The poor of the land

Every day I see them.

A man pushing a cart while looking for scrap metals and old newspapers. Another is walking beside his old and rusty bike, while shouting “HASA!” (sharpening of knives) An old man, seated early in the morning in front of the hardware store where he works, looks unseeingly into nothingness.

Three women, along the sidewalk of the highway, sell small quantities of vegetables to passerbys. A fleshy man in tattered and shabby clothes, covered with dirt all over, painstakingly sweeps away the dirt around the vendors. This he does in exchange for the free food that they dole out to him. Not too far away is a scruffy and gaunt man who calls out to passengers of tricycles.

Going up the MRT station, I notice the vendors of candies. Not too far from them, are their children, sleeping soundly on the squalid floor, beside them are dirty and used plastics cups that become receptacles of alms. Men, darkened by the sun and almost always sweating profusely, go up and down public busses to sell bottled water, cooked peanuts, candies and snacks.

Then there are the drivers. Taxi drivers who complain aloud because caught in the traffic, they lose a much needed income. Or the jeepney drivers, with grime beneath their nails, in sweat stained shirts and reeking of body odor, hurtling across the street in order to make another round. Or the tricycle drivers, falling in line in almost every street corner and fighting over passengers, who count every peso they earn after filling in the tank with the expensive gasoline. Truck drivers who get into accidents because they are on the road, sleepless, underpaid, and with no insurance.

I ask, why are there to many of them?

When I see them, I feel a twinge in my heart. I know how it is to be in need. Maybe not as much as they needed. But I know how it felt like to live in a very small apartment, to eat plain food, to buy unfashionable yet sturdy clothes, to make do with what you have.

One day, I got my answer. Indirectly.

The poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you saying, “You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land. Deuteronomy 15: 11

Or maybe directly.

I felt sad when I read this verse. For I realized that there is no use asking why there are so many poor people. It has been declared. They will always be here. I take note instead of the second part of the verse. It is a commandment. Help them out.

I do what I can. I help certain people. Mostly those whom I know personally. For the rest, all I can do is whisper a prayer: God, give him strength to continue his work. Give him health that he may provide for his family. Sustain and bless him, O Lord!