Our editor for the homeless in the center of Prague. Drugs absolutely everywhere. Absolutely
photo: Nela Havlíková, PrahaIN.cz/PrahaIN.cz editor in front of the Charles Bridge as a homeless person
PART ONE The editorial staff of PrahaIN.cz attempted a social experiment, trying to find out how much a homeless person can beg for in one afternoon in the center of Prague. The editor set out to roam the streets of the capital in disguise. There was a dismissal, an offer of drugs, but also politicians. The money earned went to charity.
At the outset, it should be said that I did the experiment out of interest in the given issue, and in advance I expected that we would send the collected money to charity. We selected The Jakub Voráček Foundation, which helps patients with multiple sclerosis.
Many of us have certainly asked ourselves the question in our lives, how much can a person “beg” on the street, the answer can be easily found on the Internet, there are many articles. For example, a web portal Flowee published an interview with homeless Václav Bural, where we can find such information. However, we also wanted to find out what life on the street is like for ourselves. And believe me, it’s not pleasant.
Disguise
Before our editor left the “warmth” of the office in disguise. He took old and slightly torn clothes, which he supplemented with a cosmetic makeover, helped by Kristýna Vajnerová from the beauty salon PURE UP STUDIO.
Greasy hair, small scars, circles under the eyes, dirty nails, but maybe also a cut on the leg.
Before and after…
It all started before lunch in Prague’s Košířy, not far from the center of the metropolis. The plan was to go to Smíchov, which is famous for its high number of homeless people, then along Náplavka to the Charles Bridge. The final was in Kampa. We have divided the article into several parts, according to the stages of the route.
Most of the editors imagined the task relatively easy. However, the editor who completed the experiment led us astray. The whole afternoon was very demanding.
It was necessary to give a competent acting performance and to constantly have the expression of a troubled person on the face. The endlessly repeated question: “Hello, would you like some change, please?” was demanding. And fromIn all honesty, the editor was really nervous at first.
The first part of the journey. Source: Google Maps
Smíchov, more readily available drugs
Being asked for the first time in a living person’s life if he would donate some change was disheartening and humiliating.
Even the first experience, when we encountered a foreigner with comprehensible but not written Czech, did not help our nervousness. “Tiny? Look in the mirror, what do you look like, how old are you? Get away from me.’
We walked about twenty meters, we approached three people, each of them told us at least one longer sentence. That was the experience right from the start, as we originally thought that people wouldn’t even stop for us on the street.
The second addressee did not inspire hope in the editor’s veins: “I am a pensioner, what are you? You don’t know how it goes at all.”
“I have two children alive, it can’t go on like this,” answered a third passerby, a middle-aged woman, to the request for money.
Anyway, another thirty or so people answered simply and did not stop walking.
We then met a man with a dog at the Malostranské cemetery. We’ll mention in advance that we didn’t really ask everyone, sometimes you simply admit that it’s not worth it. This is exactly what we had planned in this case as well. But the man addressed us first: “Don’t you want something… fet, weed?” There was no reaction and the person shouted something else, it’s hard to say what, but it wasn’t exactly an invitation to tea at five o’clock.
The whole journey up to OC Nový Smíchov was unsuccessful, the change cup was empty. Anyway, we finally came across a place where there were more people. It was lively at the Anděl mall, it was lunch time. The band played guitars and the audience could contribute. Our editor also wanted to take advantage of the situation, so he went to work, but he was rejected by about forty passers-by.
The first contribution to the paper cup came from a young woman who could have been under the age of 20, who was not approached by “our” young homeless person, she contributed on her own.
We had the honor of even asking a rapper for change at the Anděl metro station Dollar Prynce, who comes from Smíchov, which he mentions in almost every track. He looked for change in his pocket for about two seconds, but couldn’t find it. Anyway, there was an effort.
In the end, another young woman, again close in age to the fake homeless person, gave us the change. The same thing happened a few minutes later.
The bottom line: only the younger years have contributed to the young man so far. It is a very interesting discovery, what is behind it in reality, we do not know. But we think it’s about sympathizing with the same age bracket.
As with the Malostranské cemetery, there were also drugs in the streets around Anděl.
After a classic question, this time to middle-aged men, an answer was received that was definitely not expected: “And don’t you want something good?” For example, it might seem that a man offers food, a homeless person might appreciate that. Before any of our answers the man added, “Gingerbread.” It’s hard to tell if a person begging for change would have the money to buy a dose of meth. When the offerer was told that we only had forty kroner so far, he moved on.
“I’ve been offered drugs many times in my life, but disguised as a homeless person begging for change for food, I wouldn’t expect it. It’s very strange,” the editor said of her experience.
The last interesting answer came from Smíchov. We tried not to approach teenagers, but we accidentally made an exception, we asked, we met a girl who looked much older from the side than from the front. In the end, the editor tipped her for less than fifteen years. “More, I don’t have it, I spent the last forty crowns on water… But come on, here’s a quill, you can have that,” she said and offered a burning joint.
“Honestly, I was terribly surprised by the carelessness of the lady in question, who was willing to share a marijuana cigarette with a complete stranger, who was also in a very desolate state,” the editor admitted after meeting the girl.
Long live the center?
With roughly sixty crowns in the cup, we set off on a journey along the river. We are a pittance for advantageous people who in most cases sat on the bench. Here, the most common answer was that they only have a card. Anyway, there were also comments, such as: “Get a job, you’re young” or “I don’t have a dime, but I have a job.”
And the closer we got to the city center, the more the number of foreigners increased. So the answer was more often heard: “Sorry…” But we did not edit the question into English, because we know from our own experience that even in foreign countries they address the homeless in the local language. And it is also true that an international language is not needed to understand our plea.
On one of the benches, we came across a couple of people sitting, who gave us a gift. And again, they were young people, up to twenty-five years old at the most. They were among the oldest that provided money. We have said our now brilliantly learned sentence more than 250 times.
We arrived at Kampa, where the space was being prepared for the event of the SPOLU coalition, which was supposed to start the hot phase of its campaign here in the afternoon. However, none of the politicians had been here yet.
In the center of the city, on the Malá Strana, success did not await us at all. Crowds of foreigners certainly did not welcome the young man.
The next stop was perhaps the most famous monument of the mother of cities.
Quick ejection from the bridge
It was Charles Bridge.
Who would have thought that it would be empty on a Monday afternoon would be wrong. The stone bridge was literally packed, mainly tourists from different parts of the globe.
We went around the entire bridge, more than half a kilometer long, back and forth, again. But success did not come. Exceptionally, we also came across the Czechs, but we didn’t receive a so-called crown from them either. So I decided it was time to rest. We simply sat down and waited to see if some passers-by would reward the young homeless person.
We chose a place exactly in the middle of the Charles Bridge.
The time spent here was really short. About 15 seconds, then the security immediately came and kicked us out politely but firmly.
“I rent the entire Charles Bridge to the Association of Artists who paint here or play some musical instruments. In short, you can’t beg here, only artists can use the space. From the tower down, it’s under the direction of the city police, so you can do what you want there,” said an employee of the Association of Artists and the guard of the Charles Bridge to PrahaIN.cz, when the editor tried to explain why he was sitting there.
“Do I at least look believable?” asked the editor.
“Really cool,” was the reply.
We were interested in the attention of security. The first time we tried to sit down very briefly before we were kicked out. We tried to do the same thing, this time at the beginning of the bridge. Again it was uncompromising, this time our attempt to beg on the former Stone Bridge lasted about a minute and a half. The security guard then only came with a smile, because they knew that the editor was in the homeless man’s costume. “I go around it all the time here, it’s just forbidden, it’s simple,” he added.
People’s views on the homeless
Our editor finally found refuge just before entering the Charles Bridge. The cup was placed within his immediate distance, the unhappy expression a matter of course, as it had been all along. We spent a little over an hour and a half at the mentioned place.
In front of the famous Prague monument, the homeless editor finally made eighty crowns and two euros.
“I have to admit that it was crazy to ask a stranger for money at first. I felt really awkward. But gradually I got used to it. I took on the role of a homeless person in such a way that although I have a job myself, I was ashamed when older fellow citizens criticized me for being lazy and that I should go to work when I have two arms and two legs,” the editor shared his feelings.
“It was very strange for me when people of roughly the same age expressed pity for me,” he added.
“In order to find out what I have, I only needed one afternoon in the finals. I wouldn’t want life on the street.’
According to a 2020 analysis by the Prague Social Services Center, approximately 4-5 thousand people live without a roof over their heads in the capital. And although there are several organizations that focus on the homeless, the situation is still relentless.
In the next material, we will describe how the editor returned to the SPOLU coalition event, and we can immediately reveal that he also begged among politics.
You will also read how many total kilometers he found and how much he “earned” in total.