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Beggar kids product of moral breakdown
By Wan Lixin |
February 14, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
PROFESSOR Yu Jianrong from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences created quite a stir by launching a national campaign to save abducted children who have been forced into begging.
Yu's concern can be traced to July 2009, when a five-year-old boy named Yang Weixin was abducted in Quanzhou, Fujian Province.
Later his parents recognized their son in an online photo of a beggar. The boy had been physically disabled by his captors to make him more pitiful and worthy of generosity.
After seeing the photo the mother made several visits to Xiamen and neighboring areas in search of the son, in vain.
In January 17, Yu posted the mother's request online and called on citizens nationwide help rescue beggar children. He urged them to photograph the underage beggars they came across and to upload their snapshots online.
Yu's effort has evolved into a national sensation, and now thousands of snapshots of child beggars have been posted.
Police also weighed in by pledging to "investigate every clue received."
Professor Wang Dawei from China People's Public Security University even said it was necessary to revise the criminal law to mete out heavier punishment on criminals who abduct women and children.
But contrary to Wang's belief's that these child beggars are predominantly victims of abduction, most have been put on the street by their own parents or relatives, who are usually from backward rural areas.
Some "abducted" children turned out to have been "rented out" by their parents to professional beggar gang leaders for far-from-modest fees.
According to the Oriental Morning Post on Thursday, in a routine inspection on Wednesday Shanghai metro police had rounded up four underage beggars, and all the parents turned up within 20 minutes after being contacted.
Two parents claimed their children were making some money during winter vacation to pay for school tuition. A beggar can make around 200 yuan (US$30) on an average day in Shanghai.
But police said these beggars are persistent reoffenders. One boy had been taken to the police 13 times, and another 10 times.
All the parents rejected government succor, preferring instead to be left alone.
Under such circumstances the police have no choice but to let the children go. By law, adult beggars can be charged with being a nuisance and "disrupting social order."
But minors cannot be detained and arraigned on similar offenses.
This is clearly not a legal problem.
The child beggar phenomenon is about the total decay of the most basic ethical values that we once considered essential to human existence.
Ruptures
It is hard to believe these parents are rural people who were once assumed to be models of innocence and virtue, at a time when moral obligation and family loyalty was recognized as all-transcendent.
In other words, the power of doing good and right was once more important than to "succeed," in today's parlance.
Our villagers have been kept in line by the fear of frowning patriarchs and whispers among neighbors, rather than the law.
As Confucius observed thousands of years ago, the sense of shame is a much stronger force than fear of punishment.
The sense of domestic duty rises above all considerations of interests and fear, and one of chief source of satisfaction from this life is the fulfillment of that duty.
The parents of the child beggars today have clearly lost their sense of duty, and shame.
If anything, the only shame today is lack of consumption power.
Consumption power determine the amount of esteem one deserves.
Not long ago traditional Chinese men of letters and officials still proudly displayed their honest poverty. Today, irrespective of one's job, one's respectability is more defined by brands, houses and cars.
In the cult of market, every concept needs to be reduced to monetary terms, or it becomes obsolete.
Believers in "rule of law" are quick to invoke the need of laws in the case of child beggars. But would laws prohibit parents from forcing their children to beg?
"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it," late US Justice Learned Hand was quoted as saying in veteran journalist James Reston's memoir "Deadline."
Law impotent
Similarly, we cannot take too seriously legislation against filial impiety or conjugal infidelity.
What the state ought to do is try to bring about a country where the urge to do good triumphs over the urge to grab.
Have a close look at our models of success today - real estate developers, speculators, investment bankers, coal mine owners - and you know what kind of influence they are exerting on those who aspire to success.
By comparison, we realize that prostitution or begging are not so indecent, because at least some work for pay is involved.
It is tempting to condemn these people from a supposed moral high ground, but we forget that they happen to be the most powerless and helpless people in our society; their only marketable resources might be their bodies and their dignity.
For many migrant workers, exposure to urban prosperity is a constant reminder of their wants and wretchedness.
So when tackling the begging issue, explore legislation, by all means - but also examine the long line of Chinese mainland tourists waiting to enter Louis Vuiton in Hong Kong.
Yu's concern can be traced to July 2009, when a five-year-old boy named Yang Weixin was abducted in Quanzhou, Fujian Province.
Later his parents recognized their son in an online photo of a beggar. The boy had been physically disabled by his captors to make him more pitiful and worthy of generosity.
After seeing the photo the mother made several visits to Xiamen and neighboring areas in search of the son, in vain.
In January 17, Yu posted the mother's request online and called on citizens nationwide help rescue beggar children. He urged them to photograph the underage beggars they came across and to upload their snapshots online.
Yu's effort has evolved into a national sensation, and now thousands of snapshots of child beggars have been posted.
Police also weighed in by pledging to "investigate every clue received."
Professor Wang Dawei from China People's Public Security University even said it was necessary to revise the criminal law to mete out heavier punishment on criminals who abduct women and children.
But contrary to Wang's belief's that these child beggars are predominantly victims of abduction, most have been put on the street by their own parents or relatives, who are usually from backward rural areas.
Some "abducted" children turned out to have been "rented out" by their parents to professional beggar gang leaders for far-from-modest fees.
According to the Oriental Morning Post on Thursday, in a routine inspection on Wednesday Shanghai metro police had rounded up four underage beggars, and all the parents turned up within 20 minutes after being contacted.
Two parents claimed their children were making some money during winter vacation to pay for school tuition. A beggar can make around 200 yuan (US$30) on an average day in Shanghai.
But police said these beggars are persistent reoffenders. One boy had been taken to the police 13 times, and another 10 times.
All the parents rejected government succor, preferring instead to be left alone.
Under such circumstances the police have no choice but to let the children go. By law, adult beggars can be charged with being a nuisance and "disrupting social order."
But minors cannot be detained and arraigned on similar offenses.
This is clearly not a legal problem.
The child beggar phenomenon is about the total decay of the most basic ethical values that we once considered essential to human existence.
Ruptures
It is hard to believe these parents are rural people who were once assumed to be models of innocence and virtue, at a time when moral obligation and family loyalty was recognized as all-transcendent.
In other words, the power of doing good and right was once more important than to "succeed," in today's parlance.
Our villagers have been kept in line by the fear of frowning patriarchs and whispers among neighbors, rather than the law.
As Confucius observed thousands of years ago, the sense of shame is a much stronger force than fear of punishment.
The sense of domestic duty rises above all considerations of interests and fear, and one of chief source of satisfaction from this life is the fulfillment of that duty.
The parents of the child beggars today have clearly lost their sense of duty, and shame.
If anything, the only shame today is lack of consumption power.
Consumption power determine the amount of esteem one deserves.
Not long ago traditional Chinese men of letters and officials still proudly displayed their honest poverty. Today, irrespective of one's job, one's respectability is more defined by brands, houses and cars.
In the cult of market, every concept needs to be reduced to monetary terms, or it becomes obsolete.
Believers in "rule of law" are quick to invoke the need of laws in the case of child beggars. But would laws prohibit parents from forcing their children to beg?
"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it," late US Justice Learned Hand was quoted as saying in veteran journalist James Reston's memoir "Deadline."
Law impotent
Similarly, we cannot take too seriously legislation against filial impiety or conjugal infidelity.
What the state ought to do is try to bring about a country where the urge to do good triumphs over the urge to grab.
Have a close look at our models of success today - real estate developers, speculators, investment bankers, coal mine owners - and you know what kind of influence they are exerting on those who aspire to success.
By comparison, we realize that prostitution or begging are not so indecent, because at least some work for pay is involved.
It is tempting to condemn these people from a supposed moral high ground, but we forget that they happen to be the most powerless and helpless people in our society; their only marketable resources might be their bodies and their dignity.
For many migrant workers, exposure to urban prosperity is a constant reminder of their wants and wretchedness.
So when tackling the begging issue, explore legislation, by all means - but also examine the long line of Chinese mainland tourists waiting to enter Louis Vuiton in Hong Kong.
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