With work like this: Bus touts part 2

Am is the Loiterer a terrible moraliser, projecting an unknown sense of Protestant work ethic on to others, in this case poor Africans, or am I simply trying to ignore the devastating effects of alcohol on society - in particular the effects on women and children caused by men's failure to pass on income when funds are directed towards buying alcohol ?

When I was first wandering around in Africa, I met a man in the Ivory Coast who admonished me "All you Europeans think Africa is just poverty and starving people, but there is a lot of wealth in Africa", and pausing to raise his glass of beer at 11 am in the morning under the glaring sun, "there is a lot of beer in Africa too". The more I travel in Africa the more true this statement becomes, it seems no matter where I wander I can always stumble across a bar, where there is money the beer comes in bottles and glasses, where there is little money it is home brewed and comes in plastic bottles and food tins.

Arriving at the Lusaka bus terminal at 8.15 am, I found my bus, which was parked across the road from a bar. I was approached by several touts and having already having found my bus they directed their requests at asking me to buy them a beer. As I wrangled with them, one of the touts explained

"With work like this, we need a little drink to make it", reeking of alcohol.

Having watched people doing real work all morning - carrying around food and other goods to sell - and having seen others lugging around 50kg sacks of grain, ploughing fields and doing real work, I was not particularly sympathetic to their requests and repeatedly told them no. One of the touts later reappeared with a beer in hand and offered some to me, drawing my attention to the groups of men loitering around the bar, drinking beer - the most expensive form of alcohol, and generally doing not much at all.

I start to ask myself, why do I feel such antipathy and even anger towards them ? Why do I expect them to behave any differently - they earn a pittance, their income is unpredictable, they have very little chance of moving up the socio-economic ladder and they have little or no access to education. However floating over all of this is that most of these men are fathers - most Zambians are parents before they hit their twenties - and consciously (or unconsciously) they have taken on, or had thrust upon them the responsibility of providing for others - shouldn't they take this a little more seriously.

And if I was in the same position, what would I do ?

What is a poor, ignorant tourist to do when confronted by a tout with such a request?