Drifting through Cityscapes Drifting through Cityscapes MTL final copy | Page 141
Seeing the problem
Drifting through our hometown Belgrade, in December of 2018 we kept our eyes
peeled, our emotions open, and our prejudices aside. We tried to forget every-
thing we know and to look at the city for what it really is, hoping we would see
even the smallest things that we started to ignore over time because they were so
familiar. It wasn’t long until we saw the biggest contrast in the city center, which
was like a thorn stuck in our eye. This resounding contrast was between the surface
and the underground of the center of Belgrade. The surface was decorated in
massive shining lights, huge billboards with commercials for expensive things, the
picture was all over happy and joyful, all the passersby were smiling taking pic-
tures with holiday decorations, and carrying bags from shopping in Knez Mihailova
street. Meanwhile, if you would just take a few steps down the stairs that lead to the
underground, the picture would drastically change. You would find abandoned
shops, homeless people and beggars in the cold, smelly and dirty underground
of the same town center. These passageways become new homes for the less
fortunate people in the winter season. One more place where they can be found
is the tram no. 2, of which the route is a circle in the expanded town center. The first
sign of winter in the city isn’t the first snow due to global warming and isn’t holiday
decorations because they put those up months in advance, the new sign of winter
in Belgrade is the homeless people sleeping in the tram no. 2.
Describing the problem
The homeless people who live in the underground passageways in the city center
become the usual sight for the people of Belgrade, so much that seeing them
there is expected and normal. Two main underground passageways with this sight
are the one next to the hotel Moskva and the one at Zeleni venac. Because of their
location, they are on the crossroad of daily routes of people going to work, kids
going to school and pedestrians going through town. At first, this sight evoked all
kinds of emotions in passersby, like disgust, fear, empathy, but as time passed these
emotions faded and morphed into indifference. In the daylight, people usually turn
their head the other way so they don›t have to think about this upsetting sight. And
at night, when there are just a few people passing by, looking the other way is usu-
ally from fear of the unknown, and one’s safety. Help for homeless people shouldn’t
always be money. When you give them something else, you should be prepared
for all kinds of reactions. Luckily if you give them food and you get a bad reaction
you can easily distinguish if they are really homeless or just playing a role. If you
suspect that the money is going to be spent on cigarettes, alcohol or drugs, you
can always give them food, clothes or whatever you think they need the money
for. This way you can do a good deed without the fear that your generosity will be
misused. Especially if the beggars are children, it’s important to have in mind that
kids are often used by »beggar mafia« and the money you are giving doesn’t go to
them, but only encourages this abuse.