Missed opportunities and homeless people

Sorry, readers, but this is not going to be a post about how homeless people have merely missed opportunities which have resulted in them being in their homeless situation. Instead, the happenings in Birmingham New Street Train Station with a homeless fellow and I.

If I was in the unfortunate situation of being homeless, I would probably become slightly resentful of those folk that have faired better than I. I would become resentful of how one could stop in at a train station and enter a coffee shop to buy a beverage. But one thing that I believe I would refrain from is showing this resentment and translating it into aggression and forcefulness to someone that could help buy one’s next meal.

I shall put the previous paragraph into context, but not before explaining my stance/views on the homeless. I was brought up being told of a man named “Nobby the Tramp” who was a homeless man through choice, that lived in my hometown; very few people didn’t know of him. Built like an ogre; he was tall, fat, extremely hairy and smelly – to me he was a feral man living in an urban cityscape. He was always revered as a kind man, and this in turn meant that as a young, naive child I had no negative connotations attached to homeless people.

This one sided view of the homeless was degraded through time as I saw homeless people smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol; is that where the small change given to them goes? I became very critical of homeless people and why they’re in the situation they are.

A friend of mine, whom I’m not sure whether he wishes to be named (therefore shall not be), took a homeless person to Mc Donald’s for a burger when begged the request of money; to make sure his donation to the homeless man was well spent.

On a getaway to Brighton last year with a few friends, on an evening out a homeless man begged for money with the plea that he wanted to buy more drugs and alcohol. Most of the group laughed and donated generously. This beggar shook my morals when I too reached into my pockets to give him money. That was the last time I gave money to a beggar, and it shall be the last time until I see a compassionate man like Nobby to raise my spirits.

A similar sight to the homeless man in Brighton

 

It was not only the frank and truthful beggar that made me wary of homeless people, but tonight, in Birmingham New Street Train Station too. I was on my way back to university in Stoke-on-Trent, and I had to connect in Birmingham. It’s a frequent stop for me, and there’s nothing I like more than getting a coffee at this checkpoint. Tonight was no different.

As I walked off from the platform into the shopping hall, I began to walk towards Upper Crust, a baggette store which also sells coffee. I was unsure whether I wanted a coffee or not, though I steered myself tentatively in the direction of Upper Crust nonetheless. Until, a man carrying a Big Issue magazine stood infront of me to stop my stride and said confidently and firmly “Could you buy me a meal?” I replied by saying that I had no physical money in my pockets, therefore I was was unable to give him money (not true, but hey). He then proceeded to call me a lier because he saw me heading in the way of Upper Crust, therefore I must have money. Feeling quite besieged, I simply told him that I was going to use a card if I was to make a purchase. At this point, he turned back to his original question by saying “Why can you not buy me a meal then?” I felt the hostility and therefore replied “Because I’m not in the mood for a coffee anymore” then I made a swift walk away from the man, but not before he could hail abuse at me.

Firstly, I don’t understand why this man placed himself in a busy train station; Birmingham New Street Train Station is full with business people commuting, the kind of people I’m sure this man resents. No wonder he has become such a hostile man; he has surrounded himself in what he dislikes. But those people he dislike are also the people that can buy him his next meal, revealing a poor irony for this man and many other homeless people.

I was truly disgusted by the behaviour of this man, and if I would have been expecting this confrontation, he could have expected a much better response from me; better meaning riddled with passive aggression and condescension, but that was just one of my missed opportunities.

To end the tale, after I paced up to my platform board I returned to Upper Crust, the homeless man had disappeared therefore I bought myself a coffee and went on my way!