The Other's Suffering
by Jamil Adrian Matalam
Ateneo de Davao University
I am no advocate of homosexuality. I even hate homosexual acts. But what I hate most are people who disregard the dignity of their fellow human beings, and are unmindful their sufferings. The doctors at the Vicente Sotto hospital, in Cebu , who operated on a suffering homosexual have no right whatsoever to that person’s suffering a laughable matter. It is good to laugh a lot in life, but I do not think it is good if the subject of our laughter is that of a person’s pain. He came there looking for help and remedy and not to be laughed at and be disgraced. What is more outrageous, as if a finishing touch, is that they uploaded it in youtube so that the rest of the world could see the operation.
Clearly, there is selfishness in these actions; they were unmindful of the suffering and embarrassment of that homosexual. If they were the ones operated upon in that case, definitely they would not make it public because it is embarrassing, therefore not a laughable matter. If only...
This is the case in our country. Many of us fail to see or are unmindful of the suffering of others. The food crisis and rampant corruption are great consequences of this indifference. If the government is truly mindful of the sufferings of the many poor Filipinos then this food crisis could have been avoided. They could have planned something to prevent it.
I mean if our government is truly thinking of how many Filipinos suffer in their lives then this government could have made policies and programs that would uplift people's lives and make their lives comfortable. Uplift their lives necessarily should include insuring that good and nutritious food are provided at the tables of every Filipino household. This government could have come up with plans to avoid such a crisis a long time ago. Any good government should know the sufferings of its people.
Because our government is seemingly unmindful of this suffering, we now have a food crisis. Our government tries to find solutions when the problem is already there; consider, i.e., the case of Carla, who hurt her children with glowing embers because they accidentally spilled one cup of uncooked rice; or a case of a mother who was deprived by a creditor of her infant child because she could not pay a debt of a meager 50,000.
Ateneo de Davao University
I am no advocate of homosexuality. I even hate homosexual acts. But what I hate most are people who disregard the dignity of their fellow human beings, and are unmindful their sufferings. The doctors at the Vicente Sotto hospital, in Cebu , who operated on a suffering homosexual have no right whatsoever to that person’s suffering a laughable matter. It is good to laugh a lot in life, but I do not think it is good if the subject of our laughter is that of a person’s pain. He came there looking for help and remedy and not to be laughed at and be disgraced. What is more outrageous, as if a finishing touch, is that they uploaded it in youtube so that the rest of the world could see the operation.
Clearly, there is selfishness in these actions; they were unmindful of the suffering and embarrassment of that homosexual. If they were the ones operated upon in that case, definitely they would not make it public because it is embarrassing, therefore not a laughable matter. If only...
This is the case in our country. Many of us fail to see or are unmindful of the suffering of others. The food crisis and rampant corruption are great consequences of this indifference. If the government is truly mindful of the sufferings of the many poor Filipinos then this food crisis could have been avoided. They could have planned something to prevent it.
I mean if our government is truly thinking of how many Filipinos suffer in their lives then this government could have made policies and programs that would uplift people's lives and make their lives comfortable. Uplift their lives necessarily should include insuring that good and nutritious food are provided at the tables of every Filipino household. This government could have come up with plans to avoid such a crisis a long time ago. Any good government should know the sufferings of its people.
Because our government is seemingly unmindful of this suffering, we now have a food crisis. Our government tries to find solutions when the problem is already there; consider, i.e., the case of Carla, who hurt her children with glowing embers because they accidentally spilled one cup of uncooked rice; or a case of a mother who was deprived by a creditor of her infant child because she could not pay a debt of a meager 50,000.
