Ika 16 ng Hunyo 2009: Slumdogs in our Midst

I watched the film Slumdog Millionaire and I was grossed out by many of the scenes in the film. It was an engaging film that make you keep rooting for the hero till the end and feel happy about how things turned up for him. It also reawakens your psyche into the harsh realities of life which tend to be forgotten as we go about our daily grind.

I was leading a fairly normal routine this morning going to the office. The light showers must have aggravated the traffic that there was no van at the terminal. I decided to go out and take a jeepney. I was lost in my thought........ a bit sleepy because scrabble kept me up soooooo late...... Traffic was bad even in our place. Stuck in traffic, my attention was caught by a young boy, maybe between 7 to 9. With these kids, we couldn't tell. I once met a young vendor who told me he is fifteen but looks like a seven-year old boy to me. The young boy was peddling a sidecar with loads of stuff under rainy skies. As a mother, my heart sank seeing the hard life in the streets faced by that boy........ There is no childhood to speak off.

Still lost in that thought, my peace would be disturbed by two boisterous young lads, maybe 10 or 11, who leapt onto jeepney's railings and were dangerously hanging to the rails careful not to be seen by the driver. Some drivers speed off to intentional drop these kids. The boys were talking about some metal and jumped off the jeepney as it was coasting along and ask for alms from some passengers in another vehicle. The two boys do not seem to care about the dangers of their street acrobatics. Bruised, filthy, browned, calloused, they looked like they have been hardened by the lessons of the street life.

I often wonder where their parents are. Whenever I get a chance to ask a street child where his or her parents are, I am deluged with more sad tales that I would momentarily feel hopelessness creeping in me. How could they ever escape the never ending cycle of poverty they are in...... with jobless and irresponsible parents, numerous siblings who share in their already meager resource, a family that do not and cannot protect them, a community that perpetuates the cycle of poverty, apathy of the affluent, a government beset with its own problem.

Many times, I feel guilty thinking about the hard life these kids face. My dogs are far more cloistered than them..... my dogs never get to feel hunger...... or the dangers of the elements....... and they are even loved by us........

What about these kids? That is a lot to think about today..........

PS: Parami ng parami ang kaso ng H1N1. Komunidad na and apektado dito sa Pilipinas na me pinakamadaming kaso sa Southeast Asia. Nagbabala ang mga opisyales ng pangkalusugan na di na mapipigilan ang pagkalat nito. Nakakaparaning tuloy lalo. Lagi pa naman akong me nakakasakay na mga nag-uubo o sinisipon. Nagkataon naman tag-ulan na rin at panahon na ng ganitong mga sakit. Yun flu vaccination sa lugar namin dalawang linggo pa bago yun itinakdang araw ng bakuna. Paano ba yan? Mga dalawang linggo pa akong magpipigil ng hininga tuwing me umuubo sa loob ng sasakyan.