You can meet beggars or mendicants everywhere but mainly in crowded places. Such places maybe the means of public transport (Metro, Electric railways, Busses, Trolleys, Trams). Every time I use public transport, I will almost certainly come across at least one beggar. As the years go by, I have the feeling that the number of beggars is constantly increasing, a result of my country’s poor economic situation that has led to the multiplication of that number. Many are my concerns, countless my thoughts, and my sorrow is only getting bigger.
Image by @nikoleondas
When I come across a beggar at the means of public transport, many thoughts and concerns pass through my mind. Questions that end up being unanswerable.
“Is that man really poor? Or is he trying to deceive me?”
“Should I give him some money from the little I have left? Am I able to help him given always my difficult financial situation?”
Drug addicts: They are people that beg for money on the pretext of needing it for food or for some other necessity of theirs but in reality they just want it so they can use drugs. They usually wear dirty clothes and unsteadily.
Homeless: Τhey are people that beg for money in order to get some food or buy something warm to wear. They don’t have a place to stay so they live on the streets, sleep on benches, under bridges and generally anywhere they can find a “warm corner”. They usually wear torn, dirty clothes.
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Parents of large families: Τhey are people that have many children and beg for money to provide food and other material goods for their children.
Unemployed: They are people that have been left without a job, beg for money in order to survive and sometimes seek for a job.
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People with health problems: They are people who beg for money to buy their medicine or to cover their hospitalization costs. They usually carry supporting documents of their health problems with them.
Young children: They are children that usually play a musical instrument and sometimes sing too, begging for their pocket money. They usually hold a box for the coins.
Image by @nikoleondas
Foreigners: They are people coming from another countries, usually in a bad financial situation, that beg for money to survive.
Street vendors: They are people that sell various things such as tissues, pens, lighters etc, to have a small income that will help them in their effort to survive.
Image by @nikoleondas
Scammers: They are people that pretend to be one of the above types to deceive unsuspicious citizens and earn, in that way, some money while in reality they aren’t in such a great need.
In the end, I wonder: “How are beggars going to be in the future if blockchain technology prevails? How are they going to beg if there won’t be fiat money?”
But I think that some people are already way ahead of us, judging from the following picture.