Busking/Begging

You may recall one of my previous posts was a review of 300, well after watching the film and running UP the DOWN escalator on that day, a certain MissB and I were walking down Market street in the foggy warmth (global warming?!). We followed the sound of Joe Budden's pump it up and came across a smallish crowd which had congregated around a breakdancer of about 14 years or so. We stopped, to watch him for a while and he was impressive, until the song stopped and so did the boy, he picked up his cap with some money inside, put his stereo in a dinky suitcase thingy and walked off and so the crowd dispersed.

As i was on the train home today that memory was pulled forward from the depths of my mind. As i turned the page of the Manchester Evening News, the same boy looked up at me, mid move. George Sampson of Warrington is a dance devotee, having danced since the age of six, he has been offered a place at Hammond school, a prestigious dance school, where he hopes to learn ballet in order to fulfil his dreams of becoming a professional dancer. He spends his free time breakdancing on Market street, in order to raise some money so he can pay his school fees.

A mere 2 hours or so before coming across the article me and my uni friends were walking to Spar on Oxford Road. We only had 15 mins before next lecture and we needed our lunch. As we were browsing the junk food isles, we were each separately approached by two Muslim women who were begging for money. However they didn't even ask for the money they just showed us a slip of paper, which said something along the lines of "i have no husband and 3 children to feed etc etc" (i don't think they could speak English). The slip of paper in their hands was clearly printed from a computer (?) and they both had the same text on. Now if you gave these women some money were would it go?? call me pessimistic, but i really doubt they get to keep all the money they get given, they probably have to "report" back to someone who takes the money off them and if their lucky perhaps feeds them and gives them a roof over their head (I don't know their situation or they're background I'm only speculating), but by giving them money aren't we condoning such exploitation?? (here's an example of more extreme cases)

George and the two women are very different case but in effect aren't they both examples of begging? i'm not sure how i feel about begging. in fact whilst writing this post i've changed my mind several times. Sometiems i give money sometimes i don't, when i don't i feel heartless and inhumane, when i do i ponder whether or not they were telling me the truth.......i think ultimatley only Allah knows everyones true intentions ..... that goes for the beggar and the giver