Thieves on the loose

THE girls looked pitifully distraught, crying their eyes out as they narrated how they were duped by a woman whom they described as descent-looking and seemingly sane. It was only after they have lost their belongings that the realization dawned on them that they have become victims by a con woman.

Here we are again. I have been there, I was one of the victims of thieves on the loose, and they are bolder this time as they would engage their victims formally, talking them in a manner that could lead the victim right smack into their trap like a hapless fly.

They are everywhere where many people converge, scheming, sneaking, planning their every move and stealthily stalking their victims in such a fashion that no one seems to ever notice. Our clean city is becoming a den of thieves!

These thieves, who are victimizing people, even very poor students, old folks and vulnerable people who are in a quandary, can be found wherever there are unsuspecting victims.

But then what is new? This world is so full of them, filling up very possible space in society, even the top most places in the land where the supposed leaders of the nation are dwelling. Thieves abound, especially those in the so-called house of representatives where 'wealthy servants of the people' sat all day during sessions, scheming on ways to draw people's money into their pockets, calculating their every moves, conniving with their fellow thieves.

Sometimes I get too affected that I just want these people to burn in the eternal fires of condemnation. I get the feeling that they are doing what they did because they simply are considering people in contempt. They are deviants who deserve no less but the most severe of punishment that anyone can get. Petty or big thieves need to face up to their accountabilities because they are the viruses that eat into the sanity of society.

But why is our society seemingly condoning these acts of these criminals? Or is the question should be how could society address this malady that is slowly eating up into the very core of our decency?

It has been said that if good people just watch the undoing around us, then, they are actually condoning it, approving of these misdeeds. And yet, so many among those we have considered respectable and upright could not seem to come to terms with their own inaction? Why is this so?

For us ordinary citizens in this confused world, the best thing to do perhaps is to be vigilant wherever and whatever we do. Let us not allow these thieves to hold us immobile with fear and uncertainty. Let us do what we could in our little ways to watch and be actively involved in citizens' efforts to arrest these issues... it is only through our concerted efforts and not on government's responsibility that we can work for genuine peace to reign in our trouble land.