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I am used to seeing people begging in Vienna and I am used to the Augustin sellers and rose sellers too. However where do you draw the line when it comes to beggars and begging?
The reason why I am asking this is because yesterday while eating lunch with my boyfriend we were approached by a woman (quite nicely dressed and clean) who asked if we would like to buy a magazine (not sure which but was not Augustin). We said no thank you and carried on eating but she didn’t leave. She told us that she didn’t really need money so could she have some of our food. I thought this was slightly cheeky seeing as we are sitting in front of her eating, it isn’t as if you can so you don’t have anything.
Anyway she left us and then I noticed another woman talking to her also selling the same magazine. This woman was dressed nicer and had lots of jewellery on and also a fancy handbag. I watched her approach the tables around us and actually was given a piece of chicken from a worker sitting eating her lunch. When she came to us she asked the same as her friend. When we said no she then said but let me just have a drink and tried to take the drink from our table!!
I have to say that although I have given money, food and cigerettes to homeless people and beggars before I was annoyed with these two women. Especially the second one. They were well dressed and did not look like they needed anything. I was ok with being asked once but it felt like I was being mobbed by being asked twice within a matter of minutes.
In the UK there are always people begging on the street but I have to say I feel annoyed when I am sitting having lunch or a drink with friends and to have someone begging in the cafe etc. What do other people think? Does anyone else have any stories?
I confess I did give money to beggars, But I am doing it less and less.
One reason is the method used. Woman with baby maimed or handicapped people, etc… Most often these people are made to beg and don’t get to keep the Money. And anyone feeling guilt about these people should know that Austrian Social System does take care of Woman with babies, and those too physically and/or mentally handicapped to work, so if they are here begging you are probably giving the money to some scummy mafia person who is forcing his fellow citizens to work so he can enjoy his car and gold chains while they get crumbs.
My Beggars of choice used to be druggies, somewhere in my naiveté I thought they just might spend my money on food, but I also know that the Austrian Social System tries to help them, but they can only help those who want the help.
So that is why my giving away my money on the street is less and less. And those who are well dressed and wearing designer clothes to beg make me wish I had a stun gun…
I saw a programme on TV once about beggars and I must admit it really put me off giving them anything. The tricks they have are terrible. The beggars you see with only a few cents in their box actually keep emptying it so it looks like no one is giving them anything. Usually they have a bag of money hidden in their pockets.
Another thing I saw was in the magazine ‘news’. A reporter didn’t wash for a week and put on some dirty old clothes and went out begging in Vienna. After 6 hours she had collected over 100 euro!!! She was totally amazed and gave the money to charity. I have seen other programmes and reports doing the same thing and they always end up with alot of money.
Silvia is right though. I was told years ago that there is no reason for these people to be begging and the longer I live here the more I realise how much help these people can or do get.
I have no patience with people who beg. I have sometimes been asked by young well-dressed people who are not actually beggars at all but just asking for ’50 cents’ (it always seems to be ’50 cents’). I consider this a total cheek.
I have a little story to tell regarding people asking for food. A few weeks ago I was meeting friends in the Burggarten for an evening picnic. I got there early with my boyfriend and we were just putting out all the food when this gang of young punks came up and one of them asked me for ‘something to put on his bread’. I was so angry I didn’t even bother to answer in German. I retorted: ‘No – buy your own!’ This confused them but he asked again and I repeated what I said, louder. They then wandered off.
Why on earth should I give some of MY food to people I don’t know (and wouldn’t WANT to know)? I had bought and paid for that food and it was for myself and my friends only. It is quite frankly outrageous behaviour.
I recently heard about a friend who was asked for a slice of pizza by a girl in Burggasse U-Bahn. My friend refused but when her back was turned, the girl stole a slice anyway!
I have no tolerance, patience, or sympathy for the beggars. I used to when I was new in this city but not anymore. And as Silvia mentioned, the Austrian social system is plenty generous to women with children, the handicapped, etc.– so no person who lives here legally needs to be on the streets begging in order to feed themselves. And there are places for the homeless and for drug adicts– but those people have to want to help themselves enough to go there.
I used to offer to give food to beggers. Twice I had them throw a granola bar back at me and several times they turned me down when I offered to buy them a burger at McDonald’s or give them a semmel or some fruit from my grocery bag (things I assume a truly hungry person would be grateful to be offered and would take.) I am happy enough to buy groceries for a truly hungry person or give a donation to a soup kitchen/homeless shelter but I will not give someone cash to feed a drug addiction or gang ringleader. The ones with children make me especially angry. Can’t they be rounded up by the police on the grounds that there are laws saying children should be in school?
The well-dressed ones– I don’t get this. Why would anyone actually think that somebody with a fancy jacket and a designer handbag actually needs 50 cents for food?
A few years ago I was in the Saelmbrau (beer garden restaurant near the Belvedere.) This guy came around plunking down key chains with a note saying he was deaf. When I handed the thing back to him and didn’t give him money, he grabbed a pretzel from the basket on our table and took my drink and ran out– reminds me a bit of Amber’s post. Our waiter saw this and replaced my drink for me at no charge. I had this happen when I lived in Germany as well– I think it’s a common scam.
I’m actually relieved that I’m not the only one who thinks that, in Austria of all places, begging is absolutely unnecessary. I know even out here in the sticks that if someone is hurting real bad, the gov’t is going to step in and help them get by. They’re not gonna starve of all things.
At any rate, I don’t like saying “Never”, but if you want to get a euro or two from me, then do something that shows that you might earn it. Wash windows, shine shoes, sing, yodel, something, just don’t lay there with a can in your hand looking sorry. In the States, I might give something, but in Austria, there’s already quite a bit taken out of my check to help people in need.
I recently read A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It gives a fascinating insight into the ‘art of begging’ in India (though this is not its main topic). But I also found it really difficult and rather painful going, not because of the language, but because of the story (and that’s all I’m going to tell you!).
I think the classical music idea is terrific!
Don’t like beggars myself, though I am aware there are as many facets to the topic as there are beggars. My greatest worry is when children land on the streets after having escaped abusive homes. They don’t trust the authorities as if in most cases they would send them straight back to the abusers. Those kids are truly hard to help, also when not sending them back, as their horrid backgrounds often turn them into rather hardened individuals that can be truly difficult to like…
No, I’m not going to go into a long tirade about begging and all that. I, mostly, agree with all of you. Heck, I even find it difficult to give to African aimed charities as I harbour such stong scepticism towards most African governments and their different levels of corruption.
I never give to beggers. I sometimes feel bad about it, but I get angry when I see people who dress their baby in nothing more than a diaper (while they are in long sleeves and a coat) and get the baby as dirty as possible. Then they sit there with the baby on their lap and their hand out. That poor child is being used. It is unbelievable! I have been taking the 35A from Spittelau several days out to the AIS school, and the same woman in a wheelchair has been sitting there every single day! I am sorry that she is handicapped, but there must be something she can do. Does that sound cold?
I guess I am a firm believer in the saying (I think made popular by the Peace Corp) “If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day…if you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.” I think we teach people to beg when we give them money. As cold as this sounds…I guess it just frustrates me to see so many people with their hands out.
Begging has become a profession and I personally resent it. I find often that people who are really poor rarely beg they are working hard at a lousy paying jobs and trying like hell to keep it together. So I would rather give my money to a soup kitchen who will feed the hungry and organizations that help people in need then give it to someone who has a suite at the Marriott. (yea, this has happened here).
I have also experienced wanting to give food or in one case a restaurant next to my office offering food and a job and being turned down flat and told begging pays more and the hours are more flexible.
I think this post deals with the western world and I am I am sure I would feel different if I lived in Africa and was confronted by an underfed child doing the begging. And I also feel for kids on the street and yes I have given them money and/or food and always with the plea to go our local youth shelter for help. (They don’t make them go back to their parents unless they want to.) But you can’t make anyone do what they don’t want to.
Like most of you, I rarely give to beggars. Perhaps it’s because I’m from New York where most beggars have been shown to be feeding drug habits instead of in need of food or lodging, both available from public and private shelters and volunteer organizations.
I have been approached many times for money by beggars in the Westbahnhof U-Bahn station, but just keep walking. But last year my husband and I were approached by a German speaking man while eating dinner at Cafe Sperl. The fellow was selling note cards and said it was to help pay for his education at the university. Since he seemed a bit old for a student, we said no. He then promptly repeated his request in English. I suspect his speaech was pre-rehearsed in several languages.
I know several students, and Viennese of student age, and from them I have the impression that it is very rare for an Austrian to be destitute and not receive aid from the government.
I have decided, like many of you, that it is a much better use of my time and money by helping charities helping the poor instead of giving money to beggars.
I have spoken to a few Austrians about this subject and I always get told the same thing. There is no need for begging in this country because everyone should get help. Also I was told that the people you see with children, pictures of children etc are being sent out by someone who then takes the majority of the money they collect away from them.
Yesterday at Schwedensplatz I was approached by a woman with a child eating a happy meal. The same woman who approached me on Saturday asking for food. She must have to collect for one of these groups.
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