Tags
beggar, begging, big issue, big issue london bridge, charity, homeless, homelessness, lack of compassion, ThamesReach
I would like to think that I give a slightly above average amount of money, time and effort when it comes to supporting others, but I’ve recently come to realise that I have become a little smug about it.
Indeed, I originally set out here to create a not-so-gentle and possibly slightly humorous brow-beating of a very good friend of mine who I see as the flip-side of a metaphorical coin bearing my somewhat self-righteous face of benevolence on one side and his Scrooge-like demeanor on the other, the idea being to draw attention to different attitudes to charitable giving. I even headed the post with a detailed list of my regular acts of charity and in an act of blatant self-denial was about to claim that it was required to help make my point, but then realised I was definitely being far too self-satisfied and humility thankfully prevailed.
However, I have genuinely, albeit slowly, grown to understand that to help others is a basic human obligation. Yes, I enjoy the feeling of helping others through charity, but as of today (and as a direct result of writing this post) I promise to be less self-satisfied about it.
Over the past year or so my friend and I have had several heated debates regarding charitable giving and I still can’t quite ascertain whether his baffling and infuriating point of view is born of a lack of compassion, a desire to keep every penny in his bank account so that he can spend it on himself, pleasure in annoying me, or the cantankerous side of his nature coming to the fore. He obviously sees things differently to me and defends the basis of his position as being none of those character flaws of which I accuse him.
Our earnest discussion began last year after we passed a street beggar to whom I gave a couple of quid and it was recently reignited a few months ago after I’d moved house and begun a new commute which requires me to use the overground train service into a main city station where two Big Issue sellers camp out.
Simply put, his seemingly sincere primary belief is that people in such circumstances remain where they are as a matter of choice. He asserts that they have every opportunity to change their lot, but choose not to because they prefer not to.
Whilst I can accept that statistically there might be some individuals who do indeed choose to be, as an American Citizen would say. a hobo, studies show them to be a small minority of all homeless people and in any case, does that small group really willingly choose all of the consequences of being homeless ?
My first counter-point to my friend’s argument was that it’s surely a complex issue and not as black-and-white as he sees it. I pointed out that his assertion that a person can simply engage with the appropriate organisation or authority in order to address their issues is too simplistic. It seems obvious to me that people will have many reasons for not being able to do so. Mental health issues, for example, could prevent them from seeking or understanding how to seek assistance. Shelter http://england.shelter.org.uk reinforce my point and say that homelessness is caused by a complex interplay between a person’s individual circumstances and adverse ‘structural’ factors outside their direct control.
My friend derides me for being a soft touch. I accept that at some point I will have been conned by someone the street. I know now what I suspected at the time, that the guy who approached my wife and I when we were wandering around the South Bank and asked us for a small contribution towards a place in a shelter of some sort was pulling a stroke (see the link below to the ThamesReach article). My friend would consider this as damning evidence that I am an easy touch. Yes, I got stung there and it was partly down to my ego – I gave the guy some cash in spite of a nagging voice at the back of my head because it made me feel good and look generous in front of my wife, but to me my friend is saying that people who help others in a broader way (donations to charities, supporting friend’s charity events, and so on) are entirely stupid to do so and are always being taken for a ride.
Now, before writing this post I would have said that if you do give cash to someone on the street then what they do with it is their choice and that we shouldn’t be so arrogant in your assumption that you know better than the recipient. I saw my friend’s blanket suspicion of being hoaxed out of a little cash as a transparently convenient objection alongside others such as his adoption of the myth (as I saw it) that most beggars are addicts and his refusal to give them cash is preventing them from feeding their addiction. I figured that a person may well be begging for money to buy drugs, but that they may still use some of it to eat.
However, this is one area in which I must say that I have modified my position because having discussed it frankly and subsequently undertaken some research, my belief that I’d successfully and completely occupied the moral high ground was dealt a blow when I found resources such as this item http://www.thamesreach.org.uk/news-and-views/campaigns/giving-to-beggars/faq/ which states that “the evidence that the overwhelming majority of people begging on the streets of England spend their begging money on crack cocaine and heroin is indisputable“. Interestingly, they also add that “the link is between begging and drug and alcohol misuse, not homelessness and begging, nor even homelessness and drugs“.
So, I’ve learned something and I’ve modified my behaviour a little as a consequence : I’ve stopped giving cash to beggars and instead will give to the organisations that are appropriately equipped to help. And no, I don’t feel that in doing so I’ve entirely recaptured the moral high ground, but I’m still disappointed about my friend’s general outlook and here’s why : whilst it transpires that he was correct about giving money to beggars, he gives to no charity whatsoever. He makes no regular or ad hoc charity donations. He does not participate in organised charitable events despite having plenty of opportunity to do so for a wide variety of good causes and in a way which would cost him nothing and take minimal effort. He certainly would not consider organising a charitable event.
I think he’s avoiding a major responsibility.
Myraeth.