Some years ago I arranged to meet a friend at an ice cream shop in Osu to celebrate her birthday.
The ice cream parlor had outside seating so we decided to hang out there to enjoy the Osu fresh air and the sights.
About 5 minutes into our conversation a short man selling waist beads approached us in an effort to have us purchase some beads. We politely declined his offer.
Unconvinced by our response, he bargained some more to his dissapointment.
Seeing that his sales pitch was unsuccessful, he moved away from the sale and rather asked that we give him some money.
This guy couldn’t take a hint. I mean here are two people engaged in a private conversation and you butt in without being called. You insist on a sale and they are not interested and then you proceed to beg. That however was not the cherry on the cake.
We were not interested in giving money as we were pissed so just made a hand gesture to indicate that we were not going to do so. This seller/beggar got pissed and started cursing us. He proceeded to involve God in his curses in an effort to guilt trip us.
Needless to say I was mad. Mad that my religion was being used in such a despicable manner. I mean I have a choice to give or not. I said I wouldn’t and rather you get pissed? How does that help your cause?
This made me question how grateful these people really were. After this behavior I realized that I would have been a sucker for giving money to someone that ungrateful who believed it was his right to receive money from me.
I mean lets think about it. A good portion of beggars are on the street because their daily wages allow them to be there. If someone gets an average of 50 GHC a week (that’s about 10 GHC from Monday to Friday) that’s 200 GHC a month. That’s someone’s salary! Someone working their butt off.
All I am saying is that there are some ungrateful beggars in the system these days. Some beggars are beggars by choice as opposed to circumstances being beyond them. Though one can’t judge, its tough to decide whether to give or not these days as you are not sure whether you are enabling them to stay on the street or helping them get by genuinely.
This is my dilemma, although that beggar really pissed me off.
What’s your take on beggars?
Keep it One Hondred!