The Ugly Face Of Begging

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I have completely given up on giving money to beggars, whether on the street, in traffic or even on the church premises where begging is now becoming a fashion.

Beggars have now assumed all forms of pretences as their new strategy to squeeze money out of people. Many of those begging today have become professionals of sorts in the act using tale telling and feigned sickness, which have become their stock in trade.

Not too long ago, tricksters would wait near schools either at drop-off or pick-up times.

They approach unsuspecting parents or drivers with stories, depending on which brand of vehicle they see you driving. Most of the time their story is that they are working for a particular motor firm where you service your car, so they know you.

They go on to say that they have been sent by their managing director or sometimes they say they are dropping off his children but the vehicle they are using has broken down not too far off, so they need assistance in the form of taxi fare to get back to the office.

Many people did fall victim to those acts of 'extortion' until the media made noise about it and people became wiser. Many more tactics have since been invented by a new generation of beggars.

Just around my corner the other Saturday, I came face to face with a young lady with a baby on her back and a toddler holding her hand.

She signalled me to stop and so I did, thinking she was looking for someone in the neighbourhood.

Her story was that she often went to people's homes on Saturdays to help with their laundry and other house-keeping chores.

That Saturday morning, her clients said they did not have any chores for her, so she was begging me to give her something with which to feed her children.

Not long after this incident, I had gone one Sunday afternoon to visit a sick aunt. Sitting out on her patio, we heard someone knocking vigorously at the gate.

 When it was opened, in walked a lady with a morose demeanour and a story to offload even before she was offered a seat.

Her mission was that she made Ga kenkey for sale but for over two weeks, she had developed whitlow and therefore earned no income to feed her family.

She showed us, a bandaged finger. She then added that for nearly a week her children had not eaten and was therefore forced to come out to beg for any leftover food or money 'in the name of God', just so that her three children could have something eat.

The lady immediately went down on her knees and started crying. Whether lying or not, that woman had played on our emotions and thrown guilt at us making it difficult for us to drive her out. But was her story genuine? Obviously not.

Examples of different styles of begging abound. There is a man who used to go from house to house with an elderly woman he claimed was his mother.

At least, in my neighbourhood, he had knocked on almost every gate. His version was that he was unemployed.

His mother came to visit from the village and was taken ill. She had to go in for a surgery and so he needed financial assistance, otherwise doctors had given her only a few more months to live.

 

Much as people would want to genuinely help the needy, the dimensions begging has assumed of late put many of us off.

Why should a man who is strong and sound enough to go in search of a job to look after his sick mother bring his problems to someone else's doorstep, thinking all is forever rosy for others?

Why should people begin to assume that begging is the easy way out once you show a face of distress?

Many will gradually switch off from kind-heartedness to apathy for beggars because it is becoming too difficult to determine who is in genuine difficulty and who is not.

Unfortunately, the genuine ones who need that help most turn out to be the losers.

The ugly habit of begging being paraded by some tricksters should not be encouraged in our society so we do not go the way of a generation of beggars.

There is a man, who, for some three years now, has made certain spots like the Kotoka International Airport and Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital his destinations for begging.

 This man perpetually holds a hospital folder and approaches people for money to pay for his prescription.

Sometimes he is very aggressive with his begging as if people owe him a living. But this particular man has continued to make begging his 'career' for as long as I have come across him because he gets the sympathy of people.

For those of us who have known him for what he does, he shouts insults when we confront him.

Begging, no doubt, has become lucrative for those involved in it, otherwise all the newest tricks to get people part with money would not be making the rounds.

Even for the 'traditional' beggars that we know and who stand or sit by the roadside begging, they apparently are making so much money in a day that they can afford to hire those young ones who walk them to the streets on 'by day' basis.

Do children's rights advocates see what some of us see? Would such a child not grow up also wanting to make money the same way?

We may be the 'proverbial' hospitable people on earth, but it looks like we are endorsing begging and encouraging people to stay in that 'trade' for life.

The only way we can wean people off begging is to refuse to give. May God forgive us for going that way, if and when we do so.

Yes, there may be people who are simply not interested in going in search of jobs to earn decent living. They would rather idle about and blame everything befalling them on the system.

Many people look up to the formal sector as the sole provider of employment and if that does not happen, nothing else will move them. But can we blame them?

We have not done much to show our youth the way to self-employment, no matter the scale. Our politicians should begin to open pages in their development agenda and make way for serious commitment, not lip-service, to youth entrepreneurship.

The way to go is to give practical meaning to political rhetoric and encourage self-employment. Zoomlion will always be my hero for the simple reason that somebody found the answer to some of the filth and disorder that had engulfed our cities.

They have succeeded in creating employment for hundreds of people, contributing their quota to the growth of our economy. I do genuinely admire them from afar.

We are told that in Europe their economies, for example, are doing well because about 75 per cent of employment generation is from the small- and medium-scale sector compared to Africa where only 17 per cent of employment is generated by small-to medium-size enterprises, hence the shape of African economies.

However, this is so because we have never had the political will and the self-motivation to go it alone. Unfortunately, our youth will willingly go through perils, sometimes at the expense of their lives, to cross difficult borders just to go to these European countries to do menial jobs to keep their environment clean 24 hours each day, while supporting their economies to grow.

These same young men and women will frown on the same menial jobs in their own environment back home.

If a ship were to arrive today at Tema Harbour to take all the 'beggars' to Europe in the thick of winter to go and wash dead bodies and clean mortuaries, for example, I bet there would be shiploads of volunteers.

Let the same ship arrive at Takoradi Harbour to bring 'beggars' to Accra to do the same jobs and see who will join.

The ugly face of begging seems to be finding its way into our lives and the sooner we get rid of it the better for our society.

The lazy ones in our communities should be encouraged to find something to do, no matter how small, and live responsible lives rather than otherwise because they will succeed in playing on other people's emotions just to get them to give.

Begging can be a doom and no longer a blessing for the individual givers, judging by its new dimensions.

With Vicky Wireko