Homeless in India or in Iceland- you choose

This post is about the difference between the homeless in Iceland and the rest of the world.

Walking down the streets of Colaba in Mumbai is an experience like no other I´ve had, although Rumania had their share of baggers as well. Some thoughts come to mind when I’m out like:
God damn! I’m a poor student from Iceland but here I’m a freaking high roller hanging out with my millioner friends and looking away from all the poor people.

I’ve was at a lecture recently where the subject of baggers came up. My principal was talking about how they, in her country (Denmark) are ashamed of their homeless people. That their population feel failure when they see a homeless person on the street, begging for money.

The professor was put in a tight position and felt attacked for a while when some persons were bashing him about how he felt about the people on the streets and how the government was handling the situation. He was talking about it been a Macro problem so that to save one person you just give space for another one. An Indian guest at the lecture told us that begging is a 18 billion rupee business in India directed mostly by the Mafia.

Well in came Finnur to the rescue with his innocent eyes on homeless people from an Icelandic point of view:

OK It’s like this! We have about 11 homeless persons that are actively on the streets, or had when I moved from there in 2004. These were probably the most popular peeps in town. A night on the town was sure to be a great one if you met up with guys like Hringurinn and Lalli Jones. These guys had, and still have, the best most entertaining stories of all the persons in the city. Lalli usually just arriving back from prison with some crazy stories about how he tried to escape from there but got stuck in the window bars. Hringurinn telling us about when he rode his bike down the street the day before rammed 4 or 5 cars on the way. Because of extreme drinking took of all the side mirrors, while trying to escape the cold hands of the cops when they were trying to catch him for his every other week bath. (Yes you were able to call the police when one of the homeless once were smelling just a bit to bad. They took them to the hospital and got some nice looking nurses to clean them up). Yes they had a few stories about them as well;)

Lalli Jones had a documentary done about him, all his jail time and other adventures. The best part in that film is when the film crew meet up with Lalli when he’s getting out of prison, for the 13th time in his life (or so) and he’s given a buss ticket from the prison guard and when the guard closes the front gate on Lalli, Lalli realises that he forgot his bible in his cell and shouts to the guard when he’s half way back inside the prison, “Wait! wait! I forgot my bible inside my cell!” and he gets the answer “Ehh I’ll keep it in my office until you come here next time”. Lalli turns to the camera and is a bit sad and disappointed of loosing his good book but shrugs his shoulders and says “I hate to admit it but he’s right”. -Haha what?
The film about him won the price for the best documentary in Iceland in 2005 and Lalli there with all the snobs. LOOVE that guy.

Can you imagine how the world would look like if everyone would treat their homeless ones like gods? -A pretty fun place to hang out at but WAY tom many celebrities…

So all you people on the street here in India, that read my blog and understand English, just hold out for a little bit longer, you might get an Oscar soon.

This is the fantastic Lalli Jones