OBSERVATION

When an old, emaciated man, dressed in tattered American donations and leaning heavily on a wooden cane for support, approaches you with a solemn story of diseased dependents and no job, what do you do? What about a widowed mother of six, requesting money for food? Or an orphan, living with her blind grandmother, appealing for primary school funds? Even a first year nursing student understands the futility of placing a band aid on a gangrenous wound with the expectation of a cure. So do you give money, and propagate the expectation of a rich foreign savior with Schwarzenegger on speed dial? How about to the next 500 equally sorrowful eyes and tormenting tales?

Think about a community with no restaurants, malls, shops, taxi cabs, banks or movie theaters. Aside from the few lucky teachers, nurses or fisherman, there are no jobs to be had. Prostitution at $6/visit is undoubtably an appealing career option. It is a village in a century-late unsuccessful transition from agrarianism to capitalism. With a late-starting rainy season and a complete petrol shortage, even the crop production is scarce, leaving an old woman roadside, with a paltry pyramid of 9 tomatoes, in a space built for a feast.