The HPWA

Accusations of Fraud

2012-02-26T03:41:00.001-08:00

I’m writing this because somebody has been going round the Net accusing me of fraud. They’re claiming that The HPWA is a fake charity set up deliberately so I can embezzle money to myself, in the same way that the British politician Jeffrey Archer did a few years ago with his fraudulent charity that was supposed to be helping the Iraqi Kurds. He was sent to jail for that, quite rightly! Let me reassure you right now that the HPWA is a genuine charity and its sole intention to raise money to help Hospital Porters and ex-Hospital Porters in times of need and support. Everything I do will be legal and above board. You'll see.

My accuser has no evidence at all; they’re just saying it for the hell of it: “I think Ben is setting up a fake charity to make money”. I will not stand for my name being smeared in this way. I’m politely requesting that my accuser, you know who you are, ceases as desists these accusations right now! I’m only going to ask once...

What Now for the HPWA?

2012-02-22T01:02:00.003-08:00

If you’re a regular reader of the other HPANWO blogs you’ll know that I’ve been discharged from the Hospital Portering Service, see: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-i-became-ex-hospital-porter.html and: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2012/01/ben-civilian.html . So, you might ask, does this mean it’s all over for the HPWA? Well, in a word, no. There’s no doubt the financial difficulties I’m now facing will mean I‘ll have to change the organization of the HPWA to an extent; I now no longer have the ability to pre-invest. This means that the actual fundraising events I do will be limited to what I can afford from my civilian employment, at least to begin with. But just because I’m no longer a serving Hospital Porter doesn’t mean that I cannot run a charity for Porters and ex-Porters. After all there are many people who are ex-Armed Forces and who are actively involved in Help for Heroes, see: http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/ . The good news is that many of the actual plans I had for the first sponsored events are extremely low budget. Watch this space and I’ll soon give you the details!

Why do we Need the HPWA?

2011-09-04T03:46:00.001-07:00

Last night I went to the hospital’s social club and had a word with some of my Extremely Proud and Dignified Brother and Sister Porters about my plans for the HPWA and their reaction was mixed. A lot of them were encouraging, as were the civilians who were also engaged in our conversation. Not a bad start! However the tone changed when I explained how I was using the Help for Heroes campaign as a model for the HPWA. This instinctively grated a bit with some of them. That’s quite revealing to me because it indicated the presence of what I’ve termed “The Military Religion” in their minds; see: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2008/07/our-brave-boys.html and: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2010/05/is-military-religion.html . Hospital Porters are heroes too! Who’s going to help us? “But it’s not the same, Ben!” they said. “You can’t compare what the soldiers go through to what we do.” Can’t we? The average man in Britain can expect to live until they're almost 80 nowadays; the woman-on-the-street dies at 82; so why is it again and again I go to funerals of my Extremely Proud and Dignified Brother and Sister Porters who have passed away in their 50’s and early 60’s? And people claim that Hospital Porters don’t risk their lives!? It was the death of my former Senior Porter George Rogers that made me think, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2011/05/st-theos-day-party-2011.html George lived to a surprisingly ripe old age for a Porter. What’s the risk of fighting in Afghanistan? Considerable to be sure, but does that mean there are no other dangerous jobs? What about the hardships and trauma of fighting a war? Yes, they’re very tough; but, again, are there no other walks of life where one can face equal, even greater, harrowing endurance? Which of us really has the most difficult and dangerous job? Of course Hospital Porters don’t have to deal with bombs and bullets, but we endure other dangers that, in a way, are much worse. The bombs and bullets that come our way are ones which maim and kill us socially. The damage they do is just as bad or even worse, but they act in ways that are subtle and hard to identify. They take the form of a parent asking your girlfreind why she can't find somebody with a better job, a student radiographer being told she's being "too friendly" to the Porters and that she "has standards to maintain"; and it gets worse and lingers on and on and on, every day of your life! When Hospital Porters are struck down by our enemies there are no headlines in the papers, we are not paraded through Wootton Bassett with the people on crowded pavements standing still and doffing their hats to us. We are forgotten and ignored. There is no Hospital Porters’ memorial (Well, not yet! This is a project that the HPWA could work on), no Hospital Portering honours list. I've not written an article on this subject yet, but here's a very fertile HPANWO Forum thread I've started and it contains posts about all about non-Military memorials: http://hpanwoforum.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=331

I took me a while to understand that the hostile reception my suggestion encountered might have had a lot to do with The Military Religion which I explain in the links above. I was basically being an iconoclast! I was not putting down the Forces at all, indeed I was myself in the Forces for a short time; but for The Military Religion suggesting that one is not beneath them is tantermount to putting them down! In Hospital Portering it’s very trendy to be self-deprecating, in fact I’ve known Porters who have a belief in their own worthlessness that approaches the fanatical! See: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2007/12/dont-tell-em-were-porters.html However I was honest in what I thought and stand by that. I’m not setting up the HPWA to win a popularity contest! I’m setting it up because I think it’s right, just and necessary. I’ve announced its foundation informally, and will do so formally at the hospital soon. Then it will be time to move on to the next stage and make serious designs for the charity.

Hello, HPWA

2011-06-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

Well, the Hospital Porters' Welfare Association is born! Something that has been milling around in the back of my head for months is now taking shape! I've now got a basic plan for the organization; I now need to register it as an official charity and then come up with some rough ideas for fundraising and publicity. I might need to start another website as the HPWA becomes more complicated. I've got some thoughts already and I'll let you know as they take form. I'm going to tinker with the blog design a bit too. Pride and Dignity to you all!