This afternoon, on my way to my office, I saw a strange scene—a young girl swearing at a filthy-look female beggar.
A female beggar sat on the ground in a corner, holding a cardboard written on “Husband is severely sick and needs surgery; two children needs food.” And she kept nodding and repeatedly rattled the same line away. A young girl approached to the female beggar and told her that she should take real action to solve her problem, and she was willing to help her family because she knew some social workers. But the female beggar behaved like a broken record, repeatedly saying the same line.
The young girl tried to persuade her but got no response; she eventually got angry. She said that the female beggar was so irresponsible because she shouldn’t simply sit there and didn’t take care of her family. The female beggar remained the same, ignoring what she said and repeating the same line.
The young girl’s face twisted; it was obvious that she was irritated by the way the female beggar ignoring her. She started to swear at the female beggar in a high-pitch tone by saying that she was a liar, and she blamed her for manipulating people’s sympathy. The female beggar was really good at controlling her emotion. She ignored what the young girl said, repeatedly nodding and saying the same line.
I witnessed the whole event and was baffled. I reckoned that the female beggar wasn a fraud because she was pretty good at dealing with the question from the young girl. I wondered whether I would have the same reaction if I had been the young girl.
Would you tell your children or young students to help people in need on the street after you witness the similar scenes several time?
I thought a lot of beggars are professionals… you give them food they dont want it, they want money for beer… I think some TV network did a program on this… they followed a beggar around and they always go to a bar after getting the money.
There’s a young-ish girl who sells the flower thingys that people hang from their rear view mirrors who is most certainly an addict. Face is completely devoid of expression most of the time…
What this beggar really needed, regardless of how she ended up on the streets, was a thorough dressing-down from a young middle-class kid who bravely lives with her parents and fearlessly works in an office for a pittance waiting to marry some dullard for whom she will valiantly bear offspring, all the while saving up enough self-hate to vent it all on street bums. Bravo to the young girl. Way to go.
There are two different situations people are talking about, and two different ways that you should treat beggars.
a) First world
b) Third world
countries.
In the case of a place like Taiwan or North America, don’t give’em any money - give’em a job application for 7-11 or McDonalds. Unless they’re mentally defective, they can easily make more money working minimum wage than they could begging on the streets. And yeah - like it’s real hard to get a job at a fast-food joint. Give me a break. Beggars in rich countries have nobody to blame but themselves.
In third-world countries such as Scotland or China, then give’em money. Jobs are hard to come by in those places.
It’s an outrage! All these beggers live a completely different life than people imagine. Nice apartments, fancy food, lots of fine wine at KTV’s and of course as everyone knows from news reporters following them…most drive Mercedes Benz after work.
This lifestyle of course requires an earning of at least 1,500 N.T. per hour(I’d like to see a news reporter set up a time lapse camera).
The ones that play music of course earn around double that and I presume drive Rolls Royces and who can even guess how much a foreign street mucisian, clown or mime earns …it must be in the millions of N.T. The guys I used to know doing this were obviousely being very selfish whenever they only treated me to a beer at 7-11 during their break-times, …probably waiting for me to leave so they could go jump in their Ferrari parked around the corner.
Screw that! These guys are obviousely more qualified for government positions and could solve alot of our countries problems.
Why waste all those human resources on something like Mc’D’s and 7-11!? :loco:
Or at least give them teaching jobs at kindergartens. A quick shower, fresh clothes, and some food in their gut and they’d be ready to rock! In fact wasn’t their a t.v. add here before that showed someone picking up bums off the streets of NY city to teach here?
Quentin, whatever you call China there are more advertisements for shitty fast food and store assistant notices than you will see anywhere else in the world. Unemployment isn’t as big a problem as you seem to think, if we include the Chinese equivalent of burger flipping.
I got not much respect for beggars… only people who gives to them are devout taoists who is trying to gain some favor with the gods… a lot of people in Taiwan look poor but are anything but poor.
Also China is not really a third world country by definition, a third world country is a country where they have very little infrastructure and no one is thinking of developing them. An example would be like Ethiopia or Nigeria. China would be considered a developing country because their infrastructure is better than third world countries, while not as good as first world countries they are getting there. A first world country would be where all modern infrastructure is there and we take those for granted… like the USA…
My son has noticed beggars in the underpass next to the Taoyuan train station in the past. I’ve given him some change to put in the guy’s bowl. I don’t get much into it with him though. The guy can’t work for one reason or another. Maybe he’s hurt, or sick or uneducated, has to feed his family some way…blahblahblah…stay in school so this doesn’t happen to you.
It’s not the best lesson in the world, but at least he knows the bum is a person and deserves a little compassion.
btw, I thnk the young girl should have been slapped down verbally with great force. Offer help, sure. But what makes her think the women hasn’t already gone thorugh that process? Just because she’s a bum doesn’t mean she’s an idiot. Yelling at a bum because she won’t listen to her? What an ego. Who does she think she is?
There’s a flower seller at my local McDonald’s, an older woman.
During the time I read a newspaper she’ll ask several times if I want to buy. This has gone on for a few years. She obviousley has a very short term memory but I think this would of course qualify her to actually get a job inside McDonald’s where she now bases her flower business.
Every half hour or so another woman her age dressed much nicer comes along, scolds her, slaps her upside the head and takes the few 10 N.T.s she managed to earn.
I think this lazy bitch should quit selling flowers and get a real job.
[quote=“ab12ra12”]There’s a flower seller at my local McDonald’s, an older woman.
During the time I read a newspaper she’ll ask several times if I want to buy. This has gone on for a few years. She obviousley has a very short term memory but I think this would of course qualify her to actually get a job inside McDonald’s where she now bases her flower business.
Every half hour or so another woman her age dressed much nicer comes along, scolds her, slaps her upside the head and takes the few 10 N.T.s she managed to earn.
I think this lazy bitch should quit selling flowers and get a real job.[/quote]
I bet she makes more selling flowers than working anyways…
I bet she makes more selling flowers than working anyways…[/quote]
In fact it’s just another form of begging. From what I can tell she may earn 20 N.T. per hour constantly asking every customer 10 times if they want to buy flowers.
I bet she makes more selling flowers than working anyways…[/quote]
In fact it’s just another form of begging. From what I can tell she may earn 20 N.T. per hour constantly asking every customer 10 times if they want to buy flowers.[/quote]
How is it begging? She sells a flower. I buy a flower.
…it must be in the millions of N.T. The guys I used to know doing this were obviousely being very selfish whenever they only treated me to a beer at 7-11 during their break-times, …probably waiting for me to leave so they could go jump in their Ferrari parked around the corner.
In fact wasn’t their a t.v. add here before that showed someone picking up bums off the streets of NY city to teach here?
:bravo: