Society
Give and thou shalt create havoc
Published 13 December 2004
NS Christmas - A man hands out gold coins, another throws around yen bills. Giving things away has become the ultimate act of subversion, argues Matt Salusbury
Fundraisers used to rattle a tin; today, we are more likely to encounter organised gangs of "charity muggers" intent on signing us up for tax-deductible direct debit giving. Old-style, spur-of-the-moment donations are no longer considered effective enough, and in August the Economist reported that Westminster Council denounces charities that "support chaotic lifestyles" by giving away soup to the homeless.
Yet giving, far from becoming better organised, may be taking even more instinctive and bizarre forms. Reports continue of strangers handing out money in the street randomly to passers-by. The most spectacular mystery benefactor last Christmas was the unidentified man who - on 23 December - tossed Y1m (£5,273) in banknotes from the top of the Nippon TV Tower in Nagoya, Japan, saying: "I have too much money. I don't need it! I wanted to give some back to the world."
Closer to home was the smartly dressed man who surprised shoppers in Keighley, Yorkshire, in October 2002 by offering them £5 notes as "a present from Jesus". It is estimated that he handed out £1,000. Then there was the woman seen posting envelopes through the letter boxes of houses in Ramsgate in April 2001. Residents told the London Evening Standard that the envelopes contained up to £600 in £20 notes - along with notes saying "A gift to you". Kent police said that no crime had been committed, and that "recipients of the windfall should just enjoy it".
The police do not always show such a relaxed attitude, regarding mystery benefactors as mentally ill, and their actions as a "breach of the peace". The Hampshire police investigation into the big daddy of UK random philanthropists - the mysterious elderly man in a suit and trilby known as "Goldfinger" - went all the way up to the chief constable and the county's legal department.
Goldfinger was spotted in September 1991 scattering coins in gardens and garages in the North End neighbourhood of Portsmouth. Gold and silver coins with a total value of roughly £18,000 were handed in at the local police station.
Irene Collins, a local resident, found £10,000 worth of gold sovereigns in her garden, enough to pay off a second mortgage and buy a new kitchen. She told Portsmouth's The News: "I thought the fairies had come."
At first, Detective Sergeant Keith Davis of Fratton CID said: "If [Goldfinger] is an eccentric who has given the money away, then he will have the money returned. If he is ill, then another decision will be made." On legal advice from the county solicitor, police held the coins beyond the usual 30 days for lost property handed in, but finally admitted they were baffled and said the people could have the money back.
Delinquent altruists such as Goldfinger often surround themselves with an air of mystery. The self-proclaimed "Good Samaritan" of Rochester, New York wore a cape and a black hat with a plume as he handed out $100 bills to bystanders in June 1987. Interviewed by the Pittsburgh Press-Republican, he said that "life had been good to him". He said that he had tried giving out money while dressed in ordinary clothes, but people were scared of him and refused to take it.
A more recent trend among kind strangers is to bestow non-monetary gifts; trees or gardening services seem to be favourites. In Derbyshire, thieves were operating around Chesterfield this spring - targeting 25 locked garden sheds. But in most cases, they just tidied up the sheds: they reorganised seed trays, restacked flowerpots and rearranged tools neatly to one side. Residents of a street in Pembury, Kent awoke on 1 February this year to find ash saplings planted in hundreds of gardens. Police were baffled, and a resident told the Daily Mirror that "it would have taken hours to do".
There is a tradition of politically motivated acts of charity that dates right back to 24 August 1967, when a dozen Yippies turned up at the New York Stock Exchange and proceeded to shower dollar bills over the railings of the public gallery and on to the stockbrokers below. An unseemly melee broke out among the traders, resulting in a market crash. In recent years, the busy weekend before Christmas has spawned an anarchist "Free Shop", a sort of pavement jumble display on Oxford Street in London: freebies included Linux software CDs and "as new" Post Office-issue Doc Martens, but most shoppers were too burdened with stuff they had bought to take any of the goods.
All this begs the question, why? What motivates people to hand out cash to whoever happens to be strolling past? Confounding the dominant logic of the capitalist market place by giving things away becomes a subversive act. In all supposedly selfish western societies, an increasing proportion of the population gives to perfect strangers through volunteering, just as our free time becomes scarcer. And there are individuals out there who are ready to volunteer gifts as well.
In our socially alienated world, giving may be the one way left to connect with other people.
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