Happy #PoveratiXmas to those that observe!

The term poverati was used derogatively towards antipoverty activists on Twitter a couple of years back. It’s meant to deride – to poke fun at a group of people doing their best to find community through shared experience of poverty. I first heard it from a think tank member claiming to be working in the interests of poor people in this country. So, we reclaim it, and use it for a little fun ourselves.

The #PoveratiXmas will be observed on Twitter and Blue Sky this year with a thread being posted on today on each site for community members to post their wishlists and pay links so that hopefully some benevolent fairies will come through and fund some wishes.

The threads are:

Twitter: https://x.com/phonakins/status/1862973298818388264

Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/phonakins.com/post/3lc72lnn3cs2l

It’s up to the individual whether they participate. You can be on welfare or not, there’s plenty of people struggling on low incomes, with disabilities or as carers and many reasons out there so don’t be judgy of others xoxo

Please, if you have the means, try to fund a wish and share with your communities so that more people can have their wishes funded.

Wishes can be anything from groceries to fun things like computer games. Anything to make this life and season more bearable to the #Poverati

I had a request to post a different kind of wishlist here:

My Wish List... isn't for Christmas and it isn't stuff that I can buy. Not for lack of money – my bank balance has become a bit of an embarrassment; No number of disappointing impulse buys (or worse, the carefully researched and planned budget buys that come up a lemon) can put a dent in it. So the first thing on my wish list is help with spending those idle dollars. By the time some or all of them are spent, I should end up with most of the rest of the things I'm wishing for: 1. Transport for me, and my dog Ishka to an actual city, as far South on the Australian mainland as possible. The cost to transport me, by rail, to Melbourne, would be in the range of $300 - $400; Ishka, by road, through a transport & kenneling service $800 - $900. 2. Somewhere to live when I arrive wherever. Shared accommodation would be fine. I've looked at Flatmates.com.au a couple of times recently but my thinking hits the same old roadblock – how the hell do I get to meet any prospective housemates? 3. Help with disposing of a lot of unwanted stuff. I think this might be the third time that I've had to dispose of a lot of domestic stuff that I could no longer use or afford to keep in storage. Much of this lot will probably need to go into a skip, but there's some donatable stuff in the mix. So add to the budget the cost of a skip to clear the absolute garbage. 4. Help in identifying other tasks, and sub-tasks so that I end up with ... 5. A workable plan. 14 Nov 2024 I wrote the screed & list above on 10 November. Had the occasional second thoughts about whether it should be published since then because it looks like a big ask. So here's a bit of an apologia. First, writing it and sending it to phonakins actually threw a wrench in the vicious mental cycle that I was in – enough to stop the emotional flywheel spinning wildly so that I'm now able to identify, and take various measures to improve my current situation. But, ultimately, I need to get out of it. And working out how to achieve that by spending money, and by spending money alone, remains beyond me.

If you can help this person, comment below or email me phonakins@gmail.com and I’ll forward it onto him!

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