I've been meaning to write a post about this for a while. It's an issue that's been at the back-and often the forefront- of my mind for a few months, because there are people begging and sleeping rough wherever I go in Paris.
There's an old man who limps in and out of the traffic when it stops at the lights at the Vavin intersection, shaking an old coffee cup at the drivers. There's a very disturbed guy who sits outside one of the cinemas on the Place du 18 juin 1940, shouting incomprehensibly at nothing. On the same Place, a family of three sleeps on a mattress outside one of the little newspaper kiosks. I walk past them every time I go to the swimming pool
Often somebody will get on the métro and resignedly recite a speech to the carriage, explaining they have no food and begging for money or a 'ticket restaurant', a food voucher.
It always amazes and repulses me in equal measure that in a first world, economically prosperous country, people are left to live in such awful conditions. They're begging metres from expensive restaurants and expensive apartments. I have the means to rent a room and buy food, which is more than some of these people will ever have. This actually makes me feel a bit sick, because some people beg all day for the bare minimum to stay alive, whereas I have everything I need and more and only do a couple of hours work a week.
Yesterday, my flatmates and I took the metro to a club. During the journey, one homeless guy sitting near us attacked another homeless guy who he seemed to be travelling with. At one point, he threatened him with a metal padlock on the end of a strap. He was swinging it, meaning serious damage. I'm pretty sure that nobody in the train breathed for a moment. Luckily, the other guy managed to calm his attacker down before anything really serious happened.
It really made me think. The violent one was definitely not right mentally and I wondered what sort of life he had led, and what sort of prospects he had in the future, i.e. none. Although these men were human beings just like me and my friends, and we were sharing a train, they almost came from another world, having been outlawed from society. I can't imagine what it must be like, being on the outside and looking in. Sharing city streets with students and businessmen and women, but never being entitled to anything. No wonder the guy had mental health problems.
I don't really know what to do about all this- I do sometimes give to people on the street, especially if its a girl my age or a family, but I've had a lot of people tell me I shouldn't because there's no way of knowing where the money is going. One of my ideas is to somehow get my hands on some 'tickets restaurant'- I don't know if I can buy them to give to people from some sort of organisation, but at least it would ensure that what I give is going towards food. If anyone knows any charities that help the homeless specifically in the Ile-de-France area, please let me know. Once again, that way I'd know that anything that I would give would go to the right place.
Just a few thoughts on a Friday!
K x
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