Metro continued
Just before the subway entrance sits a teenaged girl, her head bowed in grief, her hair dangling confused and greasy, her arms holding her knees. In her lap, asleep, is a baby. It's wrapped in a soiled blanket. She sits on the dirty sidewalk, and next to her is a paper cup. In that little cup people drop money.
"Madonna with child" - 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 month. I did not give her money. The operation is a scam. Every thing about her has been carefully engineered to arouse sympathy, guilt, and maybe even shame in the casual passer-by. In other words, she is a Mendicant, a highly skilled professional beggar. 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 hold out a paper cup that only has a few copper coins on the bottom. People are always giving them money. And food, even to the fat beggars, and many are very fat, but people don't have common sense. This isn't Ethiopia in a famine.
Sometimes this particular girl has a baby. Sometimes a different older baby. Sometimes toddlers are with her. There are many more beggars like her. It seems like there is a child-beggar (who would normally be in high school or college ) on every street corner in the touristic areas.
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 reports of child mutilation for the purpose of pity donations.
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.
I've watched them 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 rent babies by the day for this purpose, the baby appears to me to be unnaturally sleepy - reportedly drugged with heroin or fed cough syrup. Some are very aggressive and follow, push, and grab people (I assume as a ruse to distract them so they can pick pocket them, but I haven't actually seen them stick their hand in somebody's pocket. However, 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.
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.....
Finally, my assistant Claudia arrives and we walk passed the beggar girl. She rattles the cup at us, " Please Monsier, My baby is hungry. Please..." Her voice trails away as we approach the stairs leading into the underground network of tunnels, trains, and rooms that make up the Metro. Somewhere down there, it connects to sewers, crypts, quarries, basements, caves, and catacombs. 6.1 million people ride the Metro each day. Paris has a population of more than 12 million people.
My boss asked me if Id every taken one before. I said, "a few times in San Francisco." San Fran has its own subway (BART).(, train, trolley, and bus systems but I've used them only a few times during emergencies). I might have written about one of those times on here a few years ago.
At the top of the stairs, I hesitated, breathing in what might be my last breath of fresh air for a long time. I usually walk or take a bicycle. My boss and Claudia walked down first. Dozens of people were going in and out. I finally felt hyperventilated and held a long deep breath and made a few hesitant steps down and was blassted by a stream of wet air. I cheated and sniffed a little without inhaling. It smelled like a melange of arm pits, strong perfume, crotches, cigarette smoke, shit, the chemical odors of scented soaps and body wash, and laundry detergent, rancid piss, puke. And it was so hot that it amplified the stench. I could see and feel the swarming clouds of airborne microorganisms germs and specks of filth getting into my lungs. Or maybe they were the black spots from oxygen deprivation.
I followed them down the stairs.
Just before the subway entrance sits a teenaged girl, her head bowed in grief, her hair dangling confused and greasy, her arms holding her knees. In her lap, asleep, is a baby. It's wrapped in a soiled blanket. She sits on the dirty sidewalk, and next to her is a paper cup. In that little cup people drop money.
"Madonna with child" - 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 month. I did not give her money. The operation is a scam. Every thing about her has been carefully engineered to arouse sympathy, guilt, and maybe even shame in the casual passer-by. In other words, she is a Mendicant, a highly skilled professional beggar. 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 hold out a paper cup that only has a few copper coins on the bottom. People are always giving them money. And food, even to the fat beggars, and many are very fat, but people don't have common sense. This isn't Ethiopia in a famine.
Sometimes this particular girl has a baby. Sometimes a different older baby. Sometimes toddlers are with her. There are many more beggars like her. It seems like there is a child-beggar (who would normally be in high school or college ) on every street corner in the touristic areas.
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 reports of child mutilation for the purpose of pity donations.
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.
I've watched them 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 rent babies by the day for this purpose, the baby appears to me to be unnaturally sleepy - reportedly drugged with heroin or fed cough syrup. Some are very aggressive and follow, push, and grab people (I assume as a ruse to distract them so they can pick pocket them, but I haven't actually seen them stick their hand in somebody's pocket. However, 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.
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.....
Finally, my assistant Claudia arrives and we walk passed the beggar girl. She rattles the cup at us, " Please Monsier, My baby is hungry. Please..." Her voice trails away as we approach the stairs leading into the underground network of tunnels, trains, and rooms that make up the Metro. Somewhere down there, it connects to sewers, crypts, quarries, basements, caves, and catacombs. 6.1 million people ride the Metro each day. Paris has a population of more than 12 million people.
My boss asked me if Id every taken one before. I said, "a few times in San Francisco." San Fran has its own subway (BART).(, train, trolley, and bus systems but I've used them only a few times during emergencies). I might have written about one of those times on here a few years ago.
At the top of the stairs, I hesitated, breathing in what might be my last breath of fresh air for a long time. I usually walk or take a bicycle. My boss and Claudia walked down first. Dozens of people were going in and out. I finally felt hyperventilated and held a long deep breath and made a few hesitant steps down and was blassted by a stream of wet air. I cheated and sniffed a little without inhaling. It smelled like a melange of arm pits, strong perfume, crotches, cigarette smoke, shit, the chemical odors of scented soaps and body wash, and laundry detergent, rancid piss, puke. And it was so hot that it amplified the stench. I could see and feel the swarming clouds of airborne microorganisms germs and specks of filth getting into my lungs. Or maybe they were the black spots from oxygen deprivation.
I followed them down the stairs.
