Thought I would make a thread about these considering we all encounter them in the Philippines.. Today, I encountered perhaps the rudest beggar yet! "Give me your money" was his request. My reply was a swift "NO", though this did not deter him. "Eh, Give me my money" was a mantra he then repeated numerous times until I told him to "f**k off"! As someone who enjoys people watching I have been watching some of the beggars here in Valencia, they are Children who are not hungry and get dropped off in a pick up truck at Jollibee in the morning to earn their money for the day. Modern day Oliver Twists perhaps, sent out by a Fagin type person to earn their keep? All except for perhaps one kid I noticed who I actually think begs for food - so I will happily buy him a Jollibee meal if I am there. There is also a blind man here who has a young boy lead him round the town begging from passers by. This man lives in a shanty town near my apartment and I think is part of a large family but begs to earn his keep. In the bigger cities, beggars line the highways. Tapping on car windows.. Here in Valencia, they congregate around the fast food outlets outside the mall to catch passing shoppers. The blind man even goes into shops. There was one child who tapped me on the leg whilst I was standing inside the mall, this child was with an adult who had told them to go and beg (I did not give). I have taken the position not to give money to beggars. I will give food, even go out of my way to buy that food. But it is difficult to know who is simply begging to buy their parents some beer money and those that are on the edge of starving So what are your experiences?
In Malate there are often women carrying clearly malnourished children begging around the entertainment district, I will help them and as quite often the meals served in restaurants are too large to eat we will often distribute the left overs, not exactly charitable but better than wasting it. The worst aggressive begging we ever experienced was when we visited Magellan's cross in Cebu, we had 15 or more kids clamouring around us, quite frightening, it was my fault for offering one lad a few peso, next thing they all appeared out of thin air. Ana is soft hearted and always gives in to try to help the street kids that beg around cars in Manila but you are right you never really know if they are seriously street kids or not, simple truth is that 1.5 million or more people are living in squats or on the street in Manila so a lot of them will be really quite desperate. It's hard, in the Philippines it really is "there but for the grace of god go I" it breaks my heart to see it but I don't have pockets deep enough to do anything about it. Of the two foreign guys that worked on the project that introduced me to the Philippines in 1997 both now live there full time, one lad is French and runs his own, now large, IT company over there, he's not that charitable as far as I know, the other is a German lad who got involved in projects to help the Aeta and who also started a successful business over there that allowed him to continue his efforts. I also have a Filipino friend who does a lot of charitable work with the street kids, he is a university lecturer and now newly qualified lawyer if things went well with his exam results regards the news I got the other week. So there are people who are aware and who do care about change but the real problem is to change the inertia of the ruling classes over there and that is a hard thing to do in that country.
I never give to beggars - it is a no-win situation. If there is a kid trying to sell candy or cigs at traffic lights I will often buy - at least they are trying to do a 'job' rather than just begging. Al.:england: BTW - Has anyone got any money to give me??
I have seen a lot of beggars in Makati Avenue who approach foreigners for some money but I never saw anyone got pissed off with them till yesterday. A tall, medium built, white man was shouting at a beggar who gave him small envelopes to put the money in and his filipina started to stop him by pulling him away from beggar but still the man wont budge, he went back to the man and yelled to the man some more. I am not sure if the beggar understood anything the foreigner said. I dont even know how it started. I just saw the foreigner yelling at the beggar. Maybe the foreigner got irritated with the man's persistence of obtaining money from him... maybe. I don't agree on him yelling at the beggar, he should've just ignored the man and his filipina should do the talking to her kababayan beggar as well. She should've oriented her foreigner bf about how persistent the beggars are here in PI and how to avoid them... oh well, welcome to the third world country...
I lost my keys earlier and was quite swift with a beggar, telling them "No" and running off in search of my keys. Felt bad about that and went looking for the beggar to give them some change but couldn't find them... No need to yell at them though, that is uncalled for..
In Cebu you can be frined for giving to beggars personaly I found a smile and a swift "way sappy" worked fine
here some tips to "turn them off" 1.) If in a vehicle, taxi or own, knock twice or three times on your doorframe, for some reason they walk away then. 2.) Do not look into their eyes. 3.) Do not talk to them either 4.) Just pretend they aren't there at all. Btw- Begging is illegal in Manila and Cebu ( and i guess in other cities as well ), so the beggar can be incarcerated and the "giver" can be fined 1000 PhP ( Cebu City ). Now you have a valid reason not to "give" - Its illegal ! Of course the beggar doesn't give a fart about the law, so rule 3 applies, don't bother trying to explain to them. Oh, if you are a longer Resident, above rules are absolutely crucial, because if you give once, you are doomed until eternity. Even if you do not recognize them, but the beggars do forever. So stay hard. Other Problematic, beggars are not "working" for their own account, many (specially kids) are organized by some nasty Syndicates and all they get by the end of their "workday", is a bowl of rice and maybe some scraps and a place to crash in Carton Village. If older, they will be forced into prostitution, pocket picking and drug peddling by the same Syndicates. Some things never change (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens) So you are not doing them any favor by giving them some spare change.
Well done Guenther, this post is spot-on. Begging is commonplace in many countries and is always the same. Just follow the advice above from Guenther. Please try to avoid getting angry and shouting, that is just bad behaviour demeaning to your own self. Nothing more to say.
I have generally employed these tactics any time I have been in the Phils (that's over 20 visits). It breaks my heart though. Guenther, the illegality is interesting and a damn good argument I was not aware of this at all! The syndicate thing really upsets me though, modern day Dickensian Fagin characters in the Phils, yeah I can believe it, really upsets me. The problem for the western visitor is that he or she see's the misery but has to harden their heart on the assumption that every case they see is Dickensian in nature, Kuya had a good approach which was to not give cash but to give food directly, still not perfect as the kids will probably get hell for not meeting quota but at least they got a decent meal in calorie terms! Whole thing is really upsetting
It really is a big problem over there, as it is in a lot of poor countries. I used to, and still do to some extent find it quite upsetting. Obviously there are going to kids that are part of a gang that get dropped off to earn a wage for their gaffers and then there are the real unfortunates that beg from neccesity. My wife is a bit of a soft touch, especailly for kids but we rarely give money because as mentioned give a coule of peso's and all of a sudden your surrounded. We used to give bagged food from any meal we'd just had (not the best but avoids wasting it I suppose) and we've gone and brought food as well, jolibee, corn etc. You try to do your bit but as i've said to the wife you can't help everyone, its impossible. And there is no reason to stand in the middle of the street shouting madly at these people as Yuna saw one bloke do. No need.
Ana's a soft touch too and we sometimes donate the take out food, the Chinese restaurants over there are particularly bad for providing very large portions so there are always left overs and you feel stupid carrying it around all night but whereas I almost never asked a UK restaurant to bag the left overs in the Phils I would always ask as nothing should go to waste in that country. The shout'y guy was clearly scum, that is out of order anywhere!
I did break my no money rule on one occasion, it was on my last day in Cebu and a young girl was begging outside a KFC restaurant when I gave her about 30 pesos.. Afterwards I thought about it and wished I had given her some food instead, but I was in a bit of a hurry at the time.
Atleast with food there is more chance they wil eat it, if money is given then the is a greater chance it goes to those who make thwem work the street. But as you say sometimes time is against you so you just do what you can at the time. Must admit I tend to do it for my interest in karma. What goes around comes around. I'm building towards a lotto win!!
Thanks for the positive reactions on my post ( i was a bit afraid that i may get scolded as a cold hearted Person) Yes, it is hard to explain this to the Partners, but i had this detailed info from the Dept. of Social Welfare, which reglary tries (Thats all they can do) to take those begging kids under care and custody, but its a kind of "Sysiphus Endevaour". However, by giving one just supports the syndicates. And its is logical, that they also will not allow, "real" beggars to 'operate" within their "working area". Even worse, they may force them to "join" their operations or make sure, that they will go somewhere else. Try carefully to explain it, asa matter of fact, i was told this once by Margot Osmena as a Guest Speaker on one of my Civic Clubs. DO NOT GIVE - PLEASE, was the pray of her. or if, give them bread or something they can eat immediately. Margot is very engaged in helping Street Children in Cebu City, and certainly knows what she is talking about. Eventually and if the majority "obey" at least the syndicates will disappear ( or unfortunately start other illegal activities, but one can tackle only one problem at one time)
well i cant help to feel sorry for the old one some have legs , arms missing its sad to seeand old people remind me of my grand parents just coz they are old and if i give a few peso it make me feel a bit better
I feel the same as well, and some elderly got a spare change as well from me, mainly those near my Apartments in Manila before, they are always at the same spots and known. However, also consider that there may be pickpockets in the vincinity and they then know where your cash is located. So one should not get the coins out of his wallet. But usually one always carries some spare coins for jeep and candy in his pcket (right?) Those with missing hands/limbs are not getting any Mercy from me, as 90 % are fomer 'Dynamite Fishers" and i am a Coastguard Volunteer, so i saw what they did before. (Contributing to the destruction of the lifelihood of millions of honest pinoy fishers)
Yep always try to carry enough small change for the Jeepney Your point about the fishing is interesting, in the Phils they have apparently been engaging in blast fishing for over a century with horrendous costs to the coral reefs, also the vast proportion of damaged fish that die and never float to the surface and to the people who often stupidly blow themselves up with improvised explosives. I was not really aware of all this but I met a fisherman in 2007 who was missing several fingers, nice lad but with hindsight I can see that it may have been the result of this kind of practice. In a horrible sense the casual destruction of reefs and colossal destruction of shoals of fish, simply out of laziness, is so typical of the short sighted view of too many Filipinos, to spoil a shoal of fish and maybe recover maybe only 20% when 80% have damaged swim bladders and sink to the bottom is just typical short termism and is so tragic. I don't know the actual proportions only that most fish sink to the bottom so please take my numbers under this proviso.
