Begging -- Employment Opportunity...

This is another one to file away in the "already know that file". The idea that begging is an employment opportunity, and a lucrative one, is an idea that has been around for as long as any of us care to remember.

And, Ramadan always sees an increase of people begging on every street corner. Ramadan generally sees more people hungry, but also sees them in a more generous and giving mood. So, this time of the year is a "lucrative" one in that there are more people giving.

The fact that some individual has worked out that by coordinating the efforts of individual beggars into a collective and then taking a percentage of the daily take can make them a tidy sum, really is not rocket science. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of economics could probably work it out.

It is estimated that some 31 million Indonesians live just on or under the poverty line. The arbitrary poverty line for Jakarta is IDR 211,726 per month. I am not sure why it is IDR 211,726 and not just rounded up or down to IDR 211,500 or IDR 212,000. IDR 200 does not buy very much in Indonesia nowadays. Now, this is the kicker, and also why begging is seen as a legitimate employment alternative. It it further estimated that a beggar of average skills can make up to IDR 280,000 per day on average in Jakarta by doing nothing more than sticking the hand out with the hope of some small change.

It is true that beggars can amass considerable incomes and do relatively well. It must also be noted that they are not paying tax on this cash income (unless of course they are declaring it). I once new this bloke who used to beg at the traffic lights not far from the place I was living. He used to use a skateboard to get around. He had polio legs, and being poor meant that a skateboard was the choice he had when he was younger. Anyways, one day I took it upon myself to ask him about "his story". I am glad I did, it was enlightening to say the least.

The fella was born into what many of us would call "dirt poor" circumstances, which resulted in childhood polio and little school-based education, but a broad education know as "life" or the "school of hard knocks".

Yet, here was this fella who could have been twisted and bitter about the hand that he was dealt, but he chose not to be. His begging ways had started early and continued now into his early 50s. He had moved from a slum area in North Jakarta to a home in Bandung. He was now a part-time beggar in that he worked a roster of a "week on" and a "week off". He had himself and his family some small digs in East Jakarta.

Yes folks, a beggar with two houses! He had earned considerable sums of money. His children were well looked after and better educated in a formal sense than he was. Hence the reason this story in The Jakarta Globe recently that begging was a lucrative employment opportunity has been filed away in the "already knew that" file.

The point though is not to perpetuate the myth that beggars are doing it easy and that begging is a lucrative past time that doubles as real employment. It is a furphy to suggest such. It is government double speak designed to turn the public tide against beggars and the difficulties that they face in order to survive. In trying to turn public opinion against the poor and marginalised the hope is that the government can gradually remove these people through criminalising their activities. In this case, activities must be translated as doing whatever they can to survive.

The cold, hard reality that the government would sweep under the rug of truth is that for every "beggar coordinator" success story there are many, many, many beggars who are used and abused by the system that should be protecting them and not criminalising them.

Do not be fooled by the Government of Jakarta's talk of begging being employment. It is not employment! And, speaking of it like it is employment is irresponsible and misrepresents the desperation that many beggars face each and every day.

Decision Time

Dogs truly are a person's best friend no matter what the circumstances. I wonder who received the bigger share of the donations?

Begging & Busking

With a view to cleaning up the streets of Jakarta the Regional Government of this fair city has decided that the most important targets for removal are beggars and buskers. The rationale is one of without "these eyesores" (for me and undoubtedly many others these beggars and buskers are an intricate part of what Jakarta is and in no way an eyesore) blurring the picture of beautiful Jakarta then Jakartans views as well as those of the tourists that visit here will be much improved. It is worth noting that the beggars and buskers are not the only targets here as chewing gum and its indiscriminate disposal has also been targeted, as has Jakarta's thriving sex industry (not all of it underground like some might have you believe). But unfortunately some of the other more troublesome interferences for Jakartans such as the cold calling telemarketers hawking anything and everything from credit cards to cars have remained untouched...

The regulation passed without much fanfare after a long debate in the local parliament and supposedly into the wee small hours of the morning. The biggest issue is the criminalization of these activities and the severity of the fines that are to be imposed. For giving a donation to a street beggar or presumably dropping a few Rupiah into the cup of a busker playing their soulful tunes on a bus, will expose the giver to fines and periods of detention each of up to IDR 20 million and a period of up to 6 months (depending on the offence committed). The purveyors of these activities will be subject to similar fines and terms of detention...

More importantly is the lack of criticism from the community that these legislation changes will bring...Okey dokey, the Government wants to outlaw these heinous crimes of begging and busking but the critical failure of the legislation is that it does not offer any alternative to either begging or busking...if either of these activities is your "bread & butter" income you are going to be loathe to have to give it up without an alternate source of income being available...perhaps there are arguments to be made that providing alternative is not the Government's responsibility as the Government's responsibility is only to making Jakarta the most liveable city it can be but this argument is somewhat hollow when it reeks of a crusty elite in the ivory tower making decisions that potentially devastate the lives of a great many, it would seem that natural justice would be that if you take away with one hand you provide with the other...because without an alternative you condemn the victims, the beggars and the buskers, who are generally speaking already the city's most marginalized to a live of crime, un-payable fines, and ultimately long periods of detention - Yep, there is something wrong with this picture!

But as with any piece of legislation the test is not in passing the regulation but in the enforcement of it...You would think that the police would be keen to enforce it as it is a real revenue earner not only in legitimate revenues but also for those who might seek to supplement their meagre incomes by taking an in lieu payment instead of issuing the proper citation...This is not to say that all Government officials or police officers are on the take, the reality is to the contrary, the point is merely to highlight that those with bad intentions could easily exploit the system...

Will Jakarta be better for this regulation, probably not! Removing and forcing the problems out of plain sight and underground is not addressing the root causes of poverty and nor is it providing sustainable opportunities for the most marginalized and vulnerable in our community. The regulation also removes one of the elements that is Jakarta those that sing, dance, and sell at traffic lights and the intersections of just about every single major Jakartan crossroad...Jakarta will certainly be a much less vibrant metropolis as a result!!!

One would have hoped that legislators of all persuasions would have been motivated to find sustainable alternatives to the huge gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' rather than sweep this important issue under the carpet in the hope that over time it would disappear on its own...

As the Great Emancipator said:

"A Government of the people, by the people, and for the people" and this I suggest to you includes all the people of this Republic - rich and poor alike...