I am deeply sorry.
For the roads that have no sidewalks and decent streetlamps. An old jeepney, with its dying headlight, can side-sweep you and not even know you were there. A pair of robbers or handful of rapists find safety in the many blind spots of the roadside — while you, threats. A group of men will still enjoy catcalling and may someday bravely touch you because no security camera shies them.
Sorry if you have to risk your life every day and grow numb to it.
Neither an amputated leg nor a baby wrapped in soiled clothes can persuade you to spare some coins to give. Religion teaches sympathy towards street children and the unfortunate, yet reality trains you to avoid them because they can be violent and even take your dinner away from your own hands. Conscience will consume you and you will eat the bitterness of ignoring it.
Sorry if you have to lose your kindness and pretend that it is okay.
For the traffic that starts as soon as the rooster crows and long past when it sleeps. You wake up by 4 a.m. for a 7-to-5 work clock and go home by 8 pm, and do not ever get paid for it. It is not the office job that tires you, but the long queues in terminals and the standing-and-gripping in a tight bus.
For the garbage that is everywhere. People make a toilet out of every tree, every post. Your body even reeks of it when you go home. You become paranoid when it pours because rats and cats pee and poop, and an open wound can cost you thousands. Watch as those brand-new sneakers turn into one-year-old shoes in just a week.
Sorry if you have to go through such inconvenience and be accustomed to it.
For the hair embedded in your plate of spaghetti. For having ice in your milktea just when you instructed not to put any ice in it. For the expired product that you pulled out of shelf but no longer returnable because you lost the receipt. For having to eat in several food shops that are too warm because they cannot afford their own air-conditioning bills. For having an insurance that can barely save you from bad health and poverty.
Sorry if you sometimes have to pay for things and services that are not worth it.
For the skin specialist “doctor” who asks P500 from you but won’t answer your query about an itchy throat and refers you to a pulmonologist instead because “it’s not her line of work”. For the pharmacists that take your prescription and fill it without telling you the risks of your medication. For the teachers that miss the lectures and give you exams that are impractical. For the engineers that go against their ethics and deliberately sign corrupted construction projects. For the politicians that do not bat an eye when squandering your paid taxes. For the church leaders that fail to inspire or share the truth in Gospels. For the rest of the working group that settle with mediocrity and incompetence.
Sorry if you can only rant about it on Facebook.
But there is something I can do. I can write you something that will stir your heart and mind — make an uprising within you — enough to cause a change in your beliefs, in your thoughts, in your actions.
