Saturday, April 16, 2016
French Quarter Beggars
I was walking in the French Quarter today and I saw your typical beggar on the side of the street. I noticed that a lot of them had dogs and I got really sad, but seeing them also reminded me of the beggars in Midnight's Children. Wee Willie Winkie wanted to break Shiva's legs in order to get people to want to donate more money to them; likewise, I felt that most of the beggars in the quarter bring their animals so people will feel upset for the animal and thus give more money. If you think about it, there is definitely something very corrupt about this system - tugging at people's heart strings for more donations and using someone innocent (like a dog or your injured children) to gain something.
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6 comments:
Just another result of the lazy nature of humans. People will always try to find the easiest way to achieve something (in this case money) even if it is just enough to barely get them along. Beggars have always existed in the world and will continue to exist for the rest of time. Think in candid, when Pangloss turned to begging after he got syphillus, it is the immature and lazy solution to ones problems and humans will always be guided by their nature to follow this path.
Whenever I see an animal with someone who is homeless it really does hurt my heart because the first thought normally to cross my mind is that they have this animal in order to gain more sympathy for themselves. Normally I do disagree with having an animal like that, but you have to remember that some of these homeless could have had the pet before they fell into their situation, and not wanted to give the animal away because they love and have a connection with them. It is possible that they genuinely had no one else to give their dogs to, and pounds are not really the best option. For some the dogs may be there to provide loyalty, comfort, and friendship and their owner may value feeding them over themselves. I am obviously not saying that this is always the case, but I wanted to point out that there may be another side to the story.
It may also differ in different situations - some people aren't professional beggars and have really become homeless due to some tragedy. But there are also people you see who have been walking around town pregnant for the past few years.
It makes me think about the fact that Amina has really never seen/experienced poverty before that night she went to get the prophecy. Living in New Orleans, as abbey mentioned, we see poverty everywhere. Honestly, anywhere I go, even outside of New Orleans, I see poverty. It's very strange to think that Amina is so isolated, especially since so much of India lives in poverty. It's a widespread concept today that people live like this. Everywhere we look, we see it and there are things to raise awareness and help these people--fundraisers, tv ads, charity foundations. Maybe because of the network that exists in the world today, poverty is more recognized.
That scene between Amina and the beggars made me think of the Indian cast system. I pictured the beggars to be the untouchables, now I'm not an expert on the untouchables, but thinking about it more, I do not think those beggars were untouchables because I remember correctly they would have been in a far off district and Amina would probably no be taken to a place full of untouchables because it would be seen as a slap in the face. Anyway my main point is, say the beggars were the untouchables, unlike most of the bigger y'all are discussing, these untouchables do not have a choice. The cast system as embedded into indian law so the untouchables wouldn't have a chance to rise against their poverty.
Whenever I see beggars in New Orleans I feel very bad. I always try to keep food and water in my car to give to them. I don't trust giving out money because they could have prior addictions I did not know about. I feel as if the city of New Orleans has more homeless people than other famous cities. I just think it is very interesting how different other cultures are.
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