To give or not to give?
I have to admit that I have been quite lazy with posting lately even though my mind is full with thoughts, with news, and I have been busy reading...The weather has been too nice to sit in with my laptop and to be in town, breath in the polluted hot air, so I participated in hiking. We did about 25km of walking on Sunday, and the last kms were a torture for some of us :-) "C'mon, we walked a lot already". Somehow, I enjoyed the pain and the psychological fight with my brain to overcome that pain, I also agree that what is the point to sit in the train for two hours, and spend only a short time in the nature.
Anyway, each of us has our own opinions on things. Last evening, I went to check out Harry Potter :-). Well, i have not read the book, but I saw all the movies that were out, and liked them. BTW, "The Transformers" also rules, luv it (I mean it was fun and easy to watch, Hollywood kind of movie :-)), don't expect much from it). Talking about reading, I read a lot recently, my current book is "This book will save your life"-sound like a book for the century, isn't it? It is. if you have read "Catch 22" (which I just finished before this book) or "Catcher in the Rye", you will realise how much similar these books are to each other. It is all about our generation, our youth, lifestyles...And I finished the funniest book of all the shopaholic book series that I have "Shopaholic and baby".
Okey, back to the main subject, last Friday, when I was walking home, there was a man who stopped me (he was with his wife and two children), asked "do you speak English?". They looked so lost, and so unfortunate, I said "yes". He started explaining that he needed to get back to Antwerp, and had no money, if I could give him 40Eur. I was shocked, not only he asked for money, he is asking for a lot of money. It was not the first time that someone asked for money for this reason. The first thought came to my brain was that "are you crazy or what? just walk away, this is a trap like any others that happened before", but then there is a better Thao talking "What if they really need help, and you walk away?" So, I said to the man "I am sorry, I don't have 40Eur, I have only 20Eur, is it ok?" He said "yes, I will ask some people for the rest". I gave him 20Eur, he bowed several times, and said "Thank you Madame, thank you madame, god bless you", I joked "I hope so" :-)
Of course, when I told my uncle the story, he laughed and said "well, you stupid, another time you fell into their trap". Even though it did hit me that they might lie to me, but I prefer to not let the situation where someone needed help, and i did not offer happen. I think we should have faith that maybe people do fall into difficulties and they do need assistance. Sometimes i think I can just save that money that I give to people like them to someone else who might need them more, but how can you define who need more? and that the person in front of you need help right away. Why is it too difficult for us to give something away? Is it in our nature to be greedy and selfish? if so, I think it already is the end of our race!
I think of the the reportage that my uncle saw on TV about the people of Iraq, they are now refugees, the country is a mess, people steal, and kill to live. Maybe in a couple of years, the word "peace" and "prosperity" will disappear from our children vocabulary. What they will learn is probably "freedom" "techonology", "internet"...
Anyway, each of us has our own opinions on things. Last evening, I went to check out Harry Potter :-). Well, i have not read the book, but I saw all the movies that were out, and liked them. BTW, "The Transformers" also rules, luv it (I mean it was fun and easy to watch, Hollywood kind of movie :-)), don't expect much from it). Talking about reading, I read a lot recently, my current book is "This book will save your life"-sound like a book for the century, isn't it? It is. if you have read "Catch 22" (which I just finished before this book) or "Catcher in the Rye", you will realise how much similar these books are to each other. It is all about our generation, our youth, lifestyles...And I finished the funniest book of all the shopaholic book series that I have "Shopaholic and baby".
Okey, back to the main subject, last Friday, when I was walking home, there was a man who stopped me (he was with his wife and two children), asked "do you speak English?". They looked so lost, and so unfortunate, I said "yes". He started explaining that he needed to get back to Antwerp, and had no money, if I could give him 40Eur. I was shocked, not only he asked for money, he is asking for a lot of money. It was not the first time that someone asked for money for this reason. The first thought came to my brain was that "are you crazy or what? just walk away, this is a trap like any others that happened before", but then there is a better Thao talking "What if they really need help, and you walk away?" So, I said to the man "I am sorry, I don't have 40Eur, I have only 20Eur, is it ok?" He said "yes, I will ask some people for the rest". I gave him 20Eur, he bowed several times, and said "Thank you Madame, thank you madame, god bless you", I joked "I hope so" :-)
Of course, when I told my uncle the story, he laughed and said "well, you stupid, another time you fell into their trap". Even though it did hit me that they might lie to me, but I prefer to not let the situation where someone needed help, and i did not offer happen. I think we should have faith that maybe people do fall into difficulties and they do need assistance. Sometimes i think I can just save that money that I give to people like them to someone else who might need them more, but how can you define who need more? and that the person in front of you need help right away. Why is it too difficult for us to give something away? Is it in our nature to be greedy and selfish? if so, I think it already is the end of our race!
I think of the the reportage that my uncle saw on TV about the people of Iraq, they are now refugees, the country is a mess, people steal, and kill to live. Maybe in a couple of years, the word "peace" and "prosperity" will disappear from our children vocabulary. What they will learn is probably "freedom" "techonology", "internet"...
posted by Vagabonder @ 10:34 AM
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