Around two weeks ago, I came back from the UK It was
my third trip since I went to my sister’s wedding this time last year. I’ve
actually started to like London in a way that I never did when I lived there. I
enjoy visiting old haunts like Dean Street, where I used to live and I’ve been
really impressed by the way Canary Wharf has turned out.
There is, however, a part of the UK or London
specifically, that I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. That is the issue of the
homeless. Go into any given tube station, and you are bound to meet someone
begging for change. Sit in any given pub or caffe outdoors and you’re
inevitably going to meet someone asking you for change.
Like in Singapore, one is inevitably going to ask – “How
does a city which has so much wealth have so many homeless people. However, unlike
Singapore, the homeless in London are inevitably young people. Just as I often
wonder how our “Asian Society” that claims to have “Respect for the elderly” manages
to produce so many frail people selling tissue paper and crushing cans to eek
out a living, I wonder how a city like London, which is supposed to be one of
those cities where fortunes are built, manages to have so many young and fit people
begging for a living.
One of the key things that you notice is that the
tramps are inevitably local, white English people. Sure, much is made of gangs
of Romanians and Poles but the ones I’ve encountered are inevitably local and
white.
The homeless are generally speaking “harmless.” The
usual process looks like something like this – they’ll ask if you have change
to spare and you usually say “Sorry mate,” and walk off. Sometimes tramps can
be useful. I had a tramp outside my house called “Zoe” who was an Irish girl.
She did admit to having a house somewhere and as far as she was concerned, sitting
by my door step and asking people for change was “work” (rather like how the girls
in Geylang will tell you that standing on the street side is “work”). Zoe was
sweet – she doubled up as a messenger. In the pre-mobile phone days, if Toni
dropped by and I wasn’t in, he’d leave a message with Zoe. Or I was stepping
out for a while but expecting Toni, I’d leave a message with Zoe.
Zoe wasn’t the only one. Tara and I had a favourite
called Dave. He was our favourite because he was inevitably polite and never whined
about needing your spare change. He’d sleep in his little corner and volunteered
to help the local patisserie. However, as Tara once said, “As nice as he is, it’s
like he’s become so content with his life on the streets, that he no longer
feels the need to move out of them.”
Zoe and Dave were mild mannered and it was easy to accept
them as the characters in your life. They were however, a little exceptional. One
of the memories I have was hearing the ding-ding sound of a penny I had left
one of the tramps on the street.
There were a few persistent ones. I think of a time I
was sitting out at Café Nero with two Finnish ladies. One of came up to us and
asked if we had spare change. When he went into a tirade about how we were
lying about not having money because he could see that we had our mobile phones
on the table. He actually told us, “I know you’re going to say you worked for
your money…..I’m just asking ….. you don’t have to lie about it…….I can see you’ve
got your mobile phones out.” I remember digging into my pockets to give him the
change.
My most recent encounter was in King’s Cross, waiting
for our train to St Andrews. Gave a young man a pound and if I was expecting
gratitude for having a pound extra, I was dead wrong. He told me, “Come on
mate, I can see you’ve got a tenner there. Why don’t you give me your ten and I’ll
give you back seven quid change. I need the money.” I ended up giving him five
extra.
In a way, it’s annoying when someone begging ask and
demands a certain sum. After all, our money is hard earned and when you see
someone who is young and fit, there’s actually no reason to give someone who should
be working.
However, if you take a step back, you actually have to
admire the persistence that some of them show in chasing you for money. It
takes a certain amount of gumption to beg a stranger for the sum that you want.
You could say that it takes a level of professional pride to ask for more when
you’re doing utterly nothing in return.
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