Sunday, July 06, 2008 Luab: So much has been said By Evelyn R. Luab light sunday
FOR over two weeks now, everything we hear or read about is related to the sea tragedy which claimed so many lives. While we talk and sympathize, only a certain percentage of our brothers really go out of their way to do something concrete. It is easy to commiserate but difficult to go out of our way to do something.
The rice crisis has really struck at the very core of our guts yet the rice vendors are raking in so much profit because they know that the demand is greater than the supply. The middle class keep on talking about how high the price of a kilo of rice has gone up. The poor can only stand in line and sometimes faint while waiting for the NFA rice to be distributed at only three kilos per person.
We know that the government is trying its best to help the poor but the shortage still exists. My driver told us a tale which touched our hearts.
His grade one daughter goes to a public school several kms. away from home. They live up the hill while the school lies on a plain. He and his wife became worried when lunchtime came and the little girl was not yet home. By one, my driver was on his way downhill to look for her. Imagine his surprise when he met his seven-year-old daughter walking up hill with beads of perspiration flowing quite freely down her body. She was carrying in each hand three and a half kilos of rice. It seems their teacher distributed seven kilos of rice to each student. She requested the teacher to divide it equally and she decided to bring the rice up all by herself.
When her teacher told her to leave her share in the classroom until someone bigger could come for it. She refused! When her father asked her why she couldn’t wait for her mother to get it, her reply was a classic: "This is rice, dad! It might get lost!"
Even for the very young, the value of rice is well etched in their minds. Her dad hugged her and when he told this tale to us, he exclaimed, “His heart went out to his kid!"
I dare any of my friends who are “better than comfortable as far as financial status is concerned, to think twice before going on a compulsive buying spree. All I ask is one weekend of no shopping. Instead, buy food for those who really have nothing! There are hundreds who have nothing!
My former domestic help had a miscarriage last week. Her husband a security guard brought her to a government hospital. She was brought in at about 4 a.m. By eight the husband was given prescriptions for the needed medicine for a D and C (dilation & curettage) He only had P300. He came to us. By this time it was already 9 a.m. I was already fearful of my helper’s life so I rushed to the hospital. By the time we had all the medicines, the doctor was already performing a D&C on another patient. You know what time my helper got her D&C? Two thirty in the afternoon. By the time the D&C was over, there was little left of the P7, 000 we had with us. That my friend is how lives can be lost due to a lack of medicines due to lack of funds. We are speaking of ordinary happenings at emergency wards in hospitals especially in government-run hospitals.
We are not disparaging the government run hospitals. We just wish they could give first the medicines before the patient dies. Of course, we know this is wistful thinking on our part but how in the world can we right this imbalance of funds?
I know for a fact that many of my friends are already doing more than their bit in alleviating the needs of many poor people in our city. Believe me I take my hat off to the angels of mercy who go out of their way to take care of orphanages, of housing projects, of scholarships, etc. But to quote the Bible: “the vineyard is large but the laborers are few.” How about joining the few laborers of love?
