Beggars

We have been driven everywhere thanks to the generosity of my brother in law.  Most of the time there is no stopping (not even when a large bus is trying to merge with your passenger door, usually with a rickshaw in between).  But at certain junctions there are traffic lights and police stopping and starting the flow.  Sometimes when we stop one, two sometimes three children with dusty hair tap tap on the window begging.  Once or twice one is carrying a baby.

Today I walked down the street to pick up a jacket Suj was having altered, just a 10 minute walk down the main drag. On the way back two tinies held my arm asking for money.  The boy patted down my back pockets as we walked (I only have small denomination in front) so I gently pat his arms away.  Very little eye contact, quiet and persistent shakes of the head.  The next one is older with wild hair.  No patting down (that I noticed) this time.  Same treatment from me.  Even if  I wanted to, there is no way I'd start the landslide by giving here, now and in this way. And here's the oddity; I don't feel like giving.  I have all the usual thoughts about starting an action aid account when I get back and how giving in the streets won't solve their problems but inside I don't feel moved. 

In fact, on reflection I feel the same in Aus.  Perhaps I've stopped feeling complicit in their poverty.  The enormous majority of people on Earth live with one percent of the convenience and luxury that I've been born into.  We won that lottery and because of it my kids don't have to do what these children have to do.

They are working, I feel like a customer.