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Most major centers of Seoul have at least one of these men crawling the walkways: beggars who inch along labourously on their faces, pushing a wheeled basket before them. Oftentimes they have a music box that blares tinny tunes which inform passer-bys of their presence down below.

It's a sign of a jaded society, I know, to suggest that such an unfortunate sight might need additional broadcast, but the fact of the matter is that these guys quickly become an everyday fixture. However, I can still remember my first encounter with a no-leg beggar pretty vividly. His situation seemed overwhelmingly degrading - he was wearing a pleather sack around his waist and dragged himself through the crowds like a beached mermaid. It was just, I dunno, incredibly sub-human. I thought, "FUCK, this guy must be really down on his luck to scrape around on his face in such a pitiful manner," and dived for my wallet. But within days I had seen many such men, each with various material substitutes for legs, and the immediate impulse to dump all of one's change into their basket lessens with exposure.

While it is usually assumed that these beggars are victims of the Korean War, someone once posited the theory that perhaps some saw their own limbs off for the sympathy factor. I find this extremely unlikely, as legs are pretty sweet and one would have to make a real killing on the streets to make their removal worthwhile. Plus it would hurt like acid bananas.

I will tell you this, though. I noticed one day that Sanbon's no-leg beggar was in a wheelchair at the bottom of the subway ramp instead of his usual prone position. His basket was pretty empty. The next day, he was back on the ground and the wheelchair was nowhere to be seen. The money seemed to be much better. But still, the way I figure, you do the best with what you have - you don't fucking chop off your own legs just because you happen to be down and out.

I find it pretty hard to write about this, and it was even harder to take a picture. I felt like a tourist piece of shit, honestly, with my finger on the shutter. I felt guilty for taking notice and dropped a proportionately large amount of guilt money into the basket afterwards. It's easy to gloss over uncomfortable subjects - to step over them and pretend they're just a mute fact of life in the interest of "compassion" and "respect" for the victims. A lot of people do it. A lot of cultures do it. But you also have to wonder: if everyone follows the politically-correct line of ignoring troublesome things, of conveniently leaving them out of informal discourse, will we ever really see how fucked up the world can be?

I would've talked to him, but I didn't have the language. I only have this.

[Korea] [no legs beggar]

Posted by Chris at 10:58 AM >> Commentations (2)