BY FREDDY MACHA
To finalise this very universal subject.
There is no data of beggars, globally. However, some countries are alleged to ‘enjoy’ highest numbers due to say, economics, large populations (India, Nigeria and Pakistan; mentioned in Google) and war issues (Syria, Sudan, Congo DRC, etc).
But how about London?
When you tell someone in Nakuru or Monduli, that London has beggars, you hear: REALLY?
Here are various types, from all races. Some are strategists – stationing themselves near cash machines, restaurants, travel and petrol stations.
I have seen a lady at the same spot for three years. As you pass she mutters something like: “Have a nice day!”
Or a chap camping outside one of the largest national supermarket chains called Sainsburys- greets you, respectively, first thing; especially, if you eye him.
Other “specialists” have a procedure a phrase- which you hear all over the world -“spare some change please!”
Australian travel writer, Peter Moore, wrote in his 2002 book “Swahili for The Broken Hearted” that he would ignore tourist touts roaming Arusha streets by pretending he did not speak English. “Frankly they were the most ferocious and persistent touts I have ever dealt with.”
Well, touts are not exactly beggars.
But some beggars are “ferocious and persistent”- especially the second type. Substance users. Stoned or drunk-massaging beer cans in crowded areas- some possessing pets (dogs); and can be aggressive with each other, fighting and claiming spaces to beg.
After a few years you notice them withering away; skin colour changing, hair falling, clothes getting dirtier. Usually they walk in short fast steps; as they need a fix. Permanently stressed.
The third type, we saw last week. Solitary, walking around, flattering, pleading. Some have serious mental issues and fit the English expression of” being at the tail’s end…” Or as the Wabondei (of East Tanzania) say: “The dog’s God is the bit of food that falls to the ground.”
Oh yeah.
Every beggar has a story.
It did not happen overnight.
Beggars are a consequence of economic differences, classes and the inhumanity needing redemption like Bob Marley, the Jamaican musician, sang. As long as we have political lies with its endless, evil circus of those in power, we shall see humans who cannot cope and beggars are a direct measurement of who we have become.
Shame.
