Coming from Cubao after accompanying my gf to the fx station, I crossed edsa using the overpass.  At the end of the stairs, I saw a variation of the picture on my last entry.  I "mother" and a 1yr old + child in her arms.  Approaching me, they told me they needed money to get home to their provice, that was the beginning of holyweek.  So in the spirit of compassion and because it was holy week, i gave them 50 pesos. 

 

Walking more than 10 feet to try and get a bus ride home, I saw the mother and the child, who strangely at that time had a costume change.   At that time i didn't notice.  They approaced me and said to me the same thing that they said a while ago. WTF!? I just gave you 50 pesos, after about 2 seconds, I realized that they were not the ones I saw just below the overpass. 

 

Thinking to myself, I got duped.  stupid me, I shouldn't have given the earlier "family" money.  Damn them. 

 

 

 

You were going out of your building from work, you see a mother and her less thatn one year old child, in the midde of the sidewalk with just a small umbrella to shield them from the rain.  Wind picks up and it starts to drizzle, but the so called mother persists in her activity, instead of going for shelter, she just pulls back the can in front of her so it won't get wet.  I don't know if she forgot that she had a baby with her, or if she was just plain old retarded.

 

The emotion that I felt when I saw the picture, the hate, the disgust towards the woman holding the baby. 

 

Life is hard, I'll give you that.  Early days you had to work twice as hard if you wanted a decent enough lifestyle, now you have to work three times or more just to provide for yourslelf, not including your family.  But, do they have to do that? Using children, babies for that matter, as objects to show to people, knock on someones car and tell them "look at me and my baby, we're poor we need your help, but don't mind that, just look at the baby that I'm carrying."  Given their status and capacity to get a job, they don't have the right to do that.  You expose the baby to tons and tons of sicknesses, pollution, deprive them of the things due to them even with that kind of lifestyle. 

 

Whether she was the mother of the baby or not, this goes to them as well.  You should just drop one or two limbs, see what you will feel if someone carries you around, showing you to other people like some freak show to get money.  Its your child, you should never let anyone, including yourself, do that to your child! 

 

I don't know how we remedy these things in our country, but I hope they do something for them.