 |
 Poverty, Beggars, and Begging |
|
Poverty, Beggars, and Begging |
Cheap Thinking About Travel |
For many, traveling to cheap places provides their first exposure to real poverty. For many, this is a reason not to go to cheap places. Partly people are worried about safety, but mostly they are worried that seeing all those poor people will just make them feel bad. Yup, it probably will. And we think that's one of the important things about cheap travel. It's a big world out there, but it's not that big anymore - now, we all have to live together. And part of living together is understanding each other. And the most important thing for rich people to understand is that most of the world is poor. They don't have enough to eat. They live in shitty little shacks, if anywhere. They are unwashed, and their clothes are in tatters. They might have to piss and shit in the street, because there just isn't anywhere else for them to go. But in a lot of ways, they're just like you. They love their husbands and wives. They love their kids, and all they really want is for their kids to have a better chance than they did. They want to be productive, to do something useful, and they want to have fun, spending quality time with friends and family. We think it's important to experience poverty first-hand to help you realize these things. The really poor aren't any less worthy or more worthy, they just had the bad luck to be born in Bangladesh, Haiti, or Sierra Leone. And we aren't any more worthy either, we were just LUCKY AS SHIT to be born in the richest civilization in the history of mankind. On a practical level, in many cheap places you will have to deal very directly with the very poor in the form of beggars. Since we in the US decided to de-institutionalize crazy people, we've had the opportunity to experience a lot more begging here, but for most americans travelling overseas is the first time they have to face beggars approaching them and asking for money. And in Cheap Places, the beggars are often more pathetic, more ragged, more hungry, more destitute, than the worst beggars in our inner cities.
Here are some thoughts: 1. You are a lot, lot richer than these people. 2. There are zillions more where these came from. 3. You're not going to solve their problems. 4. But, the money you give a beggar could feed a hungry child. Money that might be one-fifth of a beer. 5. You might take that money and blow it on some sweet food you don't need, or so it's easy to say "oh, it won't help them in the long run", but it's hard to honestly say "i don't want to help them in the short run. I'd rather have a half a beer than feed those two little street urchins." But on the other hand, you can't give money out to everyone - there may be tens of millions of people begging in India, and your little savings isn't going to go far. So what do you do? Do what your heart and your head tell you. Just, please, don't entirely let your head dominate the discussion. We think you're a better person if you at least make some effort in the direction of charity. Remember, they are poor, poor, poor, and you are in comparison rich, rich rich.
|