Statement
Pondichery, Tamil Nadu, India
This raising funds thing was a mistake and an immoral stupidity. But not because I was "taking poor people's money" or "ashaming France" - I wish I could. No. But after a few days doing this, a statement needs to be done. I'll do my mea culpa, but I first need to show my rules.
1- I will not work for money, except if I need to do it in order to reach Antarctica. Which involves I can work for food or accomodation, that I ALREADY did - remember Bikaner.
2- LIVING WITHOUT MONEY DOESN'T MEAN I LIVE WITH THE MONEY OF OTHERS. I cherish my freedom too much for that. Garbage belongs to nobody, as well as the floor of abandonned buildings, or the fruits and dust of the road.
Obviously, I infringed the rule No 2. This idea WASN'T MINE and I would not have done it spontaneously. Moreover, you have to know that:
- Couch Surfers are usually rich or middle-class in poor countries
- People who donated were mostly westerners or the new Indian middle-class, from Mumbai, Bangalore - or Chennai - I was hosted in a tourist guesthouse, come on !
Now, my mea culpa. I did something that was not basking, but close to it - well, never again. Somebody recently asked me: "what should convince me to give you these 50 rupees, rather than to a poor indian boy ?" I answered: "Nothing. Absolutely nothing"
My life isn't more heroic than the everydaylife of an Indian child. At least I have my freedom. I chose this way of life even if it damages my health and tires me more and more every day.
Asking for money is taking its due:
- You're bound to wait, and bound to try getting people interested in you project
- You'll look like a vagrant and people will grow defiant and angry towards you.
Usually, when people agress me whether they're right or not, I could properly judge the part of truth in their statements, because this travel had made me my own judge, most of the time. This time I could not
I couldn't look at myself in a mirror.
NEVER AGAIN