Moral Dilemma 1: Begging - what would you do?

I’m sitting in a restaurant in Siem Reap – though this applies to the bars of Phnom Penh and no doubt the beaches of Sihanoukville. Cambodia has a few tourist spots but plenty of poor people – so wherever you sip your beer you’ll pretty soon be approached by a beggar.

So do you give them money? Should you give money to beggars?

My first instinct is to give. As a human, hopefully a reasonably decent specimen of one, I find it deeply upsetting to see helpless, desperate people, and I want to help. In Cambodia, I am rich – morally I feel seriously guilty at my wealth, and practically a few notes make not a jot of difference to me.

So what’s the problem?

Perhaps the biggest issue is children. Refusing a doe-eyed child takes a heart of steel, but received wisdom here is that you should never give to children. Children should not be on the streets begging, for the sake of their own safety and hopefully education, and if you give to them you encourage them to put both at risk. Also, lurking behind the innocent child will often be a more sinister adult controlling the operation and pocketing your well-intentioned gift. However, as my fellow couch-philosopher Su rightly points out, that this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak to begging children with kindness and compassion.

So ok, I don’t give to children. But what about adults?

Back in the UK, I didn’t usually give to beggars on the grounds that it “encourages begging” or “promotes a dependency culture”. This was strengthened by an assumption that the money was for drugs rather than food or shelter (though is that worse if they need it as much?). I sometimes rather haughtily gave food instead. Stacks of unread Big Issues in my room showed one outlet for my liberal guilt, and paying off the Christmas taunts of national charities also eased my conscience. But frankly I also toughened up a bit, as you do to live in any big city – I learned to walk on by.

I’ve never felt happy about it though – actually I always felt profoundly uncomfortable. Saying “I do beg your pardon, I appreciate you need this small amount of money far more than I, but nonetheless I shall not be giving it to you as I have formulated a compelling philosophical argument which demonstrates that to be the incorrect course of action for a moral agent in such circumstances”. Sounds kinda twatish. I’ve certainly never had the guts to say it out loud to an actual beggar.

And here in Cambodia I’m not sure that the same rules apply anyway. For a start there’s no welfare state to speak of, so beggars really are those who are the most desperate and needy. Disabled beggars, often with shocking deformities, are difficult to refuse - and how else would they survive? And the toothless old woman who came up to me last week hardly fitted the image of a druggie waster who I might find it easier to turn down.

So I resolved to start giving – not to children, but 500 riel (an eighth of a dollar) to whomever I can’t avoid and who I arbitrarily designate as being deserving poor.

At my little pavement cafe in downtown Siem Reap tonight I put my new approach to the test. Several thousand riels later and I was in danger of paying more in begging duty than for my delicious street food.

Maybe giving isn’t the answer?