An interview with detective Nikos Pelekasis in the newspaper Pontiaki Gnomi.
We have all encountered them, whether while driving in traffic, using public transport, or perhaps while enjoying our Sunday coffee in the sunshine. I am referring to beggars. People who are predominantly foreigners, often physically disabled, of all ages, poorly dressed and unkempt. Most of us pretended not to see them and waited for the traffic light to turn green, or to get off at the next stop, or simply waved our hand to say no and continued drinking our coffee.
Modern Begging – Lately, something has changed, and no one can pretend not to see it.
Looking around us, we can now see clean, well-groomed people of all ages, increasingly often Greeks, selling their wares: tissues, pens, lighters, asking for our help because they have become unemployed, often homeless, or because they are trying to supplement their meagre income. We can now speak of a different kind of begging.
Ordinary people from next door are taking to the streets, modestly and quietly, seeking a solution to their problem. Some time ago, in the southern suburbs, I met Grandpa S…. “93” years old!!! Every morning, faithfully keeping our appointment at the traffic lights, clean, wearing his white shirt, always neatly ironed, and his red cap, he gives me a broad smile and wishes me “health and happiness.” He works, he told me, to help his children and grandchildren because his pension is not enough. He has a large family, and some of his children and grandchildren have become unemployed.
The traffic light turns green. I raise the window and drive away. In the rear-view mirror, I see the old man waving at me with a smile, representing “the honoured elderly” of my country.
As for the “proud youth,” they can often be encountered on public transport or in cafés, where one can buy pens or other small trinkets from them at a good price, unable to look them in the eye out of shame!
Shame because we, the older generations, consciously or unconsciously, because it suited us, turned a blind eye to misguided practices and situations — some of which we inherited and others we created — ignoring the consequences.
Modern Begging
Pontiaki Gnomi Newspaper
March 2014
Issue No. 60
