Shaher Al-Nahari
This is not an attempt to make a psychological analysis of the mentality of beggars in our society. In most cases it is a kind of hereditary disease as a child beggar thinks that he/she has to follow the profession of their fathers and forefathers who earned a living through begging. For such beggars who inherited the honor-less profession it is the best way for living.
The second group, who acquired begging as a profession, joined this bandwagon after they first stretched their hand to the philanthropist, which pushed them to the melting point. It will be followed by the stage of acceptance and conviction that stretching hand for begging is a natural action that does not differ from actions of a farmer, or engineer or doctor and a baker or student or a builder.
A beggar will reach the next stage when he/she would not find anything unusual in his action. Day after day he will achieve proficiency in begging. With the passage of time, he/she will become a master in the nasty profession learning new tricks to win the sympathy of philanthropists.
The human composition of the giver and the beggar is quite different despite their affinity. A beggar feels pain and grief in the beginning before entering the stage of frustration and despair. Later on he becomes used to it before his feeling of honor completely disappears.
The surrounding circumstances play a big role in creating beggars. Some people do not like approaching philanthropists and receive charity and display unparalleled honor while some others fall into the gutter of begging as they would not have patience to withstand poverty.
Some beggars may have genuine reasons to approach philanthropists to meet their daily needs as they will not be able to work to earn a living. Part of the blame for creating many other beggars goes to the government and society as they did not provide them with necessary support.
We know that many governments have tried to protect the honor of beggars by providing them with necessary assistance and they don’t need to look for charity. There are countries which were successful in ensuring equal rights for citizens and saved them from begging.
How many communities know about the real poor and needy people who do not beg for charity but sleep without food and the feeling of honor prevents them from begging and standing in the queue to receive relief supplies?
We know that many charitable organizations publish photos doing nothing to eradicate poverty but just to receive donations from the rich and the philanthropists. At the same time, many wealthy con men beg on the streets to get richer and many of them are even — more often than not — richer than the giver.
There are several evidences to show that the number of needy people around us is growing and we force them to beg without taking measures to meet their basic needs. It iss unfortunate that many of our charitable organizations give less than what they receive.
Finally, I would like to request the rich and the philanthropists to look around them to see the real poor and the needy who would not make any hue and cry but need your assistance. Find out such people and give them alms to help them lead a decent living.
