Just like home. But not.

San Francisco is famous for it's large homeless population. It's also known for Trustafarians, basically referring to someone who has oodles of money or a trustfund, but still begs on the side of the road.  They are young, hip and weekend-homeless.  Strange but true.  They sit by the side of the road holding funny little signs of cardboard that read: "Ninjas killed my parents. Need money for karate lessons," or "Why lie? Need money for beer!" Mostly there is a dog with them, a small backpack, tatty clothes.  Could you imagine something like a trustafarian in South Africa?  Not in a million years.  Just proving how generally safe the States really are if the rich feel safe enough to spend the weekends sleeping in the streets.

The story, as told to me by a tourguide, goes like this:

San Francisco is the centre of Liberalism in the US.  In the 70's or 80's the overly zealous local government decided that it was only good and right to give the homeless people in SF a monthly stipend.  They believed that this small amount of money (something like $300) would serve as support and inspiration for people to better themselves and that eventually they will be able to lift themselves out of poverty and become healthy members of society once more.  Unsurprisingly the exact opposite happened.  Homeless people from across the country heard that they could come to SF and get paid for being homeless!  How cool is that.  So they flocked from around the States to their new Utopia, San Francisco where their drug money would be delivered on a plate.  It took the government something like 20 years to catch on to the fact that their little plan was backfiring something horrible by which time it was much too late to undo what they have done. 

Late afternoons the homeless qeue up for food in long lines in the city centre, and quite a spectacle it is.  They have some serious attitude, sporting crown-hats, faux fur coats, anything I guess they can lay their hands on.  The problem is still nowhere near as severe as in SA, but you definitely feel the impact of it more in SF than any other city where I've been.  I remember noticing a beggar sitting by the side of the road in NY because I hadn't seen any in all the time I'd been there.

At the same time that the liberals started their little experiment a whole new brand of kids were growing up in SF who were being told from a young age by their filthy rich and guilt-ridden parents that big corporations were evil and bad because their intention was to take over the world and that SF was committed to only serving the little guy. In most cases these kids had parents who had made a fortune out of some or another corporation somewhere down the line because God knows it's not cheap living in this city,  but all of that was being hidden and disowned.  Lots of money + denial = deeply dysfunctional kids who think it's hip to be poor.

The Trustafarians stick to the Haight/Ashbury district, famous as the central point of the hippy movement. The real homeless gravitate towards the center of the city and you are confronted by them when you take any kind of public transport.  I spent an entire day being haunted by a woman who was obviously smacked out of her mind and wondered around the subway system for hours, jumping different trains and getting off and back on at various stations where lucidity entered for a brief second.  I ran into her 4 times on one day and each time she saw me she ran for me:
"I'm sorry but do you have a dollar for four quorters?" she would say each time, and I would shake my head again and again, and the next time she would see me there would be no recollection of our first encounter anymore and so we would play it all out again.  Vacant eyes and a wig.  Sneakers too big and dress too long.  She kept falling over it.  Yet there was something utterly defiant about her.  When I finally made it to the bus I was greeted by another beggar who felt compelled to "squirt his choclate over my sweet vanilla because that's the way they play it round here".  Lovely.  My roommate came in the other night and anounced that on entering the building she saw a woman right outside trying to find a neck vein in the rearview mirror of a car with a needle in her hand.

The homeless can get pretty inventive here.  There are a couple of mimes, perched on a beer crate and frozen in position till money enters the cup they're holding.  This afternoon I walked past a woman crying her eyes out, holding a cup and saying that she wanted to go home. An hour later she was still there doing the same thing but her eyes weren't red and no water ran down her cheeks.  I felt little remorse for her and instantly felt guilty for not feeling more remorse for her.  Even though I'm in a different country I still struggle with seeing white people begging and instantly feel like they have failed because undoubtedly they must have had more opportunities than the black man has had.  I wish I could shake that out of my head.

SF has a large contingency of Asians: Japantown, Chinatown.  I'm going there tomorrow to buy an umbrella against the sun at B Man and hopefully some cheap shoes that can get bunged up whilst I'm there.  I have never seen Asian beggars before SF and it's a strange sight.  They don't beg but go meticulously through trash cans, seperating the recycling and then carting it off for small amounts of cash.  They are quiet and dignified, yet deep lines on their faces.  Disowned people.  Forgotten people.  I wish I knew what had happened in their lives.