Anyone who spends more than a day travelling on the Seoul subway is familiar with certain varieties of beggar who frequent it - supposed orphans and disabled people, a few people with no legs, but mainly supposedly blind people. Way back in October the Chosun Ilbo badgered a few people its reporters saw begging for money on the subway by claiming to be blind. Its conclusion? Most subway beggars who say they are blind are not blind at all.
On January 14, 50- year-old Mr. Lee got on the subway at Jonggak station, then walked along slowly tapping a white stick and begging for money from passengers.
By walking up and down the train about 10 times, he covers roughly 100 meters. In one hand he carries a cassette player and plays music in order to get the attention of the carriage passengers. It takes about 30 minutes for him to cover the whole train. An average of 10 people will give him money and it totals about 2,000 won ($1.75).
As soon as he alights from the train he walks briskly up the stairs and through the ticket checks. It is a complete contrast to the uneasy way he walked along the carriages.
A Chosun journalist followed Mr. Lee and asked him some questions.
As expected, he was not really blind. Back in 2005 he operated a small paper cup selling company, but his business failed and his wife divorced him. He now lives alone. “ I feel bad about what I do now. I feel so bad that I can’t do anything other than beg. I feel so sorry for my family.” He has been begging on subways for about two years.
There are few unlike Mr. Lee.
Last month from 10 o’clock to 6 o’clock the journalist met five blind people begging on trains. Of these five (including Mr. Lee) only one person was genuine.
Seoul Metro officials are now trying to take control of the situation. Metro officials stated that they would only take action against the most obvious frauds because the genuinely blind people cannot help begging. That is a government problem.
Seoul Metro has always tried to regulate not just begging but trading of small goods on their trains but it has never really been effective. It is very easy for them to simply move to a different train and continue. The Metro workers have never filed a police report about the problem. However, they will take action against anyone using too much pressure against passengers.
Is there a wealthy route?
Some beggars have ‘know how’ and stick to particular lines of the subway.
It depends on the day, time, and subway line. Mr. Lee claims that weekday mornings are the worst as there are so many people commuting that it is tiresome. The best times are weekday afternoons and weekend mornings on lines 1, 3 and 4. They can easily weave through passengers then. Mr. Lee usually travels on the weekend morning subway, then changes from line 1 to line 3 in the afternoon. That way he can get more money than usual weekday journeys. Many others begging prefer the line 4 train to the horse racing track.
There are also high class people to beg from.
It is so tiring to get lots of money that it is normal to get between 10,000 and 20,000 ($17.50) won per day and live hand to mouth. On line 1, 48-year-old Mr. Park (who is genuinely blind) was begging with his 44-year-old wife Mrs. Seo holding his arm. After a short time they stopped to count the money. They had about 6,000 won ($5.25).
Many people think that after a days ‘work’ the beggars live in luxury, but Mr. Park stated that, though he doesn’t know about others, he can definitely say that he and his wife struggle to eat and live on a daily basis. With that, they gathered their money and changed trains.
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