SEARCHING FOR COMPASSION

SEARCHING FOR COMPASSION

I was at work last night, and I came home quite late with room smelling like an Efficascent Oil laboratory. I followed the smell and realized it was coming from my wife. She was already asleep, so I just kissed her. Then this morning, she tells me that she had a severe back pain, accompanied by abdominal pain...all from stress...because last night she heard news from TV that electric and water rates were going up again.....coupled with the DECS allowing all private schools to increase their tuition fees, and of course they happily did.....the BIR also enacted new laws ordering everyone, esp. professionals to come up with new receipts, so tapon mo na lang old receipts mo, kahit marami pa, because you have to use new ones by July.......She felt so stressed out....she started feeling pains all over......she too felt the fear that I have been having about the future, not only, of my kids but of all the kids and families in the Philippines.....She was searching for compassion where there seemed to be none.

True, that under the effective leadership of President Noynoy, we have had unprecedented GDP growth, bigger even than China's....that is all good....and it is accepted, that we, the common people may not feel this growth for quite a while,...but do they really have to shove it in our faces, and make us feel scared, helpless, hopeless and depressed.

Government allows almost every business establishment including those that provide basic services like electricity and water to increase their rates....they also allow hospitals and schools to charge exorbitant fees, and this involves health care and education, what every parent wants for for their kids.....and then government makes it extremely difficult for employees to get salary increases and the increases are not proportionate to the increases made by the business establishments...so while big businesses, hospitals and schools maintain their incomes with probably a small dip,...the owners still live luxurious lives, eat at the best restaurants, get hospitalized in rooms worth 5-10,000 upwards a night, and send their kids to the most expensive and most insensitive schools......the common people transfer their children to public schools....go to public hospitals with 2nd rate facilities....and may soon start eating less than 3 meals a day....according to researches, more people have gone hungry....Where is the compassion?

The government allows a lot of big businesses to get away with tax cuts....but they run after small-time professionals and give orders that are so absurd, you feel that they are literally after you.....if money had to be obtained from tax revenues, why not start collecting tax from Catholic institutions or businesses....I am a Catholic, but let's be honest about it, Catholic schools and their other businesses earn a lot.....if we are taxed, shouldn't they be taxed too?

I feel an ulcer attack coming....but this is what I told my wife....we cannot expect compassion from government, from the majority of businessmen, and even from Catholic Institutions...but we can always expect compassion and love from our Lord....so we just go on working....and praying....that the Lord gets us through every struggle, with a love, battle tested, and even stronger than before.

We ask that God enlightens everyone to be more aware and to be more concerned of the plight of their neighbors.....this is our country's and the world's only chance for real peace and happiness.

GOD BLESS ALL OF US!