The homeless and disadvantaged have been on my mind a lot lately. We all see them everyday. They are at all the intersections. They are on the corners of the streets. They camp outside Spar and Woolies.
I used to give every homeless people I saw the spare change I had in my pocket. Then it occurred to me one day that if I keep giving every homeless person I see money, I’m going to need to start asking everyone for money.
There is a guy in my neighborhood who has a sign, "Will work for food. Need a job."
I see him in the same place every day leaving at the same time every day holding the same sign every day. Doesn't he already have a job?
I don't want to sound cruel, but living in a big(ish) city, you start to become...What's the right word? Immune to the problem?
Cold hearted?
I'm not sure. But you find yourself ignoring them after awhile, even judging them.
"That one doesn't look so bad. Hey, the other leg still works."
“He’s probably just going to buy booze with that money”
Sound familiar?
That's when I decided only people with truly creative signs get money from me now. Not the “why lie I need a beer” guys. I mean the unique ones. The ones who have created a good commercial for themselves. (I would probably be that “beer” guy…lol)
On Currie Road there used to be a guy who had a sign that read, "Unemployed troll, lost my bridge."
That's worth a few coins.
Last night on one of my many contemplative walks, there in the doorway of a bed store only a few meters away from my apartment, I saw a homeless man laying out cardboard and a soiled sleeping bag for the night. (We call him smiley. Well – because he smiles a lot. Even that one time it was raining, and his dirty old pillow was getting wet – he just smiled). Just inches away from him, behind glass sat an opulent king sized bed covered in warm, fluffy blankets. That moment has stuck with me. People will spend thousands of rands for a bed, but turn up their noses at a homeless guy asking for a few loose coins. I know that we are part of the problem. Maybe a better way is to say our indifference, is part of the problem.
At the Beachfront flea market (amphitheatre), there once was a woman who had a little crafts stand. She had a sign that read will write your name on a grain of rice.
Passing by it with my mother one day, she remarked, "She should write her name on a job application."
Her point was that it was a useless talent. When would that ever come in handy?
How about with room mates?
"Hey, you ate all my rice again!"
"It's not like your name was on it."
"Actually..."
She wasn't buying it.
My point was that at least this lady was doing something.
Then there are the silver painted guys. They hang out everywhere these days, where tourists are fat with change in their pockets.
They stand still and occasionally make robot noises when they suddenly move. People will stand in front of them debating if it's a statue or not. I was out with my cousin, who was visiting from the UK earlier last year, in an attempt to show her more of the city, we came across one such silver painted gentleman. A crowd stood before the unblinking, unmoving man wondering out loud if he was real or not. At the base of his podium sat a bucket with change in it and a little sign for donations.
My cousin looked in the bucket then up at the man and said loudly, "Imagine how much money you could make if you moved for 8 hours a day."
Before I could intervene, a pigeon flew overhead and dropped a shit on the silver man's shoulder. The crowd laughed. Still, he did not budge.
That's when my cousin opened her purse and pulled out a crisp R100 note and threw it into the bucket.
"If a bird can't tell the difference between him and a real statue, he's pretty good."
I think seeing another human being who has given up completely scares us on some profound level. We would prefer to not contemplate such things in line at Sandwich Baron on our lunch hour. Then we go back to whatever corporate hell we feel our sanity slowly giving way to so we can make money. It makes us wonder if that could happen to us. We question a system that for better or worse, we all participate in.
What is the other option?
How did it happen to them?
Will it happen to me?
Why did they let that happen to them?
Is there any hope left for them?
What does it take for someone to become a ghost in our society?
The only solution I see that seems to work is this: Paint the homeless silver.
6 comments:
unbelievable post woz, truly.
made me think.
i vacillate. one week i give everyone, then i get pissed off thinking that i don't know if the money is helping or hindering, and so the next week i don't give. it's a vicious circle.
always buy a big issue though.
it's a tough issue.
homeless kids are an even bigger issue.
damn you, now you've got me thinking
thank you Paige.
i actualy get a bit tearey when i read this because i think it is quite true. What Do We Do about it? Is there anything we can do other than think about what we can do.
The homeless kids. Eish. I cry. I DO! And lately, on Argyle Rd, Near the new stadium, WOOOOAH, so many. There are babies carrying babies in the streets begging for money. We just state straightt a head, we try ignore them, we try pretend they are not there. That they are invisible. But we know they are not.
I guess, at the end of the day, these people serve a much GREATER (YES - MUCH GREATER) purpose in life....... to teach us to be more grateful for what we have.
now excuse me. I must go cry.
Hey wozzel. Thanks for that. I got me thinking as well... Great post.
Do you think that charities can do a little more than giving spare change to some people? Is it possible that they can provide shelter and food? Can you be sure that the money you give them reach the proper target? The problem now is so serious.
I'm sorry to say that I don't generally give money like that. I sometimes buy the 'Big Issue' which is a magazine sold by the homeless in UK. I also try to give to charities, but I do not give directly to them.
Hey Nik :) well, it really is such a tricky one aint it? Of course there are so many charities and shelters and even places for them to go get a hot meal, but sometimes, I don’t think the homeless even want the help. You remove the kids off the streets, give them clothes and a warm place to sleep and within a week they are back on the street. WHY? I think that sometimes its because they “make more money” on the streets. They also get involved in crime and drugs and all that, and when you have nothing, NOTHING, sometimes the drugs mean more to you than nothing. The drugs become SOMETHING.
I’m all over the place with my thoughts and ideas and views and sadness’s on this topics so my comments may just reflect the same.
I’m as confused and at a lack of suggestion to an age old problem as we all are and have been and most likely – will be.
Like I said to Paige. Maybe their purpose in life is to teach us who do have more that we should be grateful that we have what we have in life?
Wow, great entry.
It actually brought me back memories of my times in Dublin where you could (and unfortunately still can) find homeless people on Grafton St - the main street of Dublin.
There used to be a homeless guy playing the flute and the guy was quite amazing - I used to give him some coin as well. Not because he was homeless (ok, yes, it helped) but because he was doing something out of it (like the silver statue guy) he as trying. I used to ask myself "why don't they use their abilities for a job?" - the answer came right after - "Because they lost hope".
We can't deny that this is true. They come to the conclusion that they are homeless, they are the lowest rank on the society and they stay like that, hopeless, strengthless.
I'm blessed enough to know that, if I was unemployed, whatever I would be, I'd still have a family to run to in Portugal, I'd still have someone to hold me.
But what about them? They have no one. The whole city is their home and its inhabitants became their family, their friends and foes. The streets' cats and dogs became their pets. The rain became their bathtub/shower.
It's impossible to have the perfect society, yet, there's so much more we still can do.
I can't deny that after 1 year, my heart had hardened to the point of not caring. Until one day I realized my heart wasn't hardened - I was just 'trying' not to care because it would affect me deeply to care about it. One could make the difference but that one wouldn't be me.
Once again, great post. There's so much more I could say about it but I think I wrote enough, lol.
Have a nice week y'all!
That is the most thought provoking and selfless post I have read in blogosphere. Excellent post.
I try not to judge why people are homeless. It really is not a choice for some and mostly it is a force of circumstances. We live in a society where other people oppress others and the cruelty is astonishing.
Society contributes and perpetuates homelessness by not making things accessible. I am not sure where you are but here in Canada you cannot get any type of assistance not unless you have an address, but how is that person going to get an address if they have no money to pay the rent. It is a cyclical thing.
I could go on, but I won't since your post said so much already.
Well Done.
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