as we stumble and fall and as time breaks and falls, i learn of things both here and beyond me. ...as tomorrow becomes yesterday.

An officemate asked another officemate what he got for his daughter after the company gave out our performance bonuses. The other replied and proceeded with stories of how the shopping spree with his family went on. This led to discussions about how those who have relatively less tend to raise more children and in the process sacrifice the possibility of an improved quality of life had they had fewer children.

I remembered an incident in the taxi bay of Glorietta 4 last Friday. I bought groceries with two of my friends when a girl, around 5 or 6, came up to ask for alms from us. My friend, whose name I won’t mention here for some reason, got some coins from his pocket and gave it to the little girl. He told us that what pisses him off is when a man goes asking for money from people, as a means for living when his body-built shows an obvious ability to do real work. I suggested to my friend the possibility that the father might be just around the corner directing the girl to beg for money. My prophesy came true three minutes later when we saw the girl gave her takings for the day to a man with another child (around 2 or 3 years old) in his arms, following them was a woman (might be the wife) also carrying a child and another one was clinging to the side of her clothing.

It might be self-righteous to take pity and condemn these people at the same time, but that was exactly how I felt then. Later on, while aboard a cab going home, I was contemplating on the unfairness of things – basically how those people are throwing the blame on the financially better offs when they are the ones making their lives miserable. Or of how the lot of us who have been educated with the hazards of overpopulating, carry the burden of limiting our progeny to counterbalance the acts of the irresponsible ones.