I went out for dinner tonight to a BBQ place with my girlfriend, her younger sister and her sisters friend. We went to our usual place only 150 metres away from our place ordered our food and sat down and waited. Well before we had even had our plates or drinks brought to the table the first young street hawker came up to the table, he would have been 7 or 8 years old dressed in dirty jeans and a really dirty red or orange t-shirt and he had no shoes. He was selling green mango and peanuts. Now don't get me wrong i feel sorry for these kids (i am gullible). So we bought (i bought) 1 tray of green mango and a bag of peanuts. That was 20 baht all up. 15 minutes later the second one arrived this time a young girl who would have been the same age the first boy dressed in a long dirty white dress. When i spoke to her in Thai she had trouble speaking and when she did reply she spoke Laos. She was selling the same as the boy and yes, i bought another tray of mango and a bag of peanuts (lunch tomorrow at school).
The in quick procession two young flower sellers who were very determined for me to buy from them but i told them politely, No and one of them stood at the table for at least a minute bowing and Waiing to us. After ignoring him he finally left.
This is a very familiar sight when you go out to eat and i don't blame the kids it's the parents. Where are they? Don't they care about their children? I already know the answer most the time. Dad is a drunk, he doesn't work. Mum is a card player and so on. I know too many young kids around my place who are being brought by their grandparents or aunts and uncles because dad took off when the kid was born and mum has gone to work in the city or abroad. There is one boy i know he is 5 and i have never meet his mother in 2 and a half years. I am told she is working in Laos for some big company but that remains to be seen.
These poor kids shouldn't be out to all hours of the night selling (begging) for people to buy things to usually help their family. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of really hard luck families out there doing it really tough i know that. I know a few baht makes a big difference here from going hungry or eating.
I have respect for the people who i see out walking the Soi's selling from their carts. Most the time they are older people walking kilometres each day selling their product pounding the pavement and i say good bloody on them. That is why sometimes when i see these people who look healthy to me walking around the weekend markets with kids begging for money, i don't give them anything. I might buy the kid something to eat or a drink but do not give them money i feel better is i know the kid is having something to eat and that mum and grandmother isn't taking the money to the card table to gamble it away. Well that's my rant anyway!! What do you think?
1 comment:
i don't by anything from the children Brunty. i don't want to give the impression that it works.
one of the best (worst) examples of street selling while eating was a woman who came up to us with the hard sell on a bottle of honey while we were trying to eat. when i said "no" she pointed to her kid and made the hungry sign on her stomach. not my fucking problem lady. stop having them if you can't feed them.
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