HANDOUT

There are many people asking for handout where I live. In the restaurant, while I’m eating with my mom, there was woman giving salam and expecting everybody to give her money.

Where I work, each and everyday, there will be at least one person, asking for handout, may it be, money to study religion, to build mosque, to live and look after 5 children even though the father is blind and the list goes on.

It’s not that I am not compassionate. I glanced away when a kid is about to be punished with a stroke of ‘rotan’. I stop watching the news about Gaza because I can’t stand seeing the kids all bloodied and being dead just because they were the wrong place, at the wrong time. And I can’t stand seeing posters of kids who are so thin from starvation and could die at any moment. I can’t even watch animals being butchered for their skin and meat. Although I listened to heavy metal and think Manson is not a devil worshipper, but alas, as a human being, I do have compassion and conscience to think that dropping bombs and killing children will not contribute to world peace.

In shorter words, I do respect humanity and I do feel empathy towards those less fortunate people. Nonetheless, a lot of those people asking for handout are still young, able-bodies but they took the easy way out to live by asking money from people. Everybody suffer. Everybody cries. Everybody has to move their goddamn asses and get a job in order to survive. Don’t expect people to pity you and give money just because you got a piece of paper saying you are asking for money because you are not capable of working but you are able to have 5 kids and still counting.

I sympathize those who work hard at life but still continue to work hard and refuse to give up just because life has been hard. I admire those who are still hanging on and hope life would be better. At least they dare to dream and hope for the betterment of their life. Nobody expects life to be kind. A lot of people live day by day and not knowing whether they survive another day tomorrow. At least we are here in Malaysia where no goddamn bomb is going to blow away our home in a millisecond. At least we have a stable government who gives us bonus every year. At least we get food, water, shelter, and petrol to fuel our cars. Still, we are ignorant of our blessings than we continue to complain and bitch about everything that does not go in the way that we thought it will.

Life is hard. Suck it up like a punch to the face and try hard not to flinch. Not everybody will be nice to you. Not everything that you want, you will get. It is hard for everybody. Just because somebody has money, does not mean they are happy. Just because someone is poor, does not mean he is miserable. The definition of life is different from one person to another. Everybody has to work, everybody has to taste the bitterness of life before they could taste the sweet victory. That is why I despise people who keep asking for handout, people who won’t work to shoulder the responsibility they have been entrusted upon. The point is life is hard and don’t expect people to pity you and help you everytime you fall. Sometime, you have to grit your teeth and bear it all. And hope that life would not be so bad to you. If you can walk, then crawl. If you can crawl, then lie there and hope not to die. But to be healthy and able and not working, expecting people to help you everytime you feel shitty, that is pure cowardice.