Being Social versus Being Retarded
Last week my aunt gave me the old camera of my grandpa. A Revue Flex SCI I which is the sex. It made me drool when i saw it, and it’s the most sexy thing on this planet (well. right after Mike Patton). When i was playing around with it, trying to figure out what this button does, and what the hell happened when i pushed that button, i noticed that there was still a film in it.
Shot 3 pictures and then hurried to Foto Eder to get that film developped. I had a 100eur bill in my bag, cause i needed to get passport pictures, a new Scart cable (i managed to ruin mine, dont ask how please), stuff to eat and drink, new film for the sexy camera, and a bunch of pictures from my digital cam needed to get printed as well. So i hurried down the street, totally in love with the camera and the world and everything (except that guy that tried to convince me that greenpeace will save my life. I dont love him. I hate him. But i love the rest of the world cause of my camera!) and smiled like a schoolgirl when suddenly a young woman with 2 kids stopped me. “I am sorry, but do you have a few minutes time for me? I need someone to talk to, and i need some help.” Still being in my hippie-maniac-mood i agreed to walk to Mc Donalds and sit down. She said she has no documents, she is not from here, she is not a beggar but she needs money. She doesnt know who could help her, cause the caritas wont do it cause she has no documents right now. She gets them soon when her boss comes home from his vacation, and then she can ask for “Asyl” and then she will get 1000 eur, and she wont be hungry anymore et cetera. I nodded and listened while my thoughts were still circling around thoughts like what film would be the best, and how cute the lenses are, and i like the sound the camera is making when it’s taking a picture. Before i could think twice i agreed to go shopping with her. She needed diapers for the kids and stuff.
Under normal circumstances i would have told her to go to a “Frauenhaus” (place where women can go if they are in trouble), and wish her a nice day. BUT in that very special moment i was stupid enough to help her. No, i like helping people but only when i am sure they really need help. I am not sure about this woman though, but i felt sorry. Did you know that diapers are horribly expensive? and shampoo? and food? and crap?
from the 100eur bill i managed to give away 40eur.
Not even i need 40eur when i am shopping. I dont need diapers though. I was suprised that she didnt ask me to buy her jewelry. When my brain stopped thinking about fluffy pink mice and cute kitties and hugging trees and making love to the sexy camera i actually wanted to say “WTF?” and bring back the stuff she wanted me to buy for her. Unfortunately my brain was not that fast and the WTF moment came a little bit too late. Actually 30 minutes too late.
So, i got my cable, i got my passport pictures (which creep me out in a way that it is not funny anymore), i got my film and a couple of digital photos developped, but the rest - well, nada. I dont want to overdraw my account right now.
I am retarded.
I need to stop thinking about other things while people are trying to make me feel social enough to give away all of my money.
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Something similar happened to me a while ago. I was walking down Mariahilferstra
Alejandro, thank you for sharing your story!
its hard to find out wether or not theyre telling you the truth. I guess there isnt even a good way to find out if they really need the money for what they are claiming it to need, or if theyre just out there to look for someone who is good enough to pay for their lifestyle, whatever it is. i felt sorry for the woman with the two kids, i felt sorry for her situation, but the more i think i about the more i know it was just a hoax. i will sure as hell remember that incident. more than id like as soon as i need that money myself, probably next month.
I think that all such stories are lies! Start from yourself, would you go around and ask for help on the mariahilfer street? There’s a police station, embassy, there are libraries where you can send e-mail to the family for free, there’s western union money transfer (money arrives in an hour) and I think you can still make a phonecall or two to your friends from the police station.
I once failed to refuse an old man begging for few euros to buy himself a medicine, but them I saw him every once in a while using the same old trick. In his case I wasn’t sorry, he’s old and the trick is probably the best thing he can do, but I strongly disagree “helping” and spending money to the young people. As long as there are people who give them euros, they will live that way and will never become productive.
I saw a documentary on “punkers” and obdachlose in Vienna on 3sat, and they all say they refuse this society and yet they want “our” money. I’m for social justice, but not that way.
I come from Sarajevo, Bosnia, and there’s the situation even worse, the beggars are everywhere. The funny thing is that they’re becoming organized mafia. I once witnessed that a brand new Mercedes VITO drives them to the location where they work (usually some places where people like to give few euros for a luck: hospitals, railway stations, airports…) and they collect up to 100 Euros a day (average salary in Bosnia is around 300 Euro).
Esad, i am working for western union. :)
i bet there are people that really need money. but starting from today i will either ignore anyone who asks for money, or keep asking them questions until they either give up or give me some VERY good reasons.
damn. i missed that documentary. GAH.
there’s a number of beggars who pull off the same “i need some money just now” story for years. there’s this old man in vienna who tells anyone who’ll listen that he was mugged and is without documents and without his keys and needs to buy a train ticket home. preferably in the middle of the night when there’s no way to make sure he’ll buy what he says he needs. last time i saw him in a pub. he had a beer. not water. or those who admit to be beggars but tell you lies like “i haven’t eaten anything in days”. give them enough money for a large meal, and the next day they’ll tell the same story, in the exact same spot.
as alejandro said, most of them probably are really in need and desperate because ordinarily almost no one would do this, and it’s understandable if someone tells you he needs medicine if he can scam more money out of people that way. but i don’t think he deserves any of it, because i hate liars.
i do occasionally give a little money to beggars who are friendly and politely ask if they could have some spare change. i don’t care whether they’re old tramps or punks. they’re honest and i like that. and if you’re in a hurry and just rush past them, you won’t even notice them; they’re way less annoying than buskers.
the scheme of the women daniela encountered seems to be quite finely tweaked. she shows you her kids and you have proof that your money is for useful stuff that they need. it’s not really retarded to fall for that, especially not if you’re in a hippy-maniac mood. and once you’re dragged along into a shop and the shopping cart gets ever fuller, it’s kind of hard to say “right, that’s enough”. and because it’s supposed to be a one time thing and she didn’t claim that she’s generally very poor (which would be implausible as she’s obviously completely unable to get by with very little money), you don’t even get the chance to ask, “why the fuck do you buy expensive disposable diapers?”
so daniela, don’t feel too bad about it; we all feel a little too generous once in a while. and, i envy you for your RevueFlex sc1. now what was on the film?
Nex, i hate it when people make me feel sorry for them. i am all up for giving a poor old man a cigarette and chit chat with him. i am all up for inviting a homeless man/woman to a cup of coffee and talk. but today that woman totally caught me off guard. i could slap myself for that. and i will most likely when i realise that those 40 euros are missing for buying food/film for myself.
the camera is THE SEX, yo. like seriously. i keep staring at it and call it my honey and baby and precious. its getting ridicilous by now, but i cant change my feelings for the wonderful piece of photo-goodness!
i will get the photos on wednesday, hopefully. cant wait to see what my grandfather did, or more likely my aunt when she got the camera.
only thing is, i still need to find a store who sells black white films for that camera. foto eder didnt have any this time. plus, i dont want to fuck up a probably expensive film without knowing how the camera really works. I am totally clueless with the functions right now, cause i am already too used to the digital camera.
you can get reasonably priced b/w film at any saturn or cosmos, but i have no idea where you can get it developed at what price. personally, i’d shoot on colour film, scan it, and process the scans to b/w on the computer. since digital cams are in so widespread use now, but only come with colour sensors (switching them over to grayscale mode, which gives you the same when you switch an image in photoshop from RGB to grayscale, produces crap), there’s tons of tutorials about how to do that properly on the web now. here’s one of the best. of course camera-specific tips (e.g. on exposure) don’t apply to an analog cam, but the image processing part is just the same. it’s like having your own darkroom, but without the stinky chemicals.
that sucks big time. that british guy will get his bad karma!
I usually shoot in colour only with the Dimage and convert it to b/w with photoshop.
The old camera, that sweet sweet thing, takes rather good b/w stuff. I remember the old photos of my grandpa before he started to shoot with colour. They rocked. totally. it would take me hours with ps to make the pictures look that good.
plus, i do not own a scanner. really!
yes, thanks for sharing a real life story, evoking comments at least same interesting (i feel a little bad seeing to slip v.mb out of my live…) and not forgetting 2046, daniela
i am more for the real life stuff. there are already enough people posting about art and such. every blog needs some disturbing real life stuff. :)
and i am going to watch 2046 again. tonight. ooooh yes. the movie simply rocks, Monsieur Luc!
oh, and if you need any books, just tell me. or maybe dvds?
we need to hook up soon again.
and start posting again, you!
btw, thats no new behaviour by far…my mother told me a story from back when I was a little kid (so a long time ago ;) she was adressed by a foreign woman in vienna, also spinning some story about how she needs money for her baby, you know, all that…as my mother was just driving me around in a buggy she seemed an easy target. my mother replied that she would help the mother, but instead of giving her money, she would go to a supermarket and buy stuff for the baby. the other woman refused and demanded the money…so it was easy to tell her to piss off. a person in need would have taken the offer gladly.
i think they change their methods from time to time. i went shopping for a stranger. with my money. thats by far the most retarded thing i did this month. yes, month.
and that was definetely the last time something like that happened.
Sam: Yes. The next time he rips someone off, his ears will turn into cauliflowers and toes will spout from his forehead. It is my will.
daniela, you don’t need a scanner; for the price of a good scanner you can get a buttload of photo CDs; you know, when you have your film developed get the digital version along with or instead of prints.
BUT: i’m shutting up already. when you took those napoleon stuff pictures, you didn’t follow some of the more conventional wisdom (like making a nice smooth histogram) and they turned out wonderful. so, although i thought you might be interested in some suggestions (do read that turorial, it’s good), i wouldn’t really want you to change your nifty style. looking forward to seeing great b/w film pictures of yours!
Nex, i always get a CD along with the prints, and i want to have prints. Prints are nice, mhm. Besides of prints being nice, sometimes i sell a few of them, hence i need ze prints.
I am rather fond of a few napoleon picutres myself, but the majority turned out rather so la la. Next time i leave the kid at home, so i am able to actually hold my camera with two hands and care for the settings instead of shooting on automatic mode most of the time. I quite like 10 pictures of the 50 i made, though i got all of them printed.