Okay, so, I've been travelling around a few of the world's larger cities recently, and one thing I have noticed is that there are an awful lot of homeless people around, and people begging. Now, in Wellington, we don't have a lot of that. We have the blanket man, of course, but he never begs, as far as I know, and he seems a reasonably happy guy. It's reasonably easy to go about your day without having to worry about somebody sleeping in the gutter.
However, in New York, London and Paris, the plight of the homeless is a lot harder to ignore. In fact, it's very much in your face. The subways and underground trains all have homeless people begging or even just sleeping in the corner, and even out on the street its fairly common to come across someone curled up in a doorway. And when it's the week before christmas, temperatures are below zero and you've just spent the whole day shopping, the sight can really make your heartstrings tug.
But the thing is, if you gave money to everyone you saw who looked like they needed it, even if its just a little, you'd soon be homeless yourself. And another thing, as a tourist, you are feel very much like a target. There are many people whose lives aren't quite as terrible as they make out, who are trying to make money off concerned tourists. So people just walk on by. It's awful to see how many people are so used to the sight of people sleeping on the street that they don't even give them a second glance.
And sure, many homeless people are homeless due to their own actions, addictions etc, and lots of their stories aren't strictly true, and yes, there are shelters and soup kitchens to help them. So, no, I didn't give much of my money away. But I felt terrible. The reasons why some people end up homeless aren't simple, and you just don't know for sure. Maybe they really do have three starving kids at home.
2 comments:
I saw homeless people in Japan. At the train station and at a light crossing in Kyoto(the old man who homes it out at the crossing was uber snazzy though. He had his hair in a perfect bun and i helped catch his escaping bed roll :D). Japan, especially, also have lots of homeless, many of them are sad remnants of the japanese recession in the 90's.
it will be good to donate money to soup kitchens, night shelters and those food donation places. I'm very happy wellington has those, but i fear, it will become worse with the ongoing economic crisis...
yeah, when i was little i remember i saw my first homeless guy.
i tugged mum's hand and asked for money, coz she let me give them to buskers etc.
point is, mum pulled me along and siad NO!!!
i was like what? why are you mean?
and she explained as a social worker, it was her opinion that we should give to homeless shelters, and things designed to pull the homeless up, feed them, clothe them, get them jobs.
if not, who knows what theyll spend it on? even if it is food, not drugs or alc, they can get it for free from the city mish.
and rmember those cute maori singing girls with "help us get home" signs, with their da?
well, their da was a dick and told them to.
dads in the police, and he siad taht they only lived an hour away by train, but after days on the streets, i saw them heaps, they got near 1k.
just cuz. people are stupid.
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