Angry tweeting

This weekend I wrote what I think was my first negative tweet going against my own advice of ‘if you can’t say anything nice on social media don’t say anything.’  I’d spent the weekend standing in the foyer of Morrisons with a bucket collecting for the Refugee Welcome Trust. For those that haven’t ever done this it is hard work. Physically standing for six hours carrying a bucket of coins makes everywhere hurt, add to that being ignored by 70% of people that walk past and the boredom of being in a supermarket for three days in a row.

The store I go to is in a little Lancashire town which has a massive sense of community. Staff turnover seems low and they are friendly helpful to the customers, a young man collecting baskets knows an elderly customer by name and is concerned when she waits over 40 minutes in the hot foyer for a taxi and seems confused. She tells me she always has the same driver who helps her lock up and carry her shopping and is visibly pleased to see him when he arrives. He is very attentive, checking she’s OK with the heat and giving her his arm  to walk to the car. Morrisons' staff come to check she’s gone a few minutes later.

There must be some research around collecting like this. You can tell, with a  reasonable amount of accuracy, whether people passing you on the way in will donate or not on their return. Some are surprising groups, teenage boys in my experience are much more likely to donate than girls, people who look like they have less to give more likely than those who appear to have more. A distinct group peer at the bucket. At first I thought they were looking for a particular cause or charity and maybe some are. Being such a small organisation the majority won’t recognise our name and some people, it appears are filtering out rather than in. One lady tells me she was just checking I wasn’t from an animal charity and one that I wasn’t from a hospice. Quite a few people ask what we do and this is sometimes where the trouble begins.

I am the first to be picky about what I give money to. In times where people have less to give where it goes becomes so much more important and when I say ‘Refugee families’ in response to their question many say they prefer to give to ‘local people.’ Most people ask more questions about where they’ve come from and why they’re here and this is partly what makes standing here worthwhile. There are a small minority that look at me with complete disgust like I’m suggesting they give money to help murder puppies. For a large part these are respectable looking older ladies and I continue to be shocked at how rude they can be to a stranger. But the tweet was not aimed at them, they’ve aired their feelings and its their decision who to give to.

My first bad encounter was with a man who unfortunately for him was shorter than me. When he asked the standard ‘What is it this time?’ I responded with ‘Refugee families.’ ‘Why don’t they just stay where they are?’ he asked. A perfectly reasonable question. Apart from the fact he was standing way to close for comfort and shouting at me. If the store hadn’t been busy and the staff so attentive this could have been quite scary. Next time a man who was a lot bigger than I was leaned over my and shouted ‘Pakis?!’ in response. Not really sure how to respond there was an awkward silence with him staring at me until I nodded and he backed down.

I chose to end my angry tweet with the #idiot which I’ve never used before and won’t use again. This is not particularly because of people thinking it’s OK to be aggressive and intimidating but more the fact that both of these people donated money. Over a pound each. Didn’t see that one coming.