In reply to thread: Do you give beggars money.
05-04-2011, 12:55 AM
1. I miss the beggars forcefully removed from the streets by authorities.
After reading the opinions, observations and comments from an educated cross-section of the society, I assume that poverty, illness, homelessness, natural calamities, evictions from settlements and colonies, riots, unemployment and retrenching etc, which are the common causes for sending multitudes to the streets to beg before fellow human beings rarely affect the educated. Accepting the general deduction that begging is generally limited to those among the uneducated, the fact that those who beg in the street are God's creations and our fellow human beings can not be denied. We are either the beggars, who do the thing, or the authorities who deny the deserving equal opportunities for employment and housing, or the society which is ultimately responsible for this system of humiliation. We certainly cannot be anything else. It is good to remember the Wall Street Crash that sent the most number of people to the streets to beg. It was caused from the unregulated greed of the immensely rich who actually were running the government too. Had the government been something not parked in their cattle sheds, even the possibility for such a thing would never have arisen. Who are ultimately responsible for those additional fleets added to the streets, they themselves or the governments run by the greedy rich? Who said the system of share marketing, and denying the theory that what one gains is lost by many is inevitable and mandatory for running a nation. Did not the Romans, Mayans, Indians and the Chinese run their nations efficiently?
It was people who saved money for building homes, for treating their beloved in hospitals and for sending daughters away in marriages that were robbed of everything and sent to the streets. It is still and still repeating all over the world. Board-Room Economics and War-Room Politics were what created millions of beggars by overnight. Where did the poor man in the street come in this picture of power game? Governments do wish to hide their crimes and follies, so they hastily enact laws for forbidding begging in their beautiful lovely streets and for arresting and removing beggars from the streets. Then through public relation media they bark about the business of organized begging, the beggars' inferior social standards, their uncleanliness, and the stench coming from them. It is because the world of administration is so saturated and thickly packed with cheaters, stealers and cut-throats that they are so. Because they are mostly uneducated, they do not know how to dethrone these drones from authority. So, suppressing the pangs of betrayal, with downcast eyes, and with shame humiliation and indignation they beg in the streets, because life is such precious, and hope is still endeared. I really miss the human beings forcefully removed from my Trivandrum City Streets. There were sisters, mothers, kids, old men among them. I wonder where they all have gone, and what they are now doing, dead or living. I know the situation is the same all over the world. As long as there is one single person is in distress there, no country in this world is humane, priding in ostentaceous pseudo welfare stateship or not. I also know, the uniformed officers who only were obeying their orders from the blind law and the brute authorities were pining in their hearts for doing this.
05-07-2011, 09:35 PM
2. Unless share marketing is not done with, begging will continue.
As Vonny pointed out, it is sad to reflect on our friends who cannot afford to go to a doctor when we can. The sight of their faces sitting somewhere and coughing and shivering away their destiny will torment us for days. Even if it can be argued that destiny is created by man, adverse circumstances leading a man to helpless positions as if in a perfectly staged tragedy is only very common in this world. Approximately three fourth of the world is in poverty, distress and disease. It is the plight of people in these areas leading people to begging that is to be discussed, not the occasional scene of begging for money for pot and ale in the economically rich nations. Dozens and dozens of countries in the continents of Asia, Africa and elsewhere are in the grip of poverty, sending hundreds and hundreds of citizens to the streets each day to beg before fellow citizens. Gradual impoverishing and depleting of revenues will not send a man to the streets to beg. He will find a means for a decent living during the long period it takes to lower him to nothingness. It is the sudden and unexpected twist and turn of things that send multitudes to the streets to beg. Those who are afraid to beg jump from their balconies, simply suicide and vanish. Even in welfare states and in economically advanced countries, the futility of Health Insurance as regard to their uselessness of coming to the aid of the poor man is publicly known. Where in the world has a Health Insurance Company gone charitable? Why don't prosperous European governments dare adopt the Free Hospital System the British introduced in India which though is being crushed down inch by inch, day by day by the government there?
The chief cause in modern day for creating countless number of beggars overnight has already been pointed out earlier in these pages which are Share Market Crash which touches every nook and corner of this world. Wreckage of life overnight won't leave people with options but choose to beg. It was earlier pointed out that the famous Wall Street Crash was the incident in history that sent the greatest number of people to either beg in the streets or jump from their balconies. Newspaper archives will vouchsafe. It is no use turning faces away from bare truths. Because all do share trading is not a decent excuse. No mathematics proves that in this new world enterprise, what money one makes is not exactly what someone lost on the other side. Even the recent world crashes did exactly the same thing-sent even more people to the streets. It is still continuing. Wars no more make beggars because they no more happen in the large scale. Unless this modern day system of raising capital through sale of shares is not done with, begging will continue, whether we give money to beggars or not.
05-22-2011, 11:30 PM
3. Writers lead governments, not governments govern writers.
It was the famous British philosopher, playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw who in one of his B.B.C. Radio Broadcasts said, if there indeed is poverty in your country, then don't bark about patriotism. He was speaking about the ultimate freedom of human beings. Extravaganza in spending is what deprives industrial and agricultural production of its usefulness. 'Shakespeare’s character Eago asked people to put money in their purses and not to take out of it.' But people earn the least and spend the most which habit causes poverty. But when dire needs arise, purse can not be checked. Until poverty is wiped out clean, we shall cease to sing about patriotism.
Poverty which most often leads people to beg on the streets is purely a product of the shortsightedness, corruption and dereliction of sworn duties of the Administration and Governance of the respective nations. When their policies fail, the streets receive more beggars. The humanitarian in Shaw analyzed this fairly well and did not hesitate to ascribe the responsibility for poverty and begging to governments. Writers lead governments and nations, not governments govern writers. [It is applicable to all writers and critics, including those writers on Lit Net]. Shaw did not stop there but defined the culprits responsible for this social evil. That notorious phrase of Shaw, ‘this prodigious mass of humbug’ became world famous.
The combined body of parliaments, legislation, judiciary, literature, education and journalism looks to Bernard Shaw as a prodigious mass of humbug which in layman’s terms means vanity and ostentation of authority. These great institutions of society just promote and help intellectual slavery exist and reign in its all forms. They always and everywhere in this world wish to establish and make people think that they are superior to everything and unquestionable. The foolery that is concealed in them is that everywhere in this world people hate these institutions to the depths of their soul. Only those parasites who live by these things would love them. We would be thrilled to even think about the judges, parliament members, writers, academicians and newspaper editors in England, India, America, France, South Africa, New Zealand, Switzerland, China and Russia who very much wished for the head and blood of this philosopher and playwright. But he pleased people everywhere and reflected well their inner feelings.
06-08-2011, 06:08 PM
4. Poor people have always been kind to the poor.
Pictures of Oil Paintings on wood by Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller, an Austrian Painter who lived during 1793-1865 tell us how the world happily helped the needy. A travelling family of beggars being rewarded by poor peasants, a scene of charity from our bygone era and a scene of eviction are attached here. Those who are interested can go through them. There are hundreds more of such scenes, carefully recorded in paint by talented geniuses for the posterity to remind them that their fathers, grandfathers, forefathers and great ancestors all gave alms or begged. Looking at the pictures we can see how proud the sufferers were and how magnanimous and humane the givers were. The children depicted in these pictures are world citizens who shall not be deprived of their right to live. They are not peddlers or dope addicts. The loveliness and innocence of their faces forbid us to condemn the good practice of alms-giving on all days, without limiting it to one single day of Sakkaatth or Christmas Morning according to religious traditions. Tell the World and European Laws to go to Hell! The world, especially comprising of the poor peasant families has always been kind to needy poor people because the wise of the world always knew what produces beggars: diseases, attachment of properties, eviction from land and home, etc.
Please go to the following Attached Images at the end of this page:
1. Travelling family of beggars rewarded by poor peasants.JPG - on Jun 16, 2011 7:36 AM by psremesh chandran (version 1)
2. Charity. 1863.Ferdinand Geopg Waldmuller.JPG - on Jun 16, 2011 7:36 AM by psremesh chandran (version 1)
3. The Evicted. 1859. Waldmuller.JPG - on Jun 16, 2011 7:37 AM by psremesh chandran (version 1)
06-11-2011, 01:33 AM
5. Let the picture in all countries come out as regard to begging and poverty.
N. Europe or U. K. does not constitute the world. There is a world outside with millions and millions of people. While posting opinions it is good to go to page one and see the thread start so that instead of airing individual praises one another, a very informative discussion, interesting to whoever view this forum from almost all corners of this world could be carried on. No country in this world is an axis or a pivot to carry this discussion of world interest on or revolve around. Whether one give or not alms and whether one should give or not alms and why; that is what this discussion is conceived to be about. When JAJDUDE started this thread it was not mentioned this discussion should revolve around Europe, U.S., or U.K. Let the picture in all countries come out. Serious Cat also wishes nothing else. A canoe pushed into water will not always remain in calm waters.
06-12-2011, 01:43 AM
6. One hundred thousand million million stolen and stashed abroad.
As Paulclem pointed out, poor people in India Pakistan Bangladesh Sri Lanka and many other countries in Asia and Africa do not enjoy as great a level of state-provided social security as in countries in Europe. In fact there is no mentionable social security in these countries. This is presumably because the rulers there are more eager to fill their pockets with money from the government coffers than to providing means of sustenance for the always increasing population. It may be noted that the recent greatest corruptions were reported not from Europe but from these supposedly poor countries. There is limitless wealth in these countries but due to their rotten political system this wealth is amassed by a few who go to England and elsewhere and purchase failing industries and car and steel manufacturing companies while millions beg in the streets. They can safely do this because their governments promptly help them by withdrawing petrol price control, etc, so that they may make as much more money as they wish. There is practically no opposition in these countries as to economic policies. Each day thousands and thousands are impoverished and thrown to the streets. In India great Satyagrahas are now once again going on for bringing back more than One hundred thousand million million Rupees stolen from the country and stashed away abroad by great men.
Those paintings were only meant to convey the ardence and sympathy that were shown to beggars in Europe in the past century. Please don't anyone be offended. The honourable Austrian painter Waldmuller was famous for his paintings of the poor, but he perfectly portrayed the delinquence of the world towards the poor, not the neglect shown towards them from some quarters inexperienced in financial wreckage, diseases and poverty.