Begging offers better way of earning a living

By Myra Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): An American friend once remarked on a visit to Indonesia: "You Indonesians must be good people. That's why there are so many beggars around. And not only that, they look well-fed and some are not even handicapped."

I liked this remark very much, because it is true that we are a friendly people. Everywhere you look you see smiles and people are ready to help you.

We are generous to the poor and even to the beggars who flock to big cities to earn some money, especially now, during the fasting month of Ramadhan, when the spirit of philanthropy is at its height.

But then he added: "Maybe it would be better for them if people were not so generous. It would teach them to work for their food and that they should not be parasites on the rich ..."

Well, who are we to feel we can teach other people? Do we have the right to teach a beggar, just because he may be poor and we are richer? Let us first discuss why people give, other giving alms in the fasting month.

The answer is we often do it for reward. "More give, plenty come," is my friend Bob's favorite adage. He always gives generously and he is a successful businessman.

Another motivation for giving is for penitence. It feels good to help people after you have done something wrong.

But why do people become beggars? Not only because they are poor, but also because that is the way of life they have adopted. To work means you have to go to a certain place every day and have to dress appropriately. For that, you have to spend money. Another thing is the discipline. Why do you have to obey other people's wishes? It is worse when you get a job as a domestic servant.

In the first place, you work under somebody who pays you for your services. But the housewife may feel she has the right to scold, or even hit you or throw a pail of hot water over you. Or even worse, the man in the house may want to rape you.

From that point of view, a beggars life offers a lot of freedom. They don't have to wear uniforms, they have no strict working hours, they do not have to follow orders, but do they have rules and ethics.

One rule is that they have their own territory and should not enter other people's. Another is that they should not threaten people into giving alms.

There are no restrictions about who can beg. And there are even agencies that rent out children so all the women who rent them have to do is carry the child and sometimes "breast feed" it.

That begging is a lucrative business is demonstrated by "the one-armed bandit". Well, he is not a bandit, but one of his arms has been amputated giving him a reason to join the beggars, although he looks robust. One day, I snapped at him: "You don't have to beg, you should be working."

From that day on, he has avoided me but is still begging. And one day I discovered why.

I was sitting at one of the many branches of McDonald's when I saw him enter. He was smartly dressed and looked clean. I wondered whether he had "reformed" and got a job and was now buying food for his boss, when I saw him sit down and eat a cheeseburger with the same gusto as a laborer after a hard day's work.

The next day, he was at his "job" again. This time I decided to give him money because I could now appreciate him more as a human being who wanted to keep up with the progress in his country.