html
-.-
The latest vendor stories came to me as I sat at
The Big Issue HQ doing my 1AP and not even
asking such vendors to tell me such. Perhaps
18 or so vendors stopped to read my protest
sign and/or came over and freely chatted with
me.  Some of them knew me from years ago
and were surprised and disgusted to know that
I had been unjustly suspended and vilely
treated by the nasty Bird Brothers, who
have become bigger than their boots and a
law unto themselves ... They suck, they do.
-.-
London's Vauxhall at 5:55am with my protest
sign before Starbucks, or The Big Issue next
door, had even opened for business.
-.-
It was so good to see my old pal and fellow
vendor Francis Ngwenya of Durban, Zud Africa,
 which I visited last year while staying at Elizabeth
Middleton's Durban home during The World Cup.
 I had been told earlier that Francis had died, but
such was obviously untrue like so many tales one
 hears from around The Big Issue. There is always
 an ongoing and malicious rumour mill, too. Most of
which is a put down of usually somebody or other.
-.-
Then Dean Scott Porter, a long-time Big Issue
vendor, came over to my protest site and chatted
for awhile. We had met once before at HQ.  Fabio
 Bana, a new vendor from Italy, also stopped to
 nicely chat with me. Then came Neil Hallam,
vendor No. 1005, to visit with me. Neil is a
great guy who has served in the British Royal
 Marines out at Afghanistan. There he was badly
 wounded and he showed me the huge scar left
on his body as he took his trousers down to
show me the whole bloody thing. He also let
me photograph the terrible scar as he began
 to cry about his horrible war experience out-
side of the capital of Kabul. Now staying at a
 furnished apartment kindly provided to him by
 the good Peabody Trust, Neil seemed quite
content with his lot despite having so little of
anything in material life. I told him that he must
 never let anybody say he is no good!! To me,
he is the salt of the earth after fighting for
England as a fellow countryman of mine.
BRAVO to Neil Hallam. You're a good
 mate, mate!! Take care of him Blighty!!
-.-
 Like Helena Drakakis earlier, I was so de-
lighted to meet Neil and to spend alittle time
together simply as man-to-man. And what
 a difference between those two individuals
compared to hideous Peter Bird and cold
 granny Linda Driver. My 1st Anniversary
Protest against The Big Issue was, after
all, well worth it just to have had the
chance to encounter Neil and Helena.
Again, BRAVO!
-.-
I guess about 40 folkz either stopped or ghawked
 or stood nearby my protest spot against The Big
 Issue with a sense of righteous indignation in my
English heart and Anglican mind against  the stinking
 and godless Bird Brothers. I was also quite surprised
 how many folkz volunteered to sign my already 1,615
signed petition to be re-instated as a badged vendor
of five years until the cold sod Peter Bird did his dirty
 deed against me last May. Which ironically occurred
on the very same day - May 19th, 2010 - that saw 
Mr. Justice Aiden Marron, Q.C. of The Blackfriars
Crown Court, rightly impose sentences of imprison-
ment and deportation against the criminal African
 immigrants who robbed me two and half years
earlier as I was about to attend Christian Unity 
Week at St. Andrew's in the presence of the 
good Catholic Bishop (now Archbishop of Bir-
mingham) Bernard Longley; Anglican Bishop
 Christopher Chessun of Woolwich (and now
 translated to Southwark); and Orthodox Bishop
Grieg of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate. I
was treated very well by The Honourable Mr.
 Justice Marron, while being treated rottenly by
 the Bird scumbagz ... Am I bitter toward
such scumbagz, you bet!!
-.-
Yes, This Blog Is All About The Big Issue.
-.-
Although my 1st Anniversary Protest (1AP)
  - and the others protests before it - have been
 dismissed and ignored by the Bird Brothers and
 many of their paid minions, I will continue to hold
public protests from time to time in the future
 until the day I should either die or be too old or
too ill as an old age pensioner to protest or better
 still until the end of The Bird Brothers is nigh!!
 Bring it on, Good Lord!
 -.-
Windon Reflection of The Big Issue.
-.-
About 1:00pm Peter Bird then slipped out of
 the HQ and walked up Bondway and then
headed right onto Parry Street, SW8, where he
then disappeared out of sight. Shortly afterwards,
 aloof granny Linda Driver also left with another
woman as they headed to the close by Vauxhall
Station. It was good to see the back of
Bird and Driver, I must say.
-.-
I have so much more to say about my 1AP.
So in Part Three I will next tell you alot more
of what happened at The Big Issue HQ.  I also
 got one hell of a surprise, too, that I'll relate
 next time in this three part series for you. And
 again, I will tell you all about those Dickie
Birds, known as prickhead Peter Bird and 
pigface Anthony John Bird, and what they
 did to me and to many other vendors over
 the past 20 years as they seek to celebrate a
20th birthday this year as if nothing untoward
ever happened at such a vile outfit at its London
 Vauxhall HQ.  If the walls could speak, The
 Big Issue would be completely finished and
condemned forever and ever ... Amen!!
-.-
Take care for now, Uncle Monty.
+St. Augustine, The 1st Archbishop
of Canterbury, 2011.
-.-
'Sleep rough? I don't sleep, I walk the streets
all night to keep warm.'  By David Cohen.
.
Bullshit Sleep Out. By Alex Albion.
"As for the sleep out organised by The Big Issue Foundation
last week, it was essentially to benefit the foundation and
not the rough sleepers per se. It was also for The Big
Issue to blow their own 20th Anniversary trumpet. But
as the old saying goes: self-praise is no recommendation
that the operators at the Big Issue always seem to do
whenever is seeks to grab more donations from those
who are unaware of the meaningless behind their bull-
shit and catch-all slogan of "helping the homeless."
The only people it helps is the greasy operators
John and Peter Bird in my candid opinion."
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Feedback & Comments:
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5/19/11

365 Dayz Later.



365 Dayz Later ... At The Big Issue.
Still Thriving On Its Own Brand of Hate & Spite.
By Uncle Monty.
Story Graphics By Alex Albion.
Part One of Three.
-;-
Marking 1st Anniversary of My Unjust
Suspension As A 5-Year Big Issue Vendor
By Prickhead Peter Bird & His Pigface
Brother Anthony John Bird.
-:-
Prickhead PETER BIRD of The Big Issue. He's
The Big Jerk Who Arbitrarily & Capriciously
"Suspended" Me, As A 5-Year Vendor, For
"Bringing The Big Issue Into Disrepute."
:-;
My Protest Sign At The Big Issue's London HQ
Today on 1st Anniversary of The Callous Killing
of My Covent Garden Pitch By The Vile &
Greedy Bird Brothers Now 365 Dayz Ago.
My Protest Sign (37" x 15") States:
To The Big Sods - Peter & John Bird
of The Big Issue:  U Killed My Pitch
By Your Hate & Spite, Didn't U?
Today - May 19th, 2011 -  Marks
What You Did To Me A Year
Ago - 5/19.2010.  U Can Kill My
Pitch, But I Will Continue To Protest
 Against U Whenever I Can.
Visit My Blogs:
ALLABOUTTHEBIGISSUE.
BLOGSPOT.COM or
THEBIGGERISSUE.ORG.
Now 365 DAYZ LATER.
I'm Monty, Big Issue Vendor No. 115.
:-:
Uncle Monty At 1st Anniversary
Protest Against Peter & John Bird.
In Parts 2 & 3, I Will Tell U What
Happened At My 1st Anniversary
Protest At The Big Issue's London HQ.
Peter Bird, Linda Driver, Helen Drakakis,
Dean Scott Porter, Francis Nqwenya,
Fabio Bana, Gary Day, Steve Bell, Gary
Stewart, Neal Nelson, Vince Cobb,
 Tom Davies, Sue Cleveland, Maureen
Timms, Tim Hethrington, Etc., Etc.
They Were All There While I Did My
 8-Hour Public Protest For All To See.
Full stories coming soon ...
...
NEVER BUY!!!  THE BIG ISSUE.
But Always Give To The Vendor ...
;-;
Top Lead Image: Uncle Monty With
Beloved "Fudge" At His Long
Acre Pitch, Xmas 2oo5.
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Feedback & Comments
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The Big Issue London Headquarters At Vauxhall.
Bought Off The Backs Of The UK Homeless.
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An American Police, Judicial &
Media Travesty. By Uncle Monty.
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{ Click on any image to Enlarge }

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5/15/11

Bloggers Restored.


Bloggers Restored.
By Uncle Monty.
Graphics By Alex Albion.
...
For some of you, it is common knowledge 
that blogger.com has been down for some 
dayz due to a major human error at google.
The huge blogger outage and outrage
caused consternation around the globe.
Now layer by layer the blog system is
being fully restored, but some bloggers
are still yelling out loud since their blogz
 are still technically disabled and thus
 they can still neither post nor edit at the
moment. Luckily for me, my blogz were
one of the first to be completely re-
stored in the past 24 hours or so due to
being on the American cycle and layer
 restoration. BRAVO!!
...
I think the IT folkz at blogger.com should
be thanked and praised for their bold
effortz to restore such a complicated and
technical outage that must have been one
 hellish nightmare from being to end consid-
ering the millions of bloggers at stake. 
 BRAVO, I say, to such IT folkz!
...
However, during the huge outage many of the
world's bloggers, just like me, were prevented
 from being able to post new stories or images
 or make any online updates. And so because
of that, and such then being beyond my own
control, I am now planning to begin to post a
belated and/or delayed new story or two here
at allaboutthebigissue come May 19th, 2011.
 So thankfully, blogger.com is now slowly but 
surely being fully restored around the globe. 
 BRAVO!!
...
Truly, Uncle Monty.
+4th Sunday after Easter, 2011.
...
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Feedback & Comments
...
Please note that any readers' e-messages sent to any
 of my blogz while such was down, has now been
permanently lost despite the ongoing blog restoration.
Do feel free to re-send or re-post whatever e-mails
u may have sent. My apologies to u, too! UM.

5/10/11

Bookz.

Bookz By Or About The Homeless.
By Uncle Monty At Istanbul.
Writeovers By Alex Albion.
=.=
There are a number of charities donating books for
the homeless to read. The problem, however, is
while such is all fine and dandy the priority for most
 homeless people is, of course, to find daily food and
nightly shelter and to hopefully get off the streets.
 Another problem is that some homeless are illiterate
 and ill-educated to read anything least of all
erudite books on this or that.
=.=
Then we have those homeless folkz who write
 bookz about their street experience and societal
encounter of being homeless and marginalized
as rejected humanbeingz by the national culture
 at large. Most such authors think that they have
something profound or original to say in their
 bookz. Some even think they'll become rich
and famous as homeless authors. On the
whole, however, such authors are full of crap
 like The Big Issue's pigface author Anthony
John Bird, who still insists on flogging his bookz
 as an ex-homeless and ex-criminal guy under
 the guise of his self-serving autobiography and
 success methods. You won't find his bookz
listed in this piece called "Bookz By Or About
The Homeless." I see no reason to promote
 his crap, anyway.
=.=
Aside from him and his prickhead brother Peter
 Bird, I herein present a brief selection of
 homeless authors and their worthy books.
Plus, I've added a few comments from such
authors or book reviewers themselves
for you to read:
=.=
Bones of the Homeless.
By Judy Joy Jones.
.
Fly Away Home.
By Eve Bunting, Ronald Himler (Illustrator).
Paperback 32pp. Reissue  Ed.  (March )
Clarion Books. ISBN: 0395664152.
.
Anyplace but Here: Young, Alone, & Homeless
- What to Do.  By Ellen Switzer.
Atheneum; ISBN: 0689316941.
.
Lives Turned Upside Down:  Homeless Children in
Their Own Words and Photographs. By Jim Hubbard.
Simon & Schuster (Juv); ISBN: 068980649.
.
New Book: “Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders:
Homeless in San Francisco." By Theresa Gowan.
Book Overview & Review By Ezra Rosser.
"A powerful ethnographic account of life on the streets in
 San Francisco. When homelessness reemerged in American
 cities during the 1980s at levels not seen since the Great
Depression, it initially provoked shock and outrage. Within
a few years, however, what had been perceived as a
national crisis came to be seen as a nuisance, with early
sympathies for the plight of the homeless giving way to
compassion fatigue and then condemnation. Debates
around the problem of homelessness—often set in terms
 of sin, sickness, and the failure of the social system—have
come to profoundly shape how homeless people survive
and make sense of their plights. In Hobos, Hustlers, and
 Backsliders, Teresa Gowan vividly depicts the lives
of homeless men in San Francisco and analyzes the
influence of the homelessness industry on the streets,
 in the shelters, and on public policy.
.
"Gowan shows some of the diverse ways that men on
 the street in San Francisco struggle for survival, autonomy,
and self-respect. Living for weeks at a time among homeless
 men—working side-by-side with them as they collected
cans, bottles, and scrap metal; helping them set up camp;
watching and listening as they panhandled and hawked
 newspapers; and accompanying them into soup kitchens,
jails, welfare offices, and shelters—Gowan immersed
herself in their routines, their personal stories, and their
perspectives on life on the streets. She observes a wide
 range of survival techniques, from the illicit to the indust-
rious, from drug dealing to dumpster diving. She also dis-
covered that prevailing discussions about homelessness
and its causes—homelessness as pathology, homelessness
 as moral failure, and homelessness as systemic failure—
powerfully affect how homeless people see themselves
 and their ability to change their situation.
.
"Drawing on five years of fieldwork, this powerful ethno-
graphy of men living on the streets of the most liberal city
in America, Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders, makes
 clear that the way we talk about issues of extreme
poverty has real consequences for how we address
 this problem—and for the homeless themselves.
=.=
Stop Homelessness.
.=.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE HOMELESS GONE?
Making and Unmaking of a Crisis. By Anthony Marcus.
For a decade, from 1983 to 1993, homelessness was a
major concern in the United States. In 1994, this public
concern suddenly disappeared, without any significant
reduction in the number of people without proper housing.
By examining the making and unmaking of a homeless
 crisis, this book explores how public understandings
 of what constitutes a social crisis are shaped.

.
Drawing on five years of ethnographic research in New
York City with African Americans and Latinos living in
 poverty, Where Have All the Homeless Gone? reveals that
 the homeless “crisis” was driven as much by political mis-
representations of poverty, race, and social difference, as
 the housing, unemployment, and healthcare problems that
caused homelessness and continue to plague American cities.
.
Anthony Marcus is an urban anthropologist from New York
 City, currently a senior lecturer in International Development at
 the University of Melbourne in Australia. He has done research
 in New York, Havana, Mexico City, and Nairobi and published
 extensively in anthropology and American history.
=.=
What I Learned While Being Homeless.
=.=
I hope some of these listed bookz by or about
the homeless will be of interest to those who are
themselves homeless and to those who are not
and on whatever side of the pond you happen
to be on, although bookz by Americans on
or about the homeless seem to be far more
abundant than by those by the British.  There
is a commonality of homeless experience for
folkz who are homeless no matter where in
the world they are. The only difference is the
scenery, so to speak, and the prevailing culture
 in which the homeless person finds himself or
 herself in. Otherwise, the reality of being
 homeless is no different from one person to
 the next, other than the personal nature of the
 particular person blighted by homelessness.
=.=
As for me - an ex-homeless person and a so-
called debadged Big Issue vendor by the stinking
Bird brothers of The Big Issue and also an English 
old age pensioner and avid blogger that I am - I'm
still on my double holidayz with the last leg of my
 1,800-mile trip via the Belgrade-Istanbul
E-x-p-r-e-s-s almost at an end. before heading back
 to homebase. Next week I shall resume my regular
 weekly blog feature here at allabouttthebigissue.
=.=
Take care for now, Uncle Monty at Istanbul.
+Vigil of Our Lady of Fatima, 2011.
...
Lead Image. By Uncle Monty.
The lead story image above was sent to me by
one of my American blog readers that shows the
Florida baseball attack on one of three homeless
 people that resulted in one of them dying from
 such a vicious and unprovoked attack with
deadly baseball bats earlier last month in the
USofA.  Now before you jump to any sort of
conclusion that such only happens inside America,
remember what happened to the that one Big Issue
vendor at Brighton who was killed after being
 physically attacked by three young and violent
English yobz over a stupid fag!!! Big Issue vendors
 in the UK are alwayz vunerable to such random or
deliberable attacks from either their own kind or
home-grown yobz on the streets. The Big Issue
deliberately provides no insurance to protect its
vendors nor offers any practical help for those
attacked, except to give some pathetic and
belated words of fake solidarity from the ever
greedy Bird Brothers expressing condescending
words of affected sorrow to such victims on the
streets. So, if you're a Big Issue vendor and get
attacked or killed or badly hurt, don't worry pal
 you're just a badge number and little more as far
as the Big Issue gang at London's Vauxhall HQ
 is concerned.  Their only concern is always
 making money, money, and more money off
the backs of their exploited homeless. So to
hell then with the safety and care of Big Issue
vendors for such is the real impersonal attitude
and closed mindset of the vile and greedy
Bird gang - period!
=.=
Feedback & Comments
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Top Ten Bookz On Homelessness.
.=.

Supreme Jihadist. By Uncle Monty.
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