A friend of mine regularly buys food for street children, which she hands out of her car window whenever she's stopped at traffic lights and asked for help.
Yesterday, as she handed a store-bought cheese sandwich to an uncomfortably-young street child, a guy in the next car rolled his window down and hurled abuse at her for her actions. "It's people like you", he lectured, "that encourage these kaffirs".
Needless to say, the guy was white, and the street kid was black.
What do we do with this stuff?
Would we really rather glare menacingly through our windscreens at 'bloody beggars' than actually provide a little respite from the ravages of hunger? Fair enough, there's an argument to be made against giving cash, as we all know how that system has been abused by lazy parents pimping out their kids to get beer money. But food? Come on. Feeding someone is quite different to enabling their vices.
And how about the race issue? The intolerance? The lack of compassion? The right this guy thought he had to judge the actions of a complete stranger? The sheer arrogance and lack of humanity his attitude betrayed?
Incidentally, her response as she drove off was, "It's people like you that are fucking this country up".
Hey John, I really like this. I am on my way back from being abroad almost 3 years. I am excited to come home. I want to be "part of the solution"
ReplyDeleteI get so frustrated with people who are so negative about SA.
Good post!