Poverty is an anomaly to rich people.
It is very difficult to make out
why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.
-Walter Bagehot-
Peace, Love, Respect, Unity, A dollar, Please
This page was supposed to be titled "The beggars and me" and contain a collection of photos of... well, beggars and me. The idea was sort of funny but exploitative and maybe even untasteful at the same time. I just really wanted to give them a job. You see, begging on the street is pathetic and degrading. I thought about how in some places people want money to have their picture taken and sometimes there's a dude carrying a snake or some other cute animal and selling photo-oportunities. I thought about the definition of being in business. The line between begging and selling. So I decided to employ these beggars and get them into the business of selling photo-opportunities. They are the product, I am the market. I get a photo, they get some money and we're in business! For a moment.
Grizzly beggar in Cartagena night
It seemed kinda grotesque to look at myself - a first-world person with all the best opportunities in life, cruising in his little boat and being (apparently) poor - smiling and posing with some of the less fortunate people who lost the game in a city of a million competitors and ended up on the street. But thought-provoking is right up my alley and I went for it full steam. Within a few days I collected half a dozen pictures. Not much, I know. My aim is to have a collage on a wall containing at least one thousand images of business people from the lower levels of the pecking order.
CROSSING THE LINE
The line between "begging" and "business" is one drawn on water. Have you ever paid money for a product that was so badly made or so useless that it was like giving money for nothing? Yeah, we all have. People pay 100 dollars per hour to sit in a (psychiatrist's) office and talk to someone who listens. Maybe even care. There is a huge global need (market) for listening. (That's why talk is so cheap)
I would love to get into the listening business, but I'm just too busy talking all the time. And time is valuable. Lawyers will charge you by the minute. (Or like a raging bull, as they say.) No one has time to listen. We all have too much to say.
Cape Verde. Late.
There are currencies other than "time" and "listening" which have kept their value throughout the centuries and which we can all afford. A Smile is one of them. When I walked in Cartagena, I noticed that people seemed generally happy. Smiles were not uncommon. Even some of the beggars were smiling! According to some survey, Colombia is one of the happiest nations in the world, among Costa Rica. Latin America rocks, man!
While selling sex is a global business with a steady market, nobody is selling smiles yet. Surprisingly, hugs were given for free in a campaign some time ago in Helsinki. (Explicitly named "Hugs for free -campaign!") I think it was a marketing ploy. Get your first hug free and once you've hooked, they've got you for life! How much is a smile worth? Maybe I'll get into the smile business. I could be selling "smiling" and "listening" as a package deal. Always wanting to give my clients a good run for their money I would be listening carefully and smiling, maybe throwing in the odd laughter for no extra charge... I've never been a good businessman.
Anyway, I've come to the subject of "smiling" because there's something that makes me loosen my purse strings and dig for some coins and I think it's the smile. People who beg with a smile always get something from me. So just like the 100 bucks an hour for listening or 2000 bucks for a crappy Italian stove, I'm paying 10 cents or 50 cents for a smile. (Or is there a deeper psychological reason, like a guilt or something...?)
Enough dribbling. Food for thought. Let's get down to business. Here's some pics of BEGGARS AND BUSINESS PEOPLE. Or call them all the same, if you like...
Smile. It confuses people.
- Scott Adams -(The Dilbert Principle)
The business of survival
What a sweet lady she was too. We talked for about 5 minutes on the street in Santiago de Cuba. Finally she changed her tone a little and with a slight hint of embarrasment asked for a little money for buying vegetables.
Clive. Port Antonio, Jamaica. Small businessman, but willing to cross the line.
Joe. Port Antonio, Jamaica. Small businessman (undisclosed private business). By using a very small scale investing scheme, he managed to get money from me without begging as such. (As we know, the line between thievery and invesment schemes is also drawn on the water)
Small businessmen in Cartagena, filling in official forms with their typewriters. No begging here, strictly business. And they don't have any time to listen to your story. They're busy typing.
Emilio. Entrepreneur, fisherman, public relations person. Isla Grande, Colombia. Service with a smile and no begging, but you might consider the cream on the price of his lobsters an act of robbery.
Louis. Small businessman. Stone carvings, Islas Rosarios, Colombia. No begging. In fact he spent 20 minutes helping us get the meat out of Emilio's crabs. Very helpful. Good business ethics. (Ask for the impossible and you will get the best possible)
Symian is not really a beggar or a businessman at the moment. He knows that he can be a good businessman, so here he's practising the skill of begging, should it ever become necessary. It never will but I think he'd do great. Versatile. Being versatile is good.
That's the best puppy face I can do and that was done in the early 80's. Don't mention Duran Duran. Oh, speaking of begging... there's a "begging" button here somewhere...
Sad boy in Cartagena. This picture made me sad. He was hungry. I made him a businessman for a fraction of a second. He's back into begging again.
The market for idiots like me is very small.
A bit confused but hey, what the hell. A beggar with a twinkle in his eye. Cartagena.
No shame here. Her begging was loud and ongoing and targeted all tourists and well-to-do locals.
Her age demands respect and I offered her an hourly rate of 216 000 dollars. For 1/60 sec. Bless her.
My favourite beggar in Cartagena. This dude occupies his own spot across the nearest supermarket to the marina.
He's radiating joy and is always smiling. I could not help but give him money every time, every day. (No wonder he was so happy to see me?)
A small businessman juggling all of his sources of income. This is common in Cartagena. Different performances happen in many street lights. The problem is the green light. Potential customers tend to lift the clutch and make a quick exit. Much to his surpise, I walked across afterwards to pay for the photo and the show, of course.
I'm not sure whether this is begging or business. Ok. Ha ha. It's one of those funny signs but I don't have a page for them, so I put it here.
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Some start as small businessmen and prosper...
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...some have very small odds at ever even starting anything...
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...some have a chance but never quite find the path or their place in the world...
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...some never get a chance...
...and there's always someone just standing by to benefit from other people's failure.
PS. I may not be able to change the whole world, after all. Or can I? With a dollar? With a smile? To some small businessman or a beggar, that tiny little bit may mean the whole world. Mission accomplished.