A Boy's Envelope and Your Face of Disgust
Posted by
Tomy
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Posted in
Beggars
,
Delirium
,
Fuck you old people
,
Jeep
,
Kids
,
Philippines
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Posted on
8:04 PM
They come inside a jeep to nonchalantly hand you crumpled envelopes with almost-illegible handwritings of a 5-year-old. The envelopes say something like “Penge pong konting barya” with the salutation “Ate, Kuya”. But you cannot really be sure about what’s written on these envelopes, because they are really not easy to read and you don’t actually bother reading it most of the time, anyway. Why would you? It’s not as if the writings would change your mind about not giving a fuck about the young, snotty boy who just rode in. You wouldn’t dare look at these envelopes even if it had a sticker of a naked woman or beefcake on it now, would you?
Would you?
Seeing children begging for money on busy streets is not something surprising. It’s so typical now. So typical actually that seeing one no longer elicits concern. Ah, why should we be sympathetic and give these kids money if we all know that they’d just use it to buy glue and gamble? We all know that their parents are incorrigible slackers who let their kids do the moneymaking. Now with the new breed of beggars (the ones who are generous enough to bring props with their begging), we do the same thing: ignore them, and rationalize our ignorance of these kids’ needs.
Every time some untidy kid gets in the jeep and ask for some coins (by giving away envelopes), there are always snobbish adults who utter words of disgust. Some just make silly noises and put on facial expressions that suggest annoyance. I always hear these old folks say how irresponsible these kids’ parents are, how these kids learned how to make money in such young age, and how appalling these all are. Then these kindly adults will start talking to other kindly adults inside the jeep, as if trying to solicit agreement. And hell do they agree with one another.
These are the adults who talk about the poor kids and at the end give them nothing. It’s not really the not giving of coins that is wrong. What’s annoying is when people start speaking poorly about these kids, as if they somehow reserved the rights to. As if they actually do something to help them. Sure, maybe these kids are forced by their parents to beg for money, but doesn’t that make them even more wretched? They could be a part of a group of kids paid to do what they do, but that just makes them equally pathetic. They are poor kids, with really pitiable situations and no matter how much we rationalize, they are still the victims here. They are kids, for fuck’s sake, and even if they are annoying and disgusting even, they don’t deserve your sneers, your angry and preachy words, your ignorance.
They ask only of a few coins. If you have some, then why not give it? You let a one peso coin slip and get lost, so why not give one you have to a kid who’s asking for it? Don’t think the money’s going to an irresponsible parent, think it’s going to free a kid from a parent’s heavy beating.
I know people say that giving these children coins will make them continue doing the wrong act of begging. Well, I don’t know what to say about that. I think that’s just stupid and, again, another rationalization. Don’t be a stingy motherfucker. Trade your fucking point for these kids’ welfare.
Perhaps those who know me wouldn’t have seen this post coming, because I don’t like kids. I hate kids. But I just don’t hate them enough to see them suffer. I have not come to that yet.
Delirium
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