Professional con

Beggers in Vancouver are clever. They may not appear that way, but they use as clever "marketing" techiniques as anyone.

You might feel sorry for the old man without shoes in a wheelchair begging with a sign, but once you've seen him get his shoes out of his bag and walking away, it's not quite the same. We got fooled by an elderly lady just after we arrived - she honestly looks like she's just fallen a bit rough, dressed up in fine but a bit tattered clothes, a bit of smudged makeup and she just wanted a quarter so she could call home... only when you see her a month later with the same look and the same story it kind of loses the impact. My favourite was a young girl that was sitting on corner of Robson and Howe with a sign saying "Made an honest mistake, need a bus ticket back to Toronto" - I remember pointing her out to Dragon and we wondered if she was for real or not, as she looked very convincing. And again a great story is ruined by repetition and some time ago I saw her again which of course meant that it was bogus.

So I thought I had become just a big cynic, but still some of them can surprise me. There's this one guy who's always on Robson, who looks like a total headcase - he's constantly shuffling his feet like he really really needs to get to the toilet and has a constant matra "please miss, please sir, spare some change, please miss, please sir..." over and over again. I always thought he looked like he genuinely needs help, until he speeded past me the other day on a fancy mountain bike on his way to "work" looking quite normal.

In a way I hate it that they become invisible for me, but I always remember what they used to say in London. Don't give money to the beggars, they will use it on drugs - if you want to help them, give your money to the charities that help them, it's the best way of ensuring your money goes to the cause. So in a way I like the ones more that are honest about it - it's not that uncommon to see signs like "Need money for pot", and not only are they honest, they make people laugh which believe it or not works. Truth is though that Vancouver has a huge drug problem and that it's quite likely that's where the most money goes to, whether admitted or not.

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