I wrote this while I was bored, waiting for patients, at Fortune Care, a week ago, I think.
I had an attack of sugar craving earlier today, while I was still at Fortune Care Clinic. I submitted myself to this insatiable craving (ok, so I was weak…) and ordered a Jollibee chocolate sundae. I was peacefully pigging out my ice cream in a lonely corner near the entry door when a middle-aged woman wearing a red tie-dyed dress and rubber sandals approached the guard and asked if he saw a red leather shoulder bag left on the nearby table. The guard beckoned to a service crew guy and the guy handed her a red bag. The tie-dyed lady was ever so thankful and said, for a moment, she was almost certain she’s lost her bag, together with her cellphone and ten thousand pesos worth of cash inside. She said she left the bag on the table because she has to go to the washroom. When she returned, she couldn’t find it anymore.
But, what does she expect, I thought. That her bag should wait for her to finish washing up and not to go with any not-so-innocent bystanders or passers-by who would pick it up? Come on. We do not live in a Utopian world. We can only hope that people around us would express the right values but can we really expect them to? Can we expect the people from the nearby tables to watch our things for us when we have to be somewhere else?
So, what if the scenario was that the service crew guy wasn’t able to rescue the poor bag from abandonment, but, instead, some other unknown misfit chanced upon it and whisked it away. Can the lady blame the service crew guy or the guard for not looking out for her things? Of course not. The guard isn’t responsible for her bag, especially if she did not call his attention to guard it while she was away. She was only too feeble-minded to have considered taking her poor little red bag with her to the washroom, which could have saved her all the trouble.
It’s no wonder, then, that the crimes committed increase day by day. As the old saying goes, “walang manloloko kung walang magpapaloko.” It is up to the good citizens of this country to be vigilant in guarding the things valuable to us: money, properties, rights, dignity, freedom, etcetera. But if someone does not even have the ability and common sense to protect his personal belongings, how can he be trusted with greater things?
If all the citizens are like this lady, there’s no doubt that this country is going to the dogs.
