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AN EMPTY BOWL OF SOUP“Mother, when will father be back?” Seven-year old Rosalie often asks this question to her mother. Patiently, her mother would reply, “He works on the other side of the island. When he returns, he will bring us some rice.” Hearing these words makes Rosalie happy. She would fall asleep and dream of her father. One morning she woke up late. On her hand was an empty bowl of soup. Feeling very heavy while walking even without her school things on her shoulder, she felt cold and her knees shook. She was in a hurry to queue in line for a bowl of soup in her school’s feeding program. On her way she just fell on the ground and died. On that day, Rosalie went to school not to study her lessons, nor to learn how to read and write. She went just for a bowl of soup. Not long ago, a typhoon devastated Rosalie’s hometown, Rapu-rapu, an island in Albay, Bicol region. Waste chemicals from a mining company flowed to the river and to the sea. The river became smelly and the water yellowish. Fishes died and floated over. Waters were contaminated and polluted. In another island, a palace shimmered in gold décor. There was a bountiful feast for foreign guests. Their stomachs were full and they were drunk. Rosalie’s not-so-known yet so common story is given a hearing at the youth hearing of the AGAPE Consultation on Poverty, Wealth and Ecology in Asia and the Pacific, currently taking place in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Through Rosalie’s story, Jonathan Sta. Rosa, a young man from the Philippines, portrays how globalization impacts the people especially the poor in the Philippines. “Poverty is the result of exploitation and monopoly”, he said. Jonathan’s brother, Isaias Sta. Rosa who is a United Methodist pastor, was gunned down by military elements in 2006. “Exploitation is coupled with violence”, Jonathan explains the killing of his brother who actively resisted corruption and exploitation in the country. Young people in the hearing agree that children and the youth are hardest hit by globalization. Though they also say that not many young people today are critically aware of the various issues that globalization brings. Youth participants from the Pacific note that poverty has even been defined by the West for the rest of the world. Now poverty means incapacity to send children to school, or not being able to own a cell phone, for example. While in the Pacific, wealth is measured by the level of community relationships, sharing and happiness. Jessica Tulloch locates herself “in the middle of the Pacific.” Having lived and adopted Filipino ways for already seven years, still many things remain ‘American’ in her. As a young woman from the United States nurtured in the church and in the ecumenical movement, she gracefully allowed herself to be ‘ministered to’ by the poor and the struggling people. Witnessing the resilience of people living day to day and struggling despite risks, adversities and threats to life, Jessica learned that in engaging in the process of change one also is changed. In Asia and the Pacific, neo-liberal globalization has taken a stronger hold in urban centers especially with the young people. The pressure to consume, to own, to conform and to remain in one’s comfort zone is enormous. Rosalie’s story is not just another one to be heard. Stories like hers should not be ever heard again. Meanwhile, Jessica and Jonathan, two young people coming from two different worlds, offer the youth another way of being in the world. Their message to today’s youth: “One is transformed when one lives with the struggling grassroots people”. posted by cbs on Thursday, November 05, 2009 |
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