Given the current economic crisis, one often passes people on the street doing the Greek version of "spare change." Most are sitting quietly with a paper cup in front of them. (As compared with those in the US, who usually try to catch your eye, these folks are looking studiously at the ground.) Others sit with an open pack of cigarettes or individual packets of tissues, silently offering to sell them one-by-one, presumably for a slight mark-up.
A few, however, are quite intrusive and come up carrying small children, or pictures of small children, explaining their presumed plight--usually the child is sick and needs help. (Some of our Greek friends say that most of these in-your-face beggars are actually well-off, and this is their "job."-We don't quite know what to think about that.)
Occasionally, there's an elderly person who (again, according to the locals) might in fact be trying to live on a much-reduced pension. Many pensions have been cut in half, we're told. (These are not the pensions that are sometimes reported in the US press as having been awarded to 50 year olds because they are trade unionists.)
We hear further that some of the older pensioners are now being invited to move in with their relatives, not entirely for altruistic reasons. Though the pension has been cut, it may be the only regular income in the household.
Then there's a few folks--quite likely Roma--who bring their instruments on the metro and pass the hat. Here are two brief videos. I shot the first one over my shoulder, not realizing until they were almost done that there was a musician right behind me. So when all four of them passed me (accordion, fiddle, guitar, and bass), I got up to get a better shot. They must have remembered that Ken put a Euro in the tambourine (the fifth man, with "thumbs up") because as you will see in the second video, they played enthusiastically for us.
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A few, however, are quite intrusive and come up carrying small children, or pictures of small children, explaining their presumed plight--usually the child is sick and needs help. (Some of our Greek friends say that most of these in-your-face beggars are actually well-off, and this is their "job."-We don't quite know what to think about that.)
Occasionally, there's an elderly person who (again, according to the locals) might in fact be trying to live on a much-reduced pension. Many pensions have been cut in half, we're told. (These are not the pensions that are sometimes reported in the US press as having been awarded to 50 year olds because they are trade unionists.)
We hear further that some of the older pensioners are now being invited to move in with their relatives, not entirely for altruistic reasons. Though the pension has been cut, it may be the only regular income in the household.
Then there's a few folks--quite likely Roma--who bring their instruments on the metro and pass the hat. Here are two brief videos. I shot the first one over my shoulder, not realizing until they were almost done that there was a musician right behind me. So when all four of them passed me (accordion, fiddle, guitar, and bass), I got up to get a better shot. They must have remembered that Ken put a Euro in the tambourine (the fifth man, with "thumbs up") because as you will see in the second video, they played enthusiastically for us.
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