MY ELDER BROTHER IS AN ADDICT.
Pag gutom siya,
WHEN HE’S HUNGRY
Hindi niya nararamdaman ang sakit
HE DOESN’T FEEL THE PAIN.
Nagra-rugby lang siya,,
HE JUST SNIFFS SOLVENT,
Solb na..
AND IT’S ALRIGHT.
Gusto ko
WHAT I WANT TO BE
Paglaki ko
WHEN I GROW UP
Adik din ako.
IS TO ALSO BE AN ADDICT.
Para pag gutom ako,
SO THAT WHEN I’M HUNGRY
Hindi ko rin mararamdaman ang sakit
I ALSO WON’T FEEL THE PAIN
Alexander
7 Years old
Payatas 13, Quezon City
(text taken from GAWAD KALINGA Primer)
Alexander is just one of the many faces of poverty in our society today. At such a young age, his impoverished condition forces him to face the cruelties of life just to survive. Left with no choice but to embrace the harshness and ruthlessness that life has to offer for the unfortunate. His innocent words convey the inculpable cry of hopelessness and despair. His young forlorn-looking and tattered face mirrors the mentality of helplessness, confusion and impotence. For him and his kuya, survival depends on that plastic of solvent. For them, life means survival of the fittest.
Sad to note that 70% of the Filipinos belong to Class E a technical description of the socio-economic status of those who have no home, no job, and eat only once a day. Local pollster Social Weather Station, even cited that as of the fourth quarter of 2006, the incidence of hunger in the country has reach a new high. Poverty surge in our country seems to be a recurring dilemma that appears to halt no more. Just like any raging war, the battle against poverty proves no promise of winning in the end.
But who is to blame? Some blame their unfortunate situations on their irresponsible parents for not giving them a good life. Activists and militant groups point to the lack of government support and corrupt public officials as the main culprit. Some believe their case is hopeless and so there is no way of getting out. Others perceive it as just pure bad luck and fate. But on top of all these reasons, I believe it is also a valid point to stress that POVERTY IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUE. And I have the following explanation to emphasize my view.
Catholic lay preacher and author Bo Sanchez in the Kerygma Magazine January 2003 issue exhorted that one of the biggest obstacles he faced in trying to lift people from poverty is what he refers as HOMING INSTINCT. And he explained how it works in this way, as quoted :
“The people I tried to help were born poor. At the core of their being,they defined themselves as poor. If I give them a new home or a scholarship or a tiny business a part of their unconscious minds would rebel. Something screamed within them. This is not me! This is not my home! Fear of the unknown set in. And suddenly they want out. So they sabotaged their new path . They got into drugs again. Or they got pregnant out of wedlock. Or they married an irresponsible bum. So they lost the scholarship. They lost the house. They lost the tiny business. By doing so, they recreated what they had been used to. They were back home. Even if it was a home called poverty.”
I can’t help but agree with the preacher’s exhortation. Although not all, but there are some people who are born poor and think they should breath poverty the rest of their lives. For them, being born from poor parents is a license to poverty. Their mindset dictates they don’t deserve a place in the sun. So they never care to have the drive and ambition to rise from the pit of poverty that they are into. They allow their low self-esteem, financial constraint, hopelessness and unfortunate situations to stuck them forever in the pit called poverty. They just watch things happen instead of making things happen in their lives.
Idealistic as I may appear to you, but I believe WE NEED TO HAVE THE INITIATIVE TO CHANGE OUR LIVES FOR THE BETTER. We need to initiate and start it ourselves because nobody else will. After all, we are the only initiator, decision-maker, catalyst and agent of change in our lives. As architects of our lives, the future of our masterpiece lies in our very own hands and our dreams and aspirations should be its blueprint. I loved it when World Entreprenuer Awardee, Nabi Sale exclaims, “You must have a dream, and it has to be bigger than yourself.”
Rebuilding what we perceived HOME won’t happen overnight. Just as Rome was not built in a day, it takes years and years of hardwork, perseverance and persistence for you to change and elevate your social condition. It requires ample belief in yourself, in God, and in your dreams. Believe in the fullness of life that God desires for his children . Believe in the power of your dreams. Believe that you can achieve your goals if you will pursue it with avowed intent and desperation. Believe that if there are people who came from humble beginnings but made it to the top, then, surely you can.
Winding up, I must agree with what Nobel Prize winner Jacques Monod when she says, “Between the great things we cannot do and the small things we will not do, the danger is that we shall do nothing.”
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