2247 - Hard Times

It’s winter. Not a bitter winter, but nevertheless it’s a bad time to be left out in the cold.

Unfortunately it happens, and it does not only happen to bicycles, it happens to people as well. Of course while bicycles only suffer metaphorically, real people suffer really.

The fact that we have economically hard times only contributes to the problem. Although … it’s not hard for all people. The top, well, let’s say 1%, do well, in fact they do better than ever. It’s only that the pressure has risen on everybody else.

I regularly see elderly people of foreign origins standing in front of our supermarkets, begging, and I hear people bitching that they shouldn’t stand there, that this is only kind of a begging mafia, that everything given to those beggars is taken from them anyway. Others say that those beggars should stay in their homelands and work (“just like we did after the war!!!”) and so on and so forth, but really, think about it, would you like to stand there in the cold?

I work for my money, really, honestly, I do, but if you ask me who pays the higher price for his money, that beggar or I, well, I know for sure it’s not I. Nobody would stand there in the cold just for fun, and working in a regular job is definitely way easier.

Many people suspect that there is an organization behind those beggars, and suspecting so, they have an easy way out, an easy way to suspend compassion.

Don’t do it. Give. It does not hurt. Imagine yourself standing there, having no choice left.

The Song of the Day is “Hard Times” from Eric Clapton’s 1989 album “Journeyman”. Hear it on YouTube.