Talentless beggars

Posted in Old blogger by Twenty Major on October 18th, 2004

Don’t you think they’d make more money and raise the profile of their industry if they actually did something to convince you to give them money?

What’s the big difference between a busker and a beggar (apart from one generally lives in a house and the other lives under a bridge or in a shop doorway)? The busker plays his guitar and sings a song, people willingly give him money. The beggar shuffles towards you stinking of piss and Liebfraumilch and you pass him by without making eye contact.

Now, everybody in this world has a talent. It might be singing, dancing, playing the guitar, turning your eyelids inside out, shooting milk out of your eyes or anything else. But we all have them. What beggars need to do is find out what it is they can do that will entertain people enough to give them money, and who knows, it might change their life.

Take the 3 little itinerant lads who used to stand together and sing on Grafton Street. They got money from people who thought ‘Aaahh, look at the little urchins, aren’t they cute?’ and not only that they got themselves a record deal. At the moment they’re recording an album in New York with Bob Clearmountain and Sting has written some meaningful songs for them to sing. True.

Then there was the bloke who used to beg outside the Golden Gonad at the Central Bank on Dame Street. It was discovered that he could paint stunningly accurate replicas of old masters from any era, and now he has a €1,000,000 a year job in Singapore producing fakes.

And what about Parliament Street Pete who could knock old women to the ground with a single punch. He’s now a major celebrity in the Arab world.

So next time you see a beggar, don’t ignore it. Encourage it to find its niche in the world, to cultivate its talent and to try and do something to earn the 13cents you have in your pocket.

If they refuse they should be ground down and fed to poor people for sustenance.