Grinding poverty or pleasure to beg [Archives:2002/34/Culture]

BY MAHYOOB AL-KAMALI
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
Just look at street pavements and corners of any Yemeni city! What you would see is a frightening number of beggars in Sanaa as well as many other cities. And their number is continuously increasing.
It is so unfortunate to see an increasing number of beggars looking so down-at-heel and helpless. This has created a sense of worry and despair among Yemenis and foreigners staying in Yemen. Instead of enjoying Yemens beauty and attractive scenes, any person sightseeing Yemeni cities will suddenly be taken aback by those beggars who in turn have negatively distorted Yemens image in front of tourists and foreigners.
In this regard, a fieldwork has been conducted to know everything about begging in Yemen. The survey revealed that beggars in our country have fallen into three different categories. The first category refers to a group of people who live below the poverty line and therefore are in very wretched living conditions and have to beg for survival. The second category uses begging as a business and pretends to poorer than they actually are and therefore get engaged in begging to gain more money. The third category includes those in our society who may suffer from a handicap or physical disability and hence beg the peoples mercy.
Mariam Ahmed is a widow with three children. She was unable to secure the essentials for her children and had to start begging as a means of earning money for her childrens survival. She was lately advised to have her children taken to an orphanage. I couldnt bear being apart from my children, she suddenly burst into tears. I prefer to beg. It is the only way to survive, provide the basics and pay the rent. She pointing at her three children and claimed that the orphanage cannot afford receiving more orphans. Besides, there are no health care standards given to the poor orphans in the orphanage.
While investigating the conditions of beggars, we came across a 40-year-old man on the street pavement. He was crawling as his right leg was physically handicapped as a result of a bomb explosion during the 1994 civil war of Yemen.
I am no longer able to work or even walk. Who is going to care for my five children and my spouse? he despairingly asked. Just like Merriam he is advised to go to the elderly care house. My children are going to die if I leave them. I know that no one will take care of my children, he said. The elderly care house is used only for cases of singles and nothing has been done for families with children. Such a house cannot meet the needs of a whole family, he added.
It was a non-stop journey of suffering and despair. Men, women and children are asking for alms. A 10-year-old boy said, I became homeless when my loving mother passed away and my father married another woman. Due to my stepmothers cruel treatment, I decided to leave the house and run away.
Children in such difficult situations turn to begging as an alternative regardless of their level of education.
The eye-catching fact is that you see beggars in very health conditions and therefore practice begging using unusual ways. You may find a beggar claiming to be hungry and asking you to give him money in order to have lunch, and once you give him an amount enough for him to have a reasonably nutritious meal, he takes the money and jumps to another car begging in the same way. Another pretends to be completely broke and therefore asks you to give him the minibus fare, but once he gets it instead of taking the bus, he moves on to the car behind you and starts begging again. A third pretends that her father is in prison and the police authorities would not release him until he pays a fine that they are collecting. A fourth would ask for money to buy medicine for his sick mother, but if you offer to buy him medicine he looks not enthusiastic to your offer, plus many other similar stories.
Even though it has become difficult to know whom to believe, while analyzing some cases, we found that many beggars beg from locals and tourists because it is their only means to make ends meet.
However, some beggars with reasonably good financial conditions have actually distorted Yemens image in front of foreigners and citizens alike. We have found confirmed cases of beggars who own buildings and shops rented to others and run by their relatives. Yet still, they find pleasure in begging to inflate their assets further.
Despite efforts being exerted by the Social Affairs Ministry, the begging phenomenon continues to represent an alarmingly serious problem due to the unavailability of job opportunities especially among the vulnerable and disabled of the society.
It has been concluded that a significant portion of beggars, especially the ones in prominent locations in major cities have adopted begging as a daily routine. They come in the morning, beg until night and go back with unimaginable amounts of money, sometimes reaching tens of thousand of Yemeni rials daily.
It is crystal clear that this phenomenon is turning from a source of living and survival to a business enterprise, which in turn entails mapping out strategies for alleviating poverty but at the same time preserving the moral values of the Yemeni community.


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