Wednesday, November 14, 2007 Outrage By Rene Lizada Papa's Table
WHEN I think of that girl who committed suicide I think of several things.
The first thing is how she must have felt, what her thoughts were, what dreams she may have had, what pain she must have experienced. I think of her wishes: a bicycle, a school bag and jobs for her parents. I think about how small and even whimsical those wishes are and how desperate those wishes have become.
I think of her despair as she writes in her tattered cheap notebook that was her diary. I think of the grief that she must have felt as she wrote those thoughts.
There must have been agony and turmoil and perhaps an overwhelming sense of injustice, a deep helplessness that engulfed her being, her heart and soul.
And I think of how she must have felt when it was time to end it all. I wonder what raced through her mind as she went through the motions of ending what was a most painful life. I wonder what her last thoughts were as she gasped for her last breath.
And then I think of the second thing. I think of those bishops who live in "palaces." I think of the food that they eat and the wines that they drink. I think of the church leaders who accept gambling money. I wonder about church elders who hobnob with the corrupt and the powerful.
I think about them and their outspoken passion for the poor and despondent. How they always say "the preferential treatment of the poor" while they wine and dine in elegant settings. I wonder if they even know that girl who committed suicide. I think of their blindness, their fear and their indifference.
Right before their eyes are people who cheat and yet they do not say anything lest they lose that which they want and need. Christ was poor and he lived in a small house. Guess who lived in palaces? Guess who ate the good food and drank the best wines? Guess who openly declared their love for God while they murdered His Son.
And then I think of those politicians who emerged from the Palace with bags of money. I think of them riding in luxury imported vehicles, giggling and cackling like beasts who have just been fed. I think of them salivating with the contents of their bags.
I think of their justifications as to how they will use the money. For barangay projects, for livelihood, for the poor. For the poor who hang themselves because there is no food on the table, there are no jobs. There is only hell because the very people who are supposed to help them live in palaces, drive luxury imported cars, indifferent and blind.
But we really do not have to go far. Because right here in Davao is someone I thought of when I remember that girl who committed suicide because of poverty.
I think of someone who is so rich yet sadly pathetic because on National Pet Day this person bought his/her dog a huge steak. While hundreds of poor people were starving this someone buys a steak worth hundreds of pesos and feeds the dog with it.
There is something very wrong with someone who has the insanity and the insensitivity to feed a dog while hundreds starve. There is something very wrong in that. It is immoral. It is a sin.
But that is not surprising. Because it was this very same person who in a party and in full view of people complained that he/she was so shocked in seeing so many poor people all over the city. She said it so nonchalantly that those who heard what she said were stunned. In fact those who had heard what this person said texted one another and asked, "ano yun?"
Yes, ano yun? Ano nga yun? How can people be so callous and numb? How can some people be so unfeeling and dumb? How can some people be so inhuman? It was Confucius who said "In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of." Some dogs eat better than people.
And now the Church has come forth saying that this is such an unfortunate incident. It will say that this is our collective fault. That we are all responsible for that girl's death. Maybe so, but it is so difficult to believe people who make announcements from their air conditioned palaces. Politicians will try to make some points with this. They will visit the family and have long faces and they will shake their heads and lament. And who knows even this dog person will hand out some money for that poor girl's family. After all if this person can spend money for a dog it is not far that this someone can give a few pesos for a fellow human being.
And when this furor has passed we all go back to our lives. The bishops to their palaces, the politicians to who knows where and of course that person to the dog. Life would not have changed. Unless of course they hang themselves because there are no more gambling funds, bags of money and of course dogs to feed.
