Advice for the homeless: don't get a job, get a website. Over the last two weeks I have been corresponding with two cheerful beggars who live on the streets of Seville. Calling themselves "Lazy Beggars", the philosophical Lyndon and José revel in their mendicant status and sit in the street with four signs in front of them, a box for spare change next to each. "For =food," reads one sign. "For beer," another. "For cocaine" says the third and "For more beer" says a fourth. They have other signs, too, which read: "For the hangover" and "For wine". Like a couple of medieval mountebanks, they amuse and cheer passersby. "We are honest. We make you smile. What more can you ask?" is their slogan.
All this is genius enough. In celebrating their rejection of nine-to-five life they give themselves and others like them far more dignity than the most well-meaning charity could ever provide. They very much do not represent themselves as objects of pity. They live like this, they say, because they enjoy it. But even better is the fact that most of those spare euros are spent not on cocaine but in the internet cafe, where the pair work on their website, lazybeggers.com (sic).
The website features pictures of the pair on the streets, plus pictures of other local homeless characters they know. It also shows the Lazy Beggars in various cities around the world on their travels.
Both Lazy Beggars have had jobs in the "world" but both decided that travelling and begging was a better way of living, and so dropped out. The Lazy Beggars say that their job is to make people smile, and they say that with their begging in the real and virtual worlds they create thousands of smiles every day. They embrace idleness - "be lazy, be happy, be you!" - is another slogan.
The site is full of charm and wit, and its crowning glory is: you can give them spare change by Paypal! Truly, begging has entered the electronic age. I think the people at Centrepoint homeless charity should take this idea round the wanderers of London's West End. With the internet, you can keep on asking for spare change even when you're asleep!
Of course the Lazy Beggars will also accept gifts sent by more traditional means. You can send them letters to be collected at their local post office: I sent two books with a few euros, and received a lovely "thank you" by email. In the Middle Ages begging was dignified by the example of the mendicant friars. Today it is dignified by the example of the Lazy Beggars so congratulations to them.
