Check your privilege

I was in a supermarket, particularly in the isle for coffee and coffee mixes. I was looking for a particular brand of ground black coffee when a man  approached me. He had messy hair, wore a soiled wrinkled button-down polo shirt and an untidy pair of corduroy shorts. He had edematous feet that fit in a pair of Duralites. He was around his early 50s or perhaps he just looked older than his age. He asked me, “Ate, meron ka bang dos dyan? Siete kasi ‘tong kape,” while showing me a sachet of Kopiko and a five-peso coin on his callous hand. This man had a sword thrusted through my heart, engraving the message, “Check your privilege.” There I was, looking for an overpriced brand of coffee, while that man did not have enough to buy himself a seven-peso coffee. I could not stomach to purchase that pricey black coffee while a poor man begged for a sachet of cheap coffee. So, I bought the man coffee and a loaf of bread. Another stranger also gave him something to eat. 

I felt guilt, pity, hopelessness, anger, frustration - all at that moment - because I knew that the man did not deserve to solicit coins just to buy a seven-peso coffee, that I could not do anything for him then but to buy him food, that no one deserves to be in such degrading position, and that this would not be the case for people like him if we had an honest and more humane system.

Hay, bakit ba ang daming ganid sa Pilipinas. 😢