JEDDAH, 24 August 2005 — Urban myth relates that many beggars are not what they seem. The fleet-footed “crippled” boy and his team who haunt Muraba (Square) Bridge over the Madinah Road are living proof that the myth is indeed fact.
His afflicted left leg, dragging pitifully on the ground behind him and the deformed-looking right arm are completely fake. He is part of a coordinated team, which includes a nimble child who appears to be about eight years old and habitually wears a brown thobe, carefully watched over by at least two adult minders.
In the heat of the day, the whole group sits in the shade under the bridge. During the morning and evening rush hours, motorists are targeted by the approach of the — apparently — dreadfully crippled youth. In stained thobe and skull-cap, the sharp featured lad approaches motorists at the traffic lights with a mournful look, hand out, seeking alms. Many drivers respond with a few riyals or a bottle of water. What they do not see is the lad gamboling with his associates under the bridge.
The lads have set up their getaway routes with considerable skill. Four exits from the bridge deck give them a choice of escape routes. When they were approached with cameras, the “cripple” underwent a miraculous spontaneous recovery and sprinted down the nearest set of steps where he was met by one of the two minders who led the charge away from the scene.
The smaller of the two beggars, who had not yet got the grasp of an “affliction” and relied on an impish expression and his very small stature to extract money from well wishers, used a different set of steps and was grabbed by his minder who hauled him at high speed across the busy lines of traffic on the Madinah Road. The whole team — which included a female “beggar” in black — regrouped a few minutes later in the car park of a shopping mall just south of their patch.
Persistence is part of their strategic planning; a couple of hours after the wholesale retreat, they were back on station, although this time with a lookout posted.
The recent successes of the raids in South Jeddah in rounding up organized gangs of illegal immigrants and the collapse of the criminal activities that some are involved in — including begging rings — has had some effect.
While some beggars in the streets of Jeddah are genuine with true stories of abandonment and poverty to tell, some are merely capitalizing on the generosity of the public. With Ramadan approaching, there will be an increase in beggars asking for charity and many who deserve it will not receive it because of the actions of coordinated teams of fakers.
