I was planning to write a piece on how beggars and dialogers (The people annoying you at larger shopping streets and try to get you signed up for some monthly payment to Greenpeace or whatever), and how they contribute to the way urban environments work. Reality, as usual, was faster and wrote one for me.

While waiting for a train today, a guy came up to me. He asked me for directions to Südbahnhof. I told him how to get there, and that was my mistake. He smiled, shook my hand, and then introduced himself as Nikolai from Russia. He told me how he’s visiting Vienna for 17 days with his wife and kids, and how broke they are, and how horrible it is not to have enough food, bla bla bla. Then he sniffed, wiped an imaginary tear from his face with a dirty handkerchief and he asked me for some money for food. I showed him that there were no bank notes in my purse, and gave him 3 € in coins. He smiled, shook my hand again and walked away.

In the course of all this, I realized something: All those folks who tell beggars to “get a job” are terribly shortsighted. Panhandlers are highly qualified, highly specialized people. They adapt to any change in society, they always have a new and interesting / funny / heartbreaking story up their sleeves, and if not, they fail. Take that guy for example - most people tend to walk on or get angry when they get asked for money instantly, so he first asks me for directions - that’s harmless, and any good person would answer that question. Then he fraternises a bit with me - the shake hands, the name exchange, all that. Afterwards, he builds up his story - and in his case, it was so horribly presented it was already funny. Of course I could not laugh in the middle of his sad, sad tale - and I didn’t bother asking why he carried his sick and starving family form Russia to Vienna for 17 days, or why his accent didn’t sound Russian. That would be ruining the situation. I just played my part, told him that those are hard times, wished him luck, gave him some coins. He was happy, and I was happy, and all was well.

Ah, and I was speaking of countermeasures - well, what I showed him wasn’t really my wallet. Well, yes, but it was my other wallet - I always carry two around, one with my money, cards and stuff, and one with just a few business cards and some spare change. I only show beggars the second one, of course. Now, of course I could simply tell every beggar who asks me for cash to fuck of and die, or just pretend I don’t speak the language or something, but that would be unfair. Worse, in my opinion it would be cheating. After all, those people are just doing their job.