Homeless

At the moment, the route to work in the morning takes me through Waterloo station. I walk out the main front entrance and through the subway that takes me passed London Imax. I then walk through an underpass that is painted bright blue and turn right at the National Gallery.

Every morning and every evening there are homeless people sleeping along my route. And not just one. Usually several.

Two things caused me to reflect on this.

One morning, I was following my usual morning route, in particular the part that takes me through the bright blue underpass, when I was hit - like a punch in the face - by the strong smell of stale urine. There was a man sleeping there, covered in blankets with a crutch near by. He was mumbling something to himself - I could not make it out. I mumbled something to myself as well, something about the offensiveness of his smell. The next day I did not see him. Nor the next. Then the evening following I saw some writing on the pavement, near where I had seen him sleeping. You can see for yourself what it said (i.e., look at the picture). Had this guy died just after I had seen him? I felt a little bad for having complained about his waft.

Two days later I walked through the bright blue underpass again. I got hit in the face with the smell of stale urine. I saw the crutch. While it would be an exaggeration to say I was pleased, I can say I was not nearly as offended by the smell.

The second thing I thought about were the upcoming London Olympic games. If you walk through Waterloo, either early in the day or late, and you do not see a homeless person - not a one - then you should know that the government and/or the Olympic organisers have done a clean up. A temporary clean up. A cover up, if you will. Just like Melbourne did for its recent Commonwealth Games (or so I have been led to believe). And you have to ask yourself, why do they do that? What is cover up? Are they ashamed?

The answer to the last question, I think, is yes. They are ashamed. Just shamed enough to cover it up, but not quite ashamed enough to do something about it.

Not that I can take the high ground on this issue. I did not give the man with the crutch any money. I did not approach him and ask him if he was OK (I have seen people doing this - they must be really good people). I did not even say hello. Until I change my ways, perhaps I should not expect the government - any government - to change theirs.