"The Vulture and the Little Girl"
edit: I changed my entry to the most horrible thing I photographed on March 21. Then I cropped it to emphasize the blood on the baby's swollen lips. I thought it might make people feel outraged.
Just before the subway entrance sits a teenaged girl, her head bowed in grief, her hair confused and greasy, her arms holding her knees. She sits on a dirty piece of foam on the sidewalk. She shares her soiled blanket with a young child. Next to her is a paper cup. In that little cup people drop money.
They almost always look up and ask for money when somebody approaches. Strangely, this beggar mother didn't look up at me as I walked up to her this time.She was overcome by her own sorrow. I stopped near them in a way that wasn't obviously intrusive, took a photo, and continued past her and stopped next to the metro entrance.
As I wait for my assistant to arrive, many people passing give her money. They're doing the "Right Thing," helping people less fortunate. Many look emotionally relieved as they make their offerings, like they have been given a blessing. They're nice people unlike me or you. They will give the needy the shirts off their backs.
I've passed by the beggar girl for a year. Sometimes she has a different older baby or a couple of toddlers. Sometimes she has the baby girl in the photo. Today, she almost looks like she's about to strangle the baby. Or maybe she is trying to comfort her after punching her in the mouth for crying. Whatever the case, injuries are worth cash. This wasn't the first time I saw an injury like this.
There are 100s exactly like her just in this small part of the city. There are 10000s throughout the entire city. Just like a cheap Eiffel Tower souvenir key chain, "Madonna with child" is mass-produced and on display for the tourists and other suckers. The operation is a scam. Every thing about her has been carefully engineered to arouse sympathy, guilt, and maybe even shame in thé casual passer-by.
I've watched her and others work - the child beggars working alone and women with or without a real baby. Sometiems it's a fake baby, or if it's a real child, they often rent babies by the day for this purpose. This baby appears to me to be unnaturally sleepy - reportedly they are drugged with heroin or fed cough syrup. Or maybe she has a concussion. Sometimes the babies are dead.
I know dozens like her by sight. It is interesting to watch them in action. They always wear the same dirty, ragged clothes. They always have body odor. They often have fresh injuries. They hold out a paper cup that only has a few copper coins on the bottom. They always rattle the cup and say ‘Please Monsieur, a euro for me and my child.’
People are always giving them money. And food, even to the fat beggars, and many are very fat. People don't have common sense and are easy to gyp. (This is the origin of he word gyp). Many of the fat gypsies use animals as props to fool the public. In fact, there is a fat middle aged man with rosy cheeks and his german shephard dog about 10 meters away with a piece of card board that says ‘My dog and I are hungry, Please help us. Thank you.’ He’s been earning a living doing this every day at the same spot for longer than I have lived here. The fat man is surrounded by unopened packages of food, candy, bottled soft drinks, and gourmet dog food. This isn't Ethiopia in a famine. Across the street and down a little way is a middle-aged fat gypsy woman withan unusually bad disposition. She has a pet rabbit and flies a piece of cardboard with the same note on it. She alternates between asking for money and scolding everybody who looks at her rabbit without giving her money. I have a photo of her yelling at somebody. 50 feet beyond that harpie is yet another fat gypsy beggar woman with a pet cat. They are all surrounded by mounds of food.
One man controls a large number of beggars in an area. He assigns each one a busy spot to work. He makes his rounds, collecting their earnings several times per day, and handing them their lunch, snacks, supper, etc. At the end of the day, the beggar groups snd families gather at the metro entrance where they meet, gossip, and go home together. They all live in big trailer or gypsy caravan parks on the edges of the city.
She belongs to th3 infamous gypsy Mendicant Guild, a kind of labor union/gang of highly skilled professional beggars. It is ruled by a gypsy king back home in Romania.
There have been reports and criminal investigations into this. Picture Hell's Angels but with slavery and child abuse. The beggar business is operated by gangs who own luxery properties and expensive cars in Romania. The babies serve as props. A link has been reported between child trafficking and child begging. There are striking similarities to Fagin's gang of urchins in Oliver Twist. There are reports of child mutilation for the purpose of pity donations. Violence and abuse are daily occurrences.
Some of the beggars very aggressive and follow, push, and grab people (I assume as a ruse to distract them so they can pick pocket them. The worst are teenaged boys and able-bodied men younger than 30 or so. I have actually seen them stick their hand in somebody's pocket. 1000s of people report being pickpocketed here each year). Not only that, but when they are on a break from their begging, I have watched them brazenly steal things from shops. Photographing them is dangerous too. They or their backup are known to become violent when photographed.
I notice the beggar girl keeps emptying the cup into her pockets so only a few copper pieces are on the bottom for display. Although it was late morning and not so busy, within the 15 minutes I waited, about 20 people gave her money. Most were coins and some were cash. The smallest denomination of the Euro is a €5 note. So, she earned a minimum of 20€ in 15 minutes. And this is during a slow period after the morning rush hour and before the lunch rush. You can do the math. If she sits there long enough, all day, every day, and she does...
p.s. the mobîle edit feature is broken. It deletes the entry instead of saving changes