At first sight, the picture is a portrait of two homeless people, a man and a woman, the first sitting in a high step of what appears to be an empty store and the second, lying on it. The man is wearing a long-sleeved, worn-out, black shirt and a pair of dirty, cream-coloured trousers. He is barefoot, but has a pair of black shoes besides him. The physical aspect of the man is not good since we can see a long, non-combed, and probably self-cut white hair, his arms and feet stained of dirt, giving them a dark tone. He is sitting on a flattened cardboard box, probably to not notice the cold stone, and besides him, he has a black bag, a blue piece of clothing and a cigarette. He also has what seems to be a cup of take-away coffee and a glass of water, as well as a pack of cigarettes. At the other side of the graffitied grey stone pillar, the woman is wearing a long, black, worn-out black dress, with a dirty, brown jacket over it. She is resting his head over a black, half-opened bag, and besides her, she has a plastic water bottle and a pack of cigarettes too. Moreover, she has a blue plastic shopping bag and a paint bucket with half-withered red flowers at her feet. Her overall aspect is not good either, she has long and uncombed red hair, and her arms and legs covered with dirt stains.
The windows of the store that we can see behind, are all painted with graffities and, maybe it is only me, but together with the greyish pillars and the large window panes remind me of a bank. On the left side of the picture, we can see how an historical monument reflects into the window and we can also see that there are quite some people in what appears to be an important town square. Moreover, it could be an event, because there seems to be a kind of black stage with lights and a pair of loudspeakers in the back. The people reflected in the window pane, seem to be wearing warm clothing, and for the light of the scene, it must be the sunset. Therefore, it must be cold for the main subjects that can’t have warm clothing. In fact, the homeless woman is holding her hands against her chest, like if she was cold. The man is holding a cig in his right hand and is also doing a gesture like he was cold. He could be looking at something or someone, or maybe just into the void.
Both the man and the woman, could know each other or could be completely strangers, but they must be having the same thoughts. They must be exhausted by the situation they are living in, no matter how long it has been, and even more exhausted of seeing how people ignore them. They are apparently facing an event full of people who ignore them, but they resign themselves to accept the situation the society has for them. They must have wondered why the world is so unfair to some people. People who, for whatever reason may not have the financial income enough to live in decent conditions. Sometimes it is the same person’s fault or sometimes not, but no one deserves to live in such conditions. Moreover, they must be feeling down in the dumbs because it seems they have given up any type of hope, and to see how you are ignored by the same society you may have been part one day, affects your mental health and makes you wonder if it is worth living this way, and if you are the problem, not the cruel and selfish society we live in. However, in the other hand, they have survived until now and they may be thinking that in other countries there is a lot more poverty and in worst conditions than they are, what could make them try to rebuild their life.
Poverty is not something which you can escape of, it hits you, and it hits you hard. The fact of eating something or to find shelter each day is a huge milestone for many homeless people, who hope to someday get reintegrated in the society. However, after the months pass and the people ignore you, the hope vanishes and leaves a thought of acceptation in the mind of over seven hundred million poor people in the world. The solution to it is not easy, but definitely is in our hands. We have to stop turning the bling eye, and do like nothing is happening. Every one of us knows that there are poor people which we could help but instead of doing so, we act like if they weren’t there. So maybe it is worth reflecting on how the poor people doesn’t have the same opportunities and overall quality of life as a high or middle class man or woman, and how reality, and problems brought by the world we are living in, is something from which people feel the need of taking pretty frequent holidays.
Poverty is the complete lack of means necessary to meet basic personal needs, which are a shelter in conditions, with potable water and energy (electricity, global communications), accessible public healthcare, an easy way to get variated and healthy alimentation, access to clothes in condition and free access to education. According to the United Nations, over twenty-four thousand people die from starvation each day; And the principal responsible people for this, are us, the average or high-class man or woman, who decides to ignore the situation. The ignorance and selfishness who define the same modern capitalist world we live in; Is what drives us to say that poverty is not our problem and to do nothing against it. “Reality is something from which people feel the need of taking pretty frequent holidays...” This picture is the perfect definition of the ignorance the poor ones suffer from our part, and that one image is worth a thousand words.
By Marc Vidal
