Beggars’ Opera: Poverty in Europe's Streets - by Alexandra Colen
I had expected that travelling from Turkey to Greece would be like travelling from a poor country to a richer one. After all, Greece is part of the European Union (EU), while Turkey is not. Hence, taking the ferry recently from the Turkish town of Bodrum (the ancient Greek city of Halicarnassos, birthplace of Herodotos, the “father of history”) to the Greek island and town of Kos (birthplace of Hippocrates, the “father of medicine”) I was struck by a phenomenon in Kos which I had not seen in Turkey the previous week. Both Kos and Bodrum are affluent tourist resorts, but whereas in Bodrum one does not meet any beggars, one is accosted by them whenever one visits a church in Kos or walks through the ruins of the forum in the town center.
Turkey is not richer than Greece, so I wondered where the Turkish beggars are. Perhaps, because Turkey is outside the EU, it has more of a capitalist, entrepreneurial spirit. Perhaps there are fewer beggars in Turkey because the Turkish poor, who would be begging in Greece, try to earn money by selling goods or offering services which other people might want. Along the street women sell sage which they have picked and dried, men sell fruit or souvenir trinkets or bottles of water, others offer to polish your shoes. None of this in Greece, where, as elsewhere in the EU, the entrepreneurial spirit is discouraged. Anyone who wants to sell goods or perform services has to register and fulfill administrative and bureaucratic requirements.
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