More Behind the Bougainvillea

I just had a chat with a local cop while he was supervising a demonstration against parking metres in Coyoacan and he explained to me why there are grandmothers and others begging in such numbers on the sidewalks of Mexico City.  A lot of it makes sense actually.  Their family is their sole support and these women have often been traumatized or abandoned by abusive sons with addictions and other problems who have beaten them or the family unit has collapsed because the men have left to find work in the US or Canada or other places.  Also there is a huge influx of people moving to Mexico City and the public services such as they are are not able to keep up with the demand.  According to him a lot of people make more money begging than they would working because the wages are so poor and a lot of them don`t want to work anyway which probably has some measure of truth in it though I also suspect there could be a lot of other hidden barriers that make it difficult for some to stay employed and this just is not being addressed by public services that are already overstretched and deteriorating.  A lot of these people also have mental health issues but the support systems are not able to monitor them or provide them with adequate rehabilitation services and in many cases their families enable them to subsist on the street which also hinders clinical intervention.
     I have also observed here in Mexico, a very strong ethos of survival of the fittest and if you can`t cope then too bad for you and if you have no supportive family available so much the worse.  I often hear people say this is a poor country but I also notice that people are generally well dressed, driving expensive cars and filling upscale eateries and diners so in a way I take this with a grain of salt.
     In my own experience I know what it is like not being suitably employed.  Not everyone is cut out to do factory or construction work which probably is why a lot of people are not able to hold down a job and because of this they give up in dispair and just don`t want to work because they have not had access to decent employment counsellors (once again, a thousand thanks, Isabella, if you happen to be reading this) or training and skills development so of course they are going to fall through the cracks, beg on the streets, or sell cd`s on the subway and the street to survive.  In fact, had I not had some timely interventions which fortunately are available in my country to those who need them, I would not be writing this blog at all.  I would likely be pushing up dandelions in an unmarked grave.