Sometime in August 2009, my grad school classmate Emina Cerimovic told our class about how four-year old girls are seen in Bosnia wiping car windshields while begging for money. That story is a mirror image of what is common in the Philippines, a very wealthy country where only 5% are affluent and 70% live below the poverty line.
Apathy
The red light flashes
I step on the brakes
She rushes to my direction
With a dirty cloth in her hand, she wipes
The non-existent dust off my side mirror
She stares at me with the eyes of the legion
Draped in vulnerability
Who live mourning
The death of their dreams everyday
I feel her nudging the heart of humanity
To awaken from deadwood slumber
The green light flashes
As I fish into my pocket for some coins
I hear cars behind me honk with impatience
Fearing their rage I release my brakes
And drive away as coins fall on my feet
In my side mirror I see
The slumped shoulders of a four-year old
Who looks sadder than a widow
And more venerable than a grandmother
She moves between rushing cars
In a rat race that worships gold
Five miles away…
How could a helpless infant
With an atrabilious look
Make me feel such abyssal self-disgust? /chytdaytec
(Photo credit: Emina Cerimovic)
