NIMBY

Today I received a petition in my inbox calling for support against the building of a needle exchange centre in my neighbourhood. My neighbourhood is pretty bourgeois, and it will be next to a school, so I can see where the reaction is coming from.

Yet on second thought, I wondered if the reaction would be any different if it were built beside a community centre, a hospital, a provision shop... Poll someone on the street whether it is a good idea to tackle HIV and substance abuse through needle exchange centres and the answer will likely be yes. But ask them where it should be located and the answer will be invariably be, 'Not in my backyard.'

Over the past couple of years, I have more or less lost faith in human beings as a collective (anonymity is truly lethal) to care about a greater good. But even worse than that is the hypocrisy of it all.

Maybe I've just become more socialist.