【有文稿】北京地铁乞讨处罚难，肿么办？

Xiaohua: Beijing Youth Daily reported that subway beggars are still proving hard to tackle in Beijing. Even when caught red-handed, they simply do not have enough money to pay the fines. In the three months since May this year, only 40 out of over 300 cases that have been dealt with have the perpetrators being adequately punished according to regulations. So how serious is the problem? 北京市轨道交通执法大队成立三个多月以来，已经制止地铁乞讨三百余起。但是乞讨者的流动性、“没有钱”也给行政处罚带来了难题。 Well first of all, do you think subway begging is even a problem? Does it need to be dealt with? Mark: I think I don’t like it when people come round, although it’s not a big deal really, is it? You either just look them in the eye and don’t give money, look them in the eye and do give money, or pretend to be asleep. I mean, you know, it’s not a difficult thing to deal with, to be honest. Xiaohua: Right. Mark: But if we look at what end result do we want. I’m a great believer: look at the end result, and then look and see how you can get there. So, if the end result is no begging on subway trains, right, or in subway stations, then one quick way of ensuring this is to make it illegal for the public to give money to beggars. So forget about the beggars, make it illegal to give money, and enforce this perhaps sometimes if people do. But I don’t like the idea of a law that punishes people for their generosity. Xiaohua: Exactly. Mark: But however, if that’s the result you want, that’s a quick way to achieve it. You could put an undercover police as the beggars if anyone give them money, find them, find the public… Xiaohua: Then you are assuming that all beggars are bad and they are just there disturbing social security. Mark：Well the other thing is are beggars are bad. The report says that some beggars are making 5,000 yuan a month. Xiaohua: It’s true. Mark: Some of them are making a good living out of it. I tend to think when I see beggars, who aren’t physically disabled, or really old and infirm, I know that they might not be having problematical cover, and I do sometimes give them some money sometimes. But if it’s like young fit people who are begging, I just think you know life is not that easy, mate, you know. If only we could all stand around and people give us money for doing nothing, you know, life is really not like that. I don’t think it should be encouraged. Heyang: Life is really not like that, but there are also fake bad beggars that are mixed together with the real ones, and the real ones I think sometimes you, well it’s living off other people’s generosity. Mark: When you say real beggars, do you mean people with a real need for money? Heyang: Yeah. Mark: and not the means to get a proper job where they would pay tax and do the other things that the rest of us have to do. Is that what you mean by a real beggar? Heyang: Yes. Mark: Because even the fake ones are actually begging, aren’t they? Heyang: Yeah. Mark: By fake you mean they are doing it as a career choice. Heyang: They are doing it as a career choice, and also there have even been some cases of kids being rented out to go with the beggar, the fake beggars, on the subway trains. I think those are crimes to me, actually. I think, you know, hiring a kid as a begging tool. Xiaohua: And that is a bigger problem that should be dealt with. But Draco says he once saw an old couple in Beijing on the subway where the man seemed to be leading his quote-on-quote blind wife, but then in the same afternoon, he saw them, but the roles are reversed, the woman was leading the quote-on-quote blind husband. So… Mark: Oh that would have looked great, that video on social media showing the one and then the other. Check out an after Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes’ story called “The Man with the Twisted Lip”. You know the story don’t you Heyang? Heyang: Yeah, I know. Xiaohua: For me I think the punishment for the beggars are the lost of their dignity itself. Isn’t that enough you know having to live on somebody else’s pity? Mark: Well they are making 5,000 a month. That’s more than many of the people on the subway who are giving the money. Xiaohua: But do you want to live like that? Mark: Not me. No! Xiaohua: And that’s all we have to talk about on round table.