Beggars

When I arrived into Shanghai, it was dull, gloomy, rainy, dark and cold, as it was the winter season. It made me sad immediately. The hotel was beautiful and nice; however, they did not have any halal restaurant, leaving me with no choice but to venture outside of the hotel for food.

As I was walking I saw small children barely 3 years of age, with cheeks as red as a ripe tomato, green thick slimy mucus running down their nose, and smelling very bad. To me, they were just like the homeless and must be pretty hungry in this winter night. As I was walking, I noticed that they were trailing behind and putting out their hands, begging. Hemm……………….. where are your parents huh? However, I can keep on pondering but these kids must be so hungry, so I decided to stop at a small shop selling buns, and bought almost 30Rm worth and gave to them. They ate so fast and I just continued my journey to go to the nearest mall, but, wait a minute, they are not leaving me just yet.

My friend was angry with me by now, and she accused me of being stupid, just because I thought that the kids were hungry, so we decided to scam and run into the mall. Of course, the kids stopped dead just outside the mall as they were not allowed inside. So, they are the Shanghai beggars.

Beggars are everywhere, in Indonesia, Philippines, my own country (a syndicated of them), Singapore, London, Europe, you name it, and they are bound to be beggars. Ok, these people literally, put their hands out to you, or you will see an amputee without an arm or a leg, or a retard child begging for sympathy on their fate, with the hope that you will give them all the coins that you consider too heavy for your pocket. Some beggars come with flowers for no particular occasion, they gave you a stalk of rose, and you are happy as this is a good gesture, then they turn round and demand at least 1Euro for that. And I will be like………………. What?????

Then how do you categorize those people who dress up as Darth Vader, Snow White, Mozart, etc, who stand on a piece of bench with an open hat in front of them. They expect passersby to throw a coin or two inside the hat or better still pay them if you want to take pictures with them and in case of the Mozart guy, he will play his violin only when someone throws a coin in the hat. I would group them as beggars too, but on a professional level, don’t you think so?

I guess as long as the plague of life demands simple material like a loaf of bread on the table, beggars will keep on begging.