Hey buddy, can you spare an urban myth?
LYNN CROSBIE
Special to The Globe and Mail
This article was published more than 18 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.
What would you do if you woke up one morning and, after slicing a flesh-eating banana, discovered an albino alligator lurching its way out of your toilet?
You might feel as we all did, when The Toronto Sun recently exposed what most of us have always thought of as an urban legend: those «a friend of a friend’s cousin told me» stories that usually involve something grotesque lurking beneath the bland exterior of day-to-day life.
In a front-page story devoted to «Toronto’s commuter beggar,» the paper revealed that this notorious panhandler, alternately known as the Sticker Lady, lives in a $330,000 home outside Toronto, and drives a nice shiny car to work each day.
Journalist Brodie Fenlon reported that the Sticker Lady, who denies all allegations, is best known for roaming the Eaton Centre and allegedly offering stickers in exchange for donations to dubious foundations.
The startling exposé on the Sticker Lady is eerily and alliteratively like the strange case of the Shaky Lady, which the Sun’s Mike Strobel broke in 2002. Shaky was another hustler, whose apparently lunatic palsy earned her upwards of $1,000 a day in handouts, money she would fling about her Chevy Lumina while peeling home to her Toronto-area pied-à-terre. Eventually, Shaky would be snagged for caning a doubtful passerby, and while she has been rumoured to have returned lately, the Sun, in its ceaseless quest for «bogus beggars» (including faux paraplegics who have also auditioned for
Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo) has once again, prevailed.
I live in a largely impoverished neighbourhood, and, like Dorothy Parker’s Mrs. Matson, have «frequently remarked that these beggars all have big bank accounts.» Whenever I see a man eating from the garbage, or a woman lying unconscious on the curb, I am outraged. And if they feebly ask for change, I archly tell them to seek their caviar financing elsewhere.
No tenderhearted liberal, I do actually detest the conditions where I live, and blame both every single «Let’s Make Toronto a Beautiful City!» liar in office
and a certain contingent of derelicts: the al fresco sex machines, crazed addicts and genuinely frightening shriekers for «SPARE CHANGE» whose garbage, syringes, used condoms, broken bottles and park tenancy have made a walk in the streets something like a low-key episode of
Fear Factor.
Those of you encased in sterile neighbourhoods have no idea, and the day you get assaulted by a crackhead while stepping on a filthy hypodermic, you can sing
Hug the Homeless to me as loud as you like.
That said, Mayor David Miller, the TTC traveller and subject of Toronto Life’s most recent hot-oil massage, is prepared to do something to resolve the problem of homelessness (and its many reactive tenets). As he feverishly dreams of a city in which smokers are executed at sight by bike riders, he is also in the process of implementing draconian, Giuliani-Xeroxed «zero tolerance» policies with his proposed ban on sleeping in city hall’s Nathan Phillips Square.
I talked to John Clarke, an erudite organizer at the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, who was familiar with the Sticker Lady story, and who compared it to the Sherlock Holmes tale,
The Man with the Twisted Lip, which details the double life of a man whose secret career as a beggar nets him far more money than his day job.
Clarke observes that the idea of beggars being secret millionaires is «preposterous,» and states (one would hope, redundantly) that such people are poor, and «have been made poor.» As to the Sun’s latest exposé of the homeless on Easy Street, he says that «this is not an honest attempt to evaluate the homeless population, but a preliminary ideological bombardment, designed to justify another round of regressive measures against homeless people.»
Poverty, he observes, is «a complex sociological phenomenon,» and we would be better served not to «attempt to individualize and moralize the issue and the acts of survival that flow from its existence.
«
While I understand a squeaky-clean metropolis’s impulse to play Travis Bickle and wish for a «real rain [to]wash all the scum off the street,» I also understand that this film character was a maniac; that we can wash as much as we like, but eventually, someone will be left to wring out the sponge.
Urban myths are predicated on fear.
Black people scare you? Spread a story that you were robbed in the Caribbean, and after developing your holiday snaps, photo one is that of a black man with your toothbrush up his rear. This is a persistent urban myth, as relentlessly xenophobic as most — as well-designed as the Sun’s idea that most poor people, like the well-publicized Romany Shaky Lady, are nothing but Gypsy thieves manufacturing their own discontent.
Whether you are leery of or sympathetic to panhandlers, remember that the quality of mercy, according to Shakespeare’s Portia, is not strained, and should neither be scoured, in service of the erasure of grievous problems that remain hideously visible, however pretty their absence.
shaky lady | EINSTEIN EQUATIONS INCORPORATED
Please indulge me while I quote myself. I once said, “If you’re rich it’s called fundraising, and if you’re poor it’s called begging.”
Someone invented another term: crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is asking lots of people for a small amounts of money. Isn’t that what panhandlers do?
I used to give money freely to panhandlers until The Toronto Sun exposed the Shaky Lady.
The Shaky Lady would sit on street corners, in downtown Toronto, wearing shabby clothes and shake. A lot of people, including myself, believed her to be down and out and gave her money. A Sun reporter exposed her as a fraud after seeing her get into an expensive car and discovering that she lived in an expensive home.
I discovered three fraudulent panhandlers only because I use public transit a lot:
“I lost my purse and need money for the Go Bus to get home to Hamilton.”
I first saw the young woman saying these words at the Yonge and Eglinton subway station.
She seemed sincere and I gave her money. Several weeks later I saw her at the same subway station with the same story. I confronted her.
“Hey,” I said, “you had the same story several weeks ago in this same spot.”
She looked at me and gave me the guilty Oh shit! look, and quickly walked away.
I have seen her at several other subway stations with the same story. When she sees me, she walks away.
“There’s been a misunderstanding and my landlord locked me out of my apartment. I need money to pay rent.”
This was said by an older woman at the Broadview and Danforth subway station. I gave her some money. Again, several weeks later I saw her at the Ossignton and Bloor subway station saying the same story.
I confronted her and said, “Didn’t you have that same story several weeks ago at–”
But she turned and walked away. She, too, knows better than to ask me for money when she sees me on the subway.
“I just got out of the hospital and need money for food.
Can you give me money for food?”
This woman wears a long black overcoat and walks with a cane. She also wears 43,000 pounds of makeup. I gave her money the first time I saw her at the North York subway station, but I felt that she was a fraud because of the makeup. She looks more like a model than a homeless person. I confronted her the second time I saw her at the North York subway station a few weeks later. Naturally she had the same story.
“You just got out of the hospital a few weeks ago,” I said. “And now you just got out again?”
“I was in the hospital a few weeks ago for something else,” she said. “I went back in and I just got out today after an operation on my knee.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said. “You are wearing too much makeup. You don’t look down-and-out. You look like a model. Why don’t you take the money you spend on makeup and buy food?”
Well she started yelling at me about how she could prove she was in the hospital if I would come with her and that she’s not a fraud and that she’s not a fraud and that she’s not a fraud.
Now I’ll quote Shakespeare, “The lady doth protest too much.”
I have seen her at several subway stations throughout the city. I have also seen her on the street outside downtown grocery stores. Sometimes she has a cane, and sometimes she doesn’t. She looks away when she sees me.
Now I don’t give away my money so freely—if at all.
By the way, do you think William Shakespeare is rolling in his grave because he was quoted in the same blog as Gary Johnston?
Review of the film «The Lady in the Van»
Screen adaptation of Alan Bennett’s autobiographical play about the eccentric old Mary with a difficult fate, who lived the last third of her life in a van, moving from one house to another. The wayward lady is not generous with courtesies, but the neighbors are favorable to her due to the fact that they have a «friendly neighborhood.» Nearby writer Alan Bennett once helps Mary push the van. It would seem a mere trifle, but it was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
The film is narrated from the point of view of the writer, and he is also the main character. If you look at it, three Alan Bennetts appear in the film at once: the real Bennett and his character, who has two personalities — one lives life, and the second writes it down. This unusual technique allows you to watch the course of events from several angles at once, but this concept also has a drawback: at some point, the director gets out of control, and the real Bennett is also added to the character with the so-called split personality , which kind of takes us beyond the boundaries of the play. This step seems extremely unjustified, it destroys the already shaky pyramid of prisms and is needed only to make everyone look at a real writer.
While watching, one gets the feeling that Bennett is a fan of Russian literature. Here you have Dostoevsky with his opposing doubles, and Nabokov with his author-protagonist.
The topic of duality, by the way, is successfully disclosed and presented in several branches at once. By colliding the two sides of the writer’s personality, the author not only invites the viewer to reflect on the theme of the creator’s internal conflict, but literally demonstrates it. There is also a parallel to Mary — Bennett’s mother, who ingenuously shows that people are more likely to solve other people’s problems than their own.
It must be said that “The Lady in the Van” is an extremely old-fashioned mothball film, but this does not spoil it in the least, because the story itself requires such scenery. It’s about a grouchy old woman, after all. The picture is filled with English humor, moreover, it is thoroughly British with its Union Jack garlands, communist jokes and forced neighborly goodwill. This gives additional charm to an already touching story about a woman who is broken by life circumstances, but who does not lose her dignity, even despite the fact that she is actually homeless.
We’re used to seeing Maggie Smith as a sarcastic woman with an unyielding inner core. She is endowed with these features in The Lady in the Van, but here the image is much more multifaceted. The character of the heroine often softens, as, for example, when she paints her van in a childish joy. And from time to time we even see how the iron lady appears before us as a destroyed person with eyes full of pain, who selflessly prays on his knees, or with trembling hands plays the melodies beloved by his heart on the piano.
“The Lady in the Van” is a leisurely film, attentive even to minor details, which in places can make you bored, but thanks to the emotional attachment it still keeps the viewer. There is no old-fashioned morality in her, and she either rubs herself into your confidence, or says insultedly don’t sweetheart me.
[Anastasia Muyassarova
] (http://cinemaholics.ru/author/anastasiia)
Husbands-dictators and their wives-villains: why do we hate them so much?
- Rebecca Seals
- BBC News
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Image copyright Reuters
A dictatorial husband usually guarantees a woman two things: an extravagant lifestyle and a shaky reputation.
In the eyes of the public, many such wives deserve censure. In addition to their own, not irreproachable, behavior, they also stand up for their husbands, who rejected democracy in various ways, ruined the economy of their country and expelled, if not killed, their political opponents.
Who can condemn a desperate people for hating such a person?
But it is worth asking the question: is it not because they are condemned with such anger because they are women?
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Image credit: Hilton Archive/Getty
Image caption How Grace Aroused Controversy in the Nation
«She corrupted him!»
In Zimbabwe, Grace Mugabe, who has just lost her title of First Lady, is probably the most hated woman.
Her husband ruled the country on his own for 37 years, but as a result he lost power because of the desire of the faithful to succeed him as president — but this influential military elite could not bear it.
Many Zimbabweans did not like what Robert Mugabe did to the country, but they still respected him for the role he played in the country’s independence. So Grace is now being condemned for «corrupting» her husband.
Lecturer in international development at King’s College London, Alice Evans, believes that this is a psychological phenomenon known as «confirmation bias» — that is, when a person seeks confirmation of their already existing views.
«It has to do with maintaining our belief system,» she says. «So if we’re praising Mugabe as a hero… then all the information we get should be in line with that. Even if we see new information that he did something wrong, we try to blame it on someone else in order to maintain the existing ideal.
»
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Grace Mugabe is a controversial figure. She had an affair with the president when his first wife, Sally Hayfron, who was loved by the people, was dying. And after some time, Grace publicly humiliated high-ranking politicians in Hong Kong and South Africa, she was even accused of physical abuse.
She was only 15 years old in 1980 when Zimbabwe gained independence and Mugabe became the country’s first prime minister.
And by 1983, when his security forces raped and killed thousands of people in Matabeleland, she had just come of age.
But the accusations against Ms Mugabe are not comparable to those leveled against the former First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire Simone Gbagbo. They said about her that she personally armed the death battalions, which were formed in 2010, when her husband refused to admit defeat in the elections.
But there’s no need to compare, as Zimbabwe shows similarities when it comes to accusations against first ladies: the wave rises when it becomes too difficult or too risky to criticize their husbands.
Photo credit, TED ALJIBE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Photo caption,
Imelda Marcos (pictured in 2014) is a member of Congress in the Philippines
Fur coats and «shoes»
Grace Mugabe’s nickname — Gucci still shines one problem is overspending.
This is a typical evil of any first lady, and, unfortunately, the fables of luxury are often much better remembered than the cruelties of the men who financed these luxuries.
We remember that Imelda Marcos, the first lady of the Philippines for over 20 years, had over 1,000 pairs of shoes. But we may no longer remember why this is so terrible — in 1986, when Ferdinand Marcos was finally ousted in mass protests, many Filipinos went barefoot due to extreme poverty.
Elena Ceausescu, whose husband Nicolae Ceausescu held Romania in tight mittens for 24 years — from 1965 to 1989, was known for her collection of fur coats, not shoes. From the fox, leopard, zebra, jaguar and tiger … just selfish abundance.
One such specimen was caught on camera when she and her husband tried to escape by helicopter during the December 1989 coup.
Why is so much attention paid to the wardrobe of the wives of the first persons? There is quite obvious moral degradation in the fact that a woman walks around the world in a mink coat and high heels, and her people are starving. However, Alice Evans notes that this is just a clear side of misbehavior. More obvious than, for example, the behind-the-scenes machinations of party bosses or the secret police.
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Traditionally, the unloved wives of politicians are presented in a caricature light. Columnists and news channels draw parallels with Lady Macbeth — the prototype of all other «villainous first wives.»
In Kenya, former First Lady Lucy Kibaki was perceived as the star of her personal soap opera after she went berserk in 2005 at a meeting with diplomats and journalists who she claimed didn’t show her the respect she deserved.
In one notorious incident, she stormed into a private party hosted by her neighbor Maktar Diop, then the country’s representative at the World Bank, in a tracksuit at night and demanded that he turn off the music. As a result, her husband, President Mwai Kibaki, suffered from his political opponents, who began to say that since he cannot control his wife, how can he govern the country?
«It all fits easily into the stereotype of witches, devils, evil wives,» says Professor Mary Evans of the Department of Gender Studies at the London School of Economics.
Image copyright, STR/AFP/Getty Images
Image caption,
Kenya’s former First Lady Lucy Kibaki was seen as the star of her personal soap opera
«They’re kind of caricatured. enter a new name,» she explains.
The latest take on the Lady Macbeth metaphor is a meme that compares Grace Mugabe to Cersei Lannister, the amoral villain from the hit television series Game of Thrones.
However, some observers in Africa believe that by openly challenging anyone who poses a threat to her political ambitions, Grace Mugabe has established herself as a person in her own right. And if she is being condemned now, then it is no longer from the point of view of a caricature character.
«Zimbabweans love to gossip and have always condemned Grace Mugabe as a person,» said Selina Mudavanhu, a research fellow in the Faculty of Communications at the University of Johannesburg.
«Social media and the fact that Zimbabweans are scattered all over the world caused much more vehement criticism. Even while she was the first lady and had colossal power, Grace was ridiculed by Zimbabweans for her love of luxury at the expense of the taxpayers,» explains the scientist.
image copyrightKeystone/Getty Images
Photo caption,
Romania banned contraceptives during Ceausescu’s reign, and his wife was called «the best mother of the nation»
«The best mother of her people»
What is the basis of our dislike of the wives of dictators? Perhaps their often manifest duplicity and the fact that we feel cheated.
«I don’t meddle in politics. I’m a woman of the people,» said Leila Ben Ali, former first lady of Tunisia, sentenced to 35 years for embezzlement; she is also the author of a book called «My Truth».
Elena Ceausescu, praised by her husband’s communist regime as «Romania’s best mother,» once said of her «children»: «These worms are always unhappy, no matter how much food you give them.»
The Ceausescus were sentenced to death and put up against the wall after a short trial held on Christmas Day 1989. Nicolae met the bullet singing «The Internationale» while Elena shouted obscenities.
As Thecla Morgenroth, Research Fellow in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at the University of Exeter, says, we are shocked that a woman can be associated with atrocities.
«It’s not even about being softer — studies show that we expect women to be morally purer, better — good people,» explains the psychologist.
Photo copyright, MIGUEL MEDINA/Getty
Photo caption,
In 2012, a video appeal was made to Asma Assad (pictured in 2010) to stop the bloodshed in Syria
In April 2012, because of Asma Assad, British-born wife of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, a video appeal made by the wives of the German and British ambassadors to the United Nations went viral on YouTube asking her to stop the bloody crimes in the country.
The video showed injured and dying children and contained the words: «All these children can be your children.»
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According to human rights activists, at least 400,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011.
A month before this proclamation was released, private emails were made public that Asma Assad was surfing the internet looking for $5,000 worth of designer shoes while Syrian government forces besieged the city of Homs.