Homelessness is a sign of a broken society

Date: December 18th 2015
 

Participants (from 11 countries):

Sudan: Seif, Hassan | Iran: Zeinab, Noorola, Behnam, Taregh | Algeria: Djamila | India: Bubbly, Reneesh | Argentina: Johny | USA: Rick, Jami | Pakistan: Afsa, Usaid, Ashfaq | Malaysia: Faten | Nepal: Grace | Tunisia: Marwa | Bangladesh: Mohiuddin

Host and Moderator: Rick.

Teams

Panel PRO (Team A): Zeinab, Behnam, Bubbly, Usaid

Panel CON (Team B): Grace, Marwa, Noorola, Mohiuddin, Jami, Hassan

Audience (Team C):  Faten, Johny, Seif, Afsa, Taregh, Reneesh, Djamila, Ashfaq.

Panel PRO:

• The government has primary responsibility for providing for its people.
• There ought to be a balanced and fair distribution of the society’s economical resources.
• Government’s lack of effective plans to create job opportunities is one of the reasons for an increasing homeless population.
• Even though the reasons for homelessness may be many, the truth of the matter is that there is a big gap between the poor and the rich.  This is a clear sign that things are not being distributed equally.
• Many people feel somewhat frightened when a destitute person approaches us asking for food, money or some sort of help. This feeling makes people want to stay away from this person and this represent a barrier when it comes to helping them.
• In a healthy, humanitarian, helpful and hospitable society, there is a positive attitude towards one another and everyone helps each other regardless of the social status they hold.
• When the rich does not want to help the poor, there is a problem in people’s mind, heart or overall situation. Whatever the reason is, there is something that is preventing them from helping the poor. This shows that there is a problem in the society.
• If people start caring more about other people, it may reduce the rate of homelessness.

Panel CON:

• Although homelessness is a big problem within societies, is it not the major factor that shows the signs of a broken society. There are other major factors such as domestic violence, high rate of divorce, crime and other things which drive the cause of homelessness.
• Homelessness is the result of other major issues; for instance war, economic crisis or political issues. What breaks a society could be larger issues such as lack of a good medical care system, poverty, collective ignorance or lack of freedom.
• If a society is broken, then it will be broken regardless of the rate of homeless people in it because homelessness itself may well be a result of poor decisions made by individuals.
• Society can still work even if there is a large population of homeless people.
• A society is a group of people, including the homeless. It cannot be broken because the homeless is also part of a society. If the society were broken, that would mean that there won’t be interaction among people at any level.
• Homelessness is a personal problem not a social problem. Nobody can control people’s actions. Everyone should be responsible for themselves and it’s not society's fault that people become homeless but because it’s the result of their own decisions and actions.

Audience summary: 

• Taregh voted for the team A
• Faten voted for the team A
• Ashfaq voted for the team B
• Johny remained undecided.

Team A won his debate, Thanks everyone for participating! To listen to this debate, click on the links below:

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Homelessness is a sign of a broken society | December 18th 2015 | Recording file

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