MY GUILTY CONSCIENCE SPEAKING


I passed an old beggar on the street today, he had one arm and no legs and his anguished face hid a tale untold
I passed a young girl with eyes crying out to me the day before, in her tattered assembly of cloth as her only covering
I ignored a deaf man in the mat today, getting funds for his school for the deaf and as he handed me the paper I didn’t even bother to read it and handed it back to him and put my earphones on and on loud
I ignored this guy who always begs for money on Moi Avenue today, as I do every day (ignore this one. The bum should just get off his lazy ass and get a job!!)
I ignored the smiling old lady who begs just at the entrance of prestige plaza, I just smiled back and was on my way. She hardly says a word but I guess her open hands adequately deliver the message
I ignored the boy sniffing glue as he ruffled through the dustbin next to galitos as his dejected expression and mien spoke of hope, of hope lost so long ago
I feel like im a bad person, I put myself above these souls knowing not that birth, which I controlled not was the only thing that determined where he and I were born
If I help the first one there will still be many more waiting for help from me and I can’t help all of them or if I give one of them it will cause a fight and they will all scramble for survival are some of the crappy excuses repeat in my head over and over to make myself feel justified! But why exactly do we do this??
Perhaps, and I say this with all due respect, perhaps it is because daddy and mommy did it and what other way do we know…the apple falling from the tree syndrome
Perhaps we are vindicating our actions with our scapegoat being the government for not doing their part in eradicating these “creatures of vice” from our streets
Maybe like me you use the” I can’t change the whole world” point of view
We are however quick to put down efforts by others to help them as cheap publicity stunts and               shows of wealth.
Madonna came and adopted an African child and there was hue and cry but from none of those mouths came the offer to adopt the child themselves! Instead there were a lot of they are taking our children speeches! This in my view is totally without reserve, hogwash!
Our adoption policies however are partly to blame for the low number of adoptions. The stringent rules intended to safeguard the minor tend to be bureaucratic procedures which stress the applicants which may explain why some parent’s to be give up hope.
On the other hand, rules too lax may give way to child peddling which is rampant in North Africa with children being helplessly being deported to Arab countries to serve the rest of their lives as slaves. I guess there are catches to every choice or rule we make.
The solution to this I’m not quite sure. Maybe I should give a shilling to every person that asks for one because, as we all believe, it’s the thought that counts. The fact that I gave him or her something should make me feel like I changed a life. I don’t think though that thoughts will fill stomachs nor clothe bodies.
Maybe we should adopt more children this way everybody will have a mommy and a daddy
Maybe we should hold mass protests and pressure the government into taking actions. I do think that the government will react like they have in this fuel crisis by reducing fuel prices by A WHOLE TWO SHILLINGS!!What a change they have made! Kenya will never be the same!!
Maybe we should pray because after all prayer does move mountains
I’m not sure if there is a wrong or a right answer to this predicament our society finds itself in but I know for sure that my guilty conscience dictates that SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE!!
It was just a thought I wanted to let out!

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