Today’s Photo Friday theme is Poverty, so here’s a shot of discarded clothes and bedding in one of the quiet residential neighborhoods we explored in Montreal last weekend.
Poverty doesn’t seem to run rampant in Montreal: I remember seeing only a handful of beggars on the walk to Rue Prince Arthur on Saturday night, and both Dale and qB observed how happy and well-cultured Montreal children seem to be. But even if you don’t see homeless folk lounging on every street corner, the poor are always with us; it just seems that in the parts of Montreal we explored, poor folk kept a lower profile than the homeless in, say, New York or Boston.
That it’s not unheard of for folks (homeless or otherwise) to strew clothing and old mattresses in an otherwise tidy alley is apparent in this civic minded bit of graffiti, which reminds French-speakers that “Our alley is not a trash can; thank you for keeping it clean.”
Perhaps poverty seems less prevalent in Montreal than in cities such as New York and Boston because the Canadian courtesy quotient is noticeably higher.
Jun 9, 2006 at 6:32 pm
You know how they say that the French language is so sexy that even the phone book sounds good (when read)?
Well, I think that graffiti written in French is somehow prettier than in English….LOL
Jun 11, 2006 at 8:26 am
Even in wealthy society we can see poverty.
Well done.