Posted by Lilly from ? (160.129.27.22) on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 at 1:59PM :
In Reply to: Canary Children posted by pancho from pool0114.cvx25-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.216.114) on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 at 9:02AM :
: We talk about how the poor of the world have a slower pace of living...how they rely more on family and community. It's true...though we wouldn't trade our Beemers and lattes for the chance to find out.
: Antonio was our caretaker and gardener...made some repairs and improvements around the house. He rode his bike to us every day from the small village about five miles away. Brought his wife over to meet us the first week he came to work...and his son helped out a few days.
: Antonio has seven children, five still living at home. He's about forty five, I'd guess, bad teeth, slender and dark with the warmest eyes. he chuckles when he talks, walks with a slight dancestep and works hard and enjoys praise for a job well done. He gets all of $14.00 a day. We were able to give him all kinds of clothes for his children and made sure to feed him well.
: When it rained I'd drive him home...saw his house. It's a sort of compound surrounded by a wall. Inside, in separate sections live his father and mother, who own the place, another brother with a family and Antonio and his.
: They don't know they're poor. They know it now...but seem to consider it not worth bothering about. What counts is having a job and raising a family. He'd like to have a car and says he might go to America one day to earn the money for one...but I doubt it. He seems happy enough surrounded by family and if one person is short one month, the family shares and supports each other.
: No one would want to trade places with him in America...and I'm not so sure, if he traded places with them...he'd ever be as happy as he is now. Life is hard in both places...but one thing you can't deny...if being human means being close to humans...Antonio is far more human than families tend to be in America.
xxx But does he have to live life like that? His family is at the mercy of whoever it is that hires any of the wage earners (those who earn a living in his family). It's the same thing here, in the States... or at least we're told to allow our corporate leaders to make the choices - who stays & who goes when it comes to firing time. Very few people try to take legal action against the corporate leaders who manipulate them. I wouldn't blame them - it's hard to win those cases - but I would admire anyone who tried.
xxx Same thing for this nonsense about losing our privacy simply b/c we are of a certain race or religious background. Why do we have to be wire tapped, watched, or interviewed? We're citizens just like John Smith & Maggie Jones. It's disgusting & insulting! I think we should sue our gov't, as a community. Maybe we can get Muslim groups & other immigrant groups (e.g. former Chinese & Russian citizens) that have encountered the same thing as we have to join us... Or has such a thing been done before?
-- Lilly
-- signature .
Follow Ups: