Their entire fortune was a pile of paper, but they have lost it

There are 500,000 paper collectors in this country who hit the road every day, rain or shine, pulling their handcarts to make a living. They have all had tough lives, and continue to do so.

These people have escaped war, oppression, poverty and moved to the big city, collecting waste paper on the streets to survive. These people earn 30 kuru? per one kilogram of paper. 

These are the people that city dwellers do not want to have eye contact with; when they come across them, they change direction and glance away from their ragged clothes. They are regarded as glue-sniffers or thieves.

They want cities to become "spotlessly clean" so that, when we look at the streets, we won't see the migration, poverty and misery in this country.

We should live in guarded housing developments, socialize in shopping malls and continue to enjoy paying 10 Turkish Liras for coffee in a paper cup. We should queue to live such a life.

The culture of competition is eliminating other forms of life from the city. 

An urban person looks at the paper collector on the streets and fears, "If there are no standards, this is what happens." It's as if paper workers do not earn their money through honest labor but are stealing? 

As a matter of fact, society has put them in this situation. Elected governments adopted inadequate agricultural policies, farming was weakened and social peace has not been achieved. These people who are trying to eke out a living by working on the streets of the cities they have migrated to have been excluded by urban residents. 

You cannot find a single paper scavenger who has not been insulted, who has not run away from the municipal police or who has not had his cart confiscated. If there is a theft,...