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After years of working 70 hours a week at jobs that paid the bills but brought no joy, I felt like the proverbial "hole in the donut" - solid on the outside, but empty on the inside. In early 2007, searching for meaning in my life, I set out to pursue my true passions of travel, writing, and photography. My stories feature the destinations I visit and the people I meet, with an emphasis on cultural travel and traveling in a manner that benefits and deeply interacts with locals. Read more about Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel here....
My sister in law is French, and as far as she tells me, she cannot lose her job, because the government does not allow the companies to fire the French citizens. The unemployment must come from some other country looking for work. Also, I would tend to agree with Laurie’s comment above. It may have nothing to do with the economy, but more about a way of life. So hard to determine poverty these days.
I uploaded this photos before returning to Girona, Spain. There was a woman who knelt on the sidewalk in front of the bakery next to the hostel where I stayed in Girona, Spain. She showed up about three days a week. One day I gave her money, but then I asked the folks at the hostel about here and they said that a Romanian man showed up to collect her every afternoon and she turned over all the money to him. Seems this is quite prevalent among the Romanians – apparently a mafia type network that places beggars all over Western Europe. Hard to know what to do.
I wouldn’t say this had anything to do with the economy. Begging is this poor Roma lady’s job. I saw many Roma begging scams in Paris including women pretending to be deaf and attempting to sell things at the Eiffel tower (the patriarch of the family was swearing at them in French to work harder) and older women like this who were in full prostration for hours at a time. This abuse of women in the Roma community is extremely sad. Can you imagine being this poor woman? Laurie in Edmonton.
We are currently in Paris and I totally agree. This has nothing to do with unemployment, this IS their employment.