"Begging is a difficult subject to address. Guilt is definitely not the best advisor. Charity is based on personal motivation and choice. The only wrong decision is not thinking about the issue at all."
The sight of a beggar in a poverty and unemployment -stricken country is unsettling at the very least and gives rise to considerable dilemma. When to give or not give? That's the question and it's not easy to answer.
It has become a norm that in every robot in town you find people begging for money and food. When I first came to stay in big cities, I was so surprised that there are people who live by begging (in my hometown, there is no street beggars, everyone sweat to bring food on the table even if it means to go to the garden). My heart was shred apart, I couldn’t bear it, so I always give away some coins even if it is R2.00. One day one of my friends paid me a visit and we drove to the nearest cinema to catch a movie … we passed about 5 robots to get there. In all those 5 robots there was someone begging for money, me being me gave all of them some coins ..And my friend asked if I always do this and I said yes. And he told me that some of those people are not actually as poor as we think, some of them get government grant but they still go and emotionally blackmail people on the street. I felt so ripped-off and used, but the problem is, it is not all of them who are beggars by choice, so it is kinda difficult to differentiate.
In some cases you find a woman with a child or children on the street as early as 05h00 AM until 19h00PM, my worry is, I’m already being taxed like I’m the only one working in the entire universe for the child to get grant, but this mother (as if it is not enough what SARS is doing to me)also tax me live on the road …why can’t she go and find some piece job from the suburbs and flats … there are many people looking for sleep-out helpers, even if it is only two days a week, that would help to bring bread on the table or just pack the bags and go back to rural areas … it is rear to find a beggar there and you’ll never see the grave written “there lies so and so died of hunger” .. in Zulu they say there is no grave for hunger ! what is money for grant doing?
And there are those ones who are old enough to work and take care for their families but instead they take their parents or grandparents or disabled people to do street begging, why can’t they go find piece jobs to care for them, the fact that they also wake up, catch a taxi (because they don’t even sleep on the roads) to town means they do have money to go to town, why can’t they use that money to go look for jobs? You’ll find them wearing Levis and all sort of brands and you wonder if they actual use that money to take care of those people or themselves? I’m being taxed for grant of both pensioners and disabled ! if those people are not getting any grant why cant they atleast take them to wherever you apply for grant and apply for them ...if those ppl dont have ID's why cant they take them to Home Affairs and do that ..from where i stand they do have money to go to Home Affairs.
Well I know that some of those people are not street beggars by choice but is begging real a solution? do they real use that money to resolve the problems they are facing? ... i think they dont because you see the same faces everyday for the whole year or even years…I feel emotionally blackmailed
So bloggers
Should one feel obliged to hand over cash whenever a cupped hand is extended? Or is it better to give money to charities rather than to individuals? I'd like to think that most of us might consider embracing both policies. The hard truth about begging is that you’ll never know who is there by choice and you'll never know how is a person going to use your hard earned cash or if they are real worth it. There is no single, simple solution.
Begging is an issue that directly engages our emotions, so getting our responses right every time is highly impossible. The difficult thing about this is "whatever you may see, may not be" .There are many unfortunates,but many are beggars by choice.
Where i grew up maybe 60% of the citezens there have no one working in the entire family but they are depending on what the soil can give to them and i have never saw them begging ... instead they cultivate everything and use it as their means to live ... they even go to an extend of selling some of the things they nurture to give education to their children and i salute them for that.
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