4 Siblings surviving on biscuits

Last week while I was sitting in a coffee shop in Sibu with a friend and his contractor, we heard a vocal singing a Mandarin karaoke from afar. As we were wondering who sang karaoke so early in the morning, we saw one handicapped man without both of his legs sitting in a wheelchair, pushed by another limping handicapped person, singing a mobile karaoke, begging for money.

The voice was so soothing that when you look at that pitiful man without both legs, it make you wonder how unfair god is, giving some and not giving some, putting such a good singing talent in a pitifully handicapped body. As the car parks outside the coffee shop were all full, the wheelchair bound singer couldn’t come close to us. Seeing that these handicapped men could not come up to where were sitting, a lady sitting next table to us stood up and walked out of the coffee shop to give some donations. My friend Chong Kok Siong quickly pulled out 10 ringgit from his pocket and I did the same, asking the nice lady to pass up the donations for us.

Such unfortunate things happen all over the world. Sometimes I wonder how lucky we are, to be able to live a normal and healthy life. Not rich enough to live luxuriously but mean enough to have our stomach full each day. But there are unfortunate people everywhere, some know how to seek help, some don’t. Just a few days ago there was a piece of news on the Star reporting on a poor guy running away from Along, can’t even feed his 4 kids with proper meals. The 4 siblings were reportedly surviving on biscuits and have never tasted a grain of rice in their life as the father was unemployed and can’t afford to provide the kids with proper meals and accommodation.

I looked at the pictures of the skinny girls and boy apparently under nourished; I shake my head in disbelief. At least what the father should do is to seek help, or to send the children to the orphanage house or to look for someone who is capable to raise up these kids. Certainly they deserve to live a better life, to get education so that they would not be like their father, living uncertain life, running there hiding here. They can have a better future if the father is brave enough to seek help but unfortunately their father chooses to let things go as what it is, letting the poor kids hiding inside an abandoned workshop, eating biscuit day and night to stave off hunger.

Sometimes I wonder why these people want to have babies if they can’t afford to raise them. Why want to let the poor kids suffer, as though suffering is a way of life that everyone has to go through.