beggars? i do my part.

At least somebody is entertaining then.........

So the point of the story? :tired: :bored:

Let them earn it...

...if they can.

I think JRZyguy's is the best way. He once said he went to DR and had a child ask for money, so he told the child to shine the security guard's shoes (pls. correct me if I'm wrong Jrzyguy- if it was you) and he paid him for it.

This lets them work for it. I'm not saying make them into your slave, but let them earn it. They will learn that things are'nt always handed out.

If the guy is handicapped let him do something unusual or funny but not anything that is demeaning/degrading to himself.

WOW, you drive a jag?

bochinche said:

this year though, we decided that if they want our one or two pesos, we should make these people do a little dance for us first .....by doing that they have provided a service and have earned the money, as a result they have also gained some self respect.

we particularly enjoy going to the corner of ave. sarasota with abraham lincoln........why? because the beggar there is very entertaining. the poor blighter has only got one leg.

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Is this some sort of pathetic deviant attempt at humor?

I would hope so because it is hard to imagine anyone being so incredibly insensitive and immoral.
How could anyone possibly derive pleasure from such entertainment?

I would hope that you are just a terrible pathetic comedian.

Malibook said:

Is this some sort of pathetic deviant attempt at humor?

I would hope so because it is hard to imagine anyone being so incredibly insensitive and immoral.
How could anyone possibly derive pleasure from such entertainment?

I would hope that you are just a terrible pathetic comedian.

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and thereeeeeeeeee was a sensitive woman....... He drives a Jag i Drive a grand Vitara and i feel the same way.

Same problems surround me in my Mercedes. I wonder why it didn't happen when I was driving a Rolls?

Damn, same happened to me in my pasola.

"There But For The Grace Of God,Go I!"

Dear "BoSTINGY",
Maybe you are so unduly upset because you subconciously realize that you too could be a "Beggar" were the circumstances of your birth reversed.But I doubt that! More likely you are just an insensitive "Jerk"!

Here is MY solution to the "Beggar"phenomina.If they look "able-bodied",I just give them the "No!" finger wave.If they are missing limbs,I sometimes give them a peso or two.
For me,life is too short to get all bent out of shape over people "pan-handling" on a street corner.And that line about asking them to humiliate themselves by "dancing", speakes VOLUMES about you!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been asked to "Delete" this thread,but I prefer to let it stay for all to see,as a Monument to your Poor Taste and Insensitivity!!

This kind of reminds me of a case that was in the news here in Detroit not long ago, about a couple of guys that would go up to beggars and offer them money, but for them to get the money they would have to fight another beggar.

If you drive a Jaguar in The DR then a couple of pesos should be nothing to you.
Why you have to have people humiliate themselves for you to give them something is beyond me and I'm with Crisco in this one.

Every time I go to The DR, I always give something to almos everyone that ask me for money. In particular the little kids. Some people tell me not to give these people anything, because they will just use it to buy alcohol or in the case of the kids to buy candy or whatever...But my feeling is that in the grand scheme of things if I give a kid 10 or 20 pesos, that's nothing to me. I probably lose a lot more than that in change just sitting on my couch. Maybe the guy will use it to buy alcohol, but maybe...just maybe, that's the day he's got no money to buy any food and my 20 pesos will help him buy a couple of platanos...my two cents...

i agree ... treating someone with missing limbs like that is in poor taste and disgraceful. My cousins, uncle, & I were in Puerto Plata visiting the church & a one legged gentlemen showed us around the church, was very polite, & courteous, we couldn't help but throw the guy some money.

"There But For The Grace Of God,Go I!"

And I, and you, and all of us. There is a man with 1 leg who does the rounds in Puerto Plata daily (or it seems so) Long Beach area and the malecon. I always give him something, perhaps more than I should sometimes. Following a motorcycle accident 5 years ago, I came within a hair of losing my left leg. Had I been a poor Dominican reliant on their public healthcare system and not a well insured American a few blocks from a hospital where a wonderful orthopaedic surgeon happened to be on call, things would have no doubt turned out differently than they did.

Despite predictions to the contrary, I now walk without a limp (except for the occasional bad day). 3 metal plates and 11 screws make my x-rays look like a hardware store and (sometimes) set off the metal detectors at the airports. When they don't, I usually point this out to the security people and suggest they need to adjust their machines to a more sensetive setting. I've never asked him how he lost his leg, although I showed him the 10 inch scars from my 2 operations. I wouldn't be surprised if his initial injury was less severe than mine.

Whether you give to beggars, who, and how much is obviously a personal matter. I have no problem with a "just say no" approach, but I have no respect at all for anyone who deliberately humiliates a fellow traveler on this earth.

THis thread reminds me of my Christmas trip to Valencia Venezuela, where times are tough.

In my neighborood on one of the main avenues there was a group of performers who juggled firesticks at the red lights.

They were really good and they seemed to be making quite a chunk of change for entertaining at the red lights.

I didn't see them as beggars but entrepreneurs.

On the other end of the avenue a small group of kids sold plastic bags to make some change.

At the entrance to the mall was a man with no legs who sat in a wheelchair. He just sat and smiled and said "Bless you" to people. He had perfected a big wide happy grin and he gave it freely to all not just to people who gave him change.

Also there was a lady who went house to house in my neighborhood with her three kids and obviously pregnant. Maybe she borrowed the kids from someone but she pulled on my heart. To beg on Christmas day is a bad feeling in my gut.

I must be reading this differently from the rest of you................it never occurred to me for one second that the original poster was being serious.

Lambada, let's hope that you are right. The world needs less of this. Try and put yourself in that situation Mr. Jag. What would YOU do??? Money comes and goes as do fine cars.

I agree with paying the entreprenurial ones...I pass street people every day on my way to work. I don't give them money for nothing - some play music, and there was even someone trying to shine shoes (unusual in Toronto)however I do treat them with respect as they usually do to me, with a "good morning"...some even notice when I have been away for a few weeks.

If that poster is really serious one day he will get his.

Wow

I can't believe I'm actually crying after reading this thread... I just can't believe the insesitivity of this guy!!!

I't brought me back to when I was little and I would go shoping with my grandmother. I made her stop and give some chage to every begger we saw, and she would say your just like your father.... to me that was the best complement becuse I wish I could be that selfless ( he would some times come home at the and of the day without a **** on beause he had given it to some one that needed it).

Lambada said:

I must be reading this differently from the rest of you................it never occurred to me for one second that the original poster was being serious.

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Me three. And what do we have that the others haven't...?

You can tell when some one is not used to having anything. They have to mention what they probably broke their neck to get. For example bochinche hates it when they tap on the window of his jag. Boy oh boy, on your jag huh...
Since you like to talk about what you have despite it's irrelevance, what's your bank account number?

Chirimoya said:

Me three. And what do we have that the others haven't...?

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Ossicles, madam. ...........it's ok, they won't get that either!

I must be one of those that didn't get it then. Nowhere did I notice any sarcasm or anything of that sort in the first post. It sounded like a serious post to me and I checked my calendar and it's not april fool's day.
Let's not try to back pedal now...

Tell me what you think of this

Long long time ago before I knew what sankies were I felt very badly for the kids that shine shoes or sell things on the street. One American resident of Sosua ( not Escott) saw me giving money to a shoeshine boy and told me that I was doing him harm. He said by giving the boy money for nothing,I was teaching him that he could get money for his smile and he would grow up to perhaps be a gigalo.

So now I avoid shoeshine boys but I'll buy whatever kids they are selling including unripe limes, empanadas, peanut brittle ect.

Is it wrong to give money? I would never give money to a sankie, I'm too cheap but it hurts me to see kids the age of my grandchildren on the street.