Face of Crime

I wrote how I was held up before and I felt so bad yet I could not recall the face of those two hold-uppers even immediately after the hold-up that I felt I wouldn’t be able to point them from the pictures the police showed me if they were really there. I’ve also experienced or witnessed such other incidence but the face of the perpetrators I could not recall mostly because it was done so fast. However, that changed today. Even up to this moment that I am writing this I could still remember the face.

I took my alternate route on my way to the office this morning and I noted that there were a lot of women, some of them with tattoo on the sidewalk of the road we were passing. The traffic was very heavy and the jeepney was almost not moving that I get to observe them up close. The people were some distance from each other mostly in group. Then I saw one man without shirt saying something loudly to the women while walking and I thought that there must have been a commotion earlier. Then I noticed a family – a man, a woman and boy about the age of John-john. The man and woman who were both smoking were talking and the kid at first was just standing there and then he pat the shoulder of his mom. He was unlike the other kids that were on the road some of them even went up to our jeepney and some were just flitting from one jeepney to another like the kids you see in Manila begging or just asking for coins (it is the first time I saw such scene though in a road in Quezon City). Compared to them that had no top shirt and with dyed hair, he was neater and stood quite well.

Anyway I lost sight of him a bit then noted that he was also going from one jeepney to another and came to our jeepney. He did not go up but went to the front of the driver, standing/walking along with the jeepney (told you it was heavy traffic). He told the driver to give him Two pesos and the driver told him to go away. He also told the other kids that came up to our jeepney earlier to come get off. While he was asking for coins, there was another kid that went on the side of the driver, I did not hear him but he was probably asking too and the driver told him too to go away. Anyway the boy did not go away and instead sat on the sit in front since there was only one passenger – the man had to move closer to the driver. The man told him to get off and he said “Nakikisakay lang ah” (I’m just taking a ride). The suddenly he took the rolled bill in the cash box of the driver and took off. The other kid followed him and they laughed and went to an alley. The driver had this frustrated look on his face – he did not say anything anymore. And my look was at the kids. They are just kids yet they have no guilt whatsoever of what they did and seem to get a thrill of doing it. The kid should have been in school yet there he was and earlier he was even with his family. And tonight, I can still see his face!

Earlier tonight on the news they say that some kids are being kidnapped and then turned to be snatchers and thieves. Some kids were lucky to have been able to escape and tell their stories.

It really is a very sad thing. Some of them are forced to do such crime and they follow out of fear but in time it becomes a part of their life – just one of those things that they do. Others are not even forced, they see other kids or people around them doing them and it seems the natural thing to do.

Most faces of criminals would make you really boil with anger but others tears you apart. Yup it makes you angry (you couldn’t help being angry, it is wrong after all) but the pain is there too and you think “What a waste!” Yup, what a waste.

Noynoy’s parable of the Shrewd Steward

President Noynoy (P-Noy) delivered his first state of the nation (SONA) this afternoon and while listening to him mention to the different anomalies uncovered by his team so far, the midnight appointment of the previous administration and the huge benefits given to a select few leaving the coffers almost empty, I couldn’t help but think of the parable of the “Shrewd Steward” mentioned in Luke 16:1-12.

Oh well, our country’s previous steward was not writing off debts but was giving away the country’s money to people who has given her favors and whom she hopes will give her favor in the future. It is unjust alright but she is really clever.

I was thinking though that the parable in the gospel never really ended. It assumed that the debtors would be kind to the shrewd steward. I wonder if it will be the same for the people who benefited from our previous steward? Probably so…

But would there be more of them than the present lot?

Well, I guess enough to buy her time…

And it seems that for Filipinos, time takes forever!

Road Ahead

My youngest sister gifted me with a B23 duo myphone. She knew that I wanted a celfone that has both AM/FM radio since most celfones only have FM radio. And what’s more it is a totally Pinoy Phone which has Pinoy quotes, OPM, and even prayers. Well not all of them are Pinoy prayers but they are common prayers and devotions of Pinoys!

And while exploring the prayers I came across – Road ahead. I clicked on it to listen and was surprised to learn that it was a prayer of Thomas Merton which I found on his book “Thoughts on Solitude” a very small book which fitted on my shirt pocket and which I used to carry a lot. The prayer goes…

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
- Thomas Merton

I loved this prayer so much since it is a prayer of faith and hope. I never realized that it is a common prayer but I’m glad to have found it again!

Incidentally I found a song that was based on the prayer and I am also posting it here:



The song is also nice :)