Everybody, be they rich, poor or in between, suffers at some time. People suffer for a lot of reasons. Natural disasters, illnesses, pandemics, accidents, recessions and depressions all take their toll. Nobody is immune. Life is hard and it is unfair.
But the worst kind of suffering is caused by people. People's greed, selfishness, cruelty and indifference are the biggest causes of suffering in the world. People make war. Wars bring famine, disease, economic collapse, environmental damage, societal disintegration and genocide. People also create unjust policies and laws that favour the powerful at the expense of the powerless. Banking policies that empower bankers to extract hefty service fees from people's savings accounts are examples.
But let's look at suffering from a more personal standpoint. There are times when life's hard knocks come to our door and rob us of everything except life. Such knocks can be a sudden job loss, illness, a serious assault, a robbery, divorce and death of significant others. But we do not all suffer at the same time. So when disaster strikes, others are free to help.
But some people choose not to help even when they can. In the wake of a job loss or long illness, for example, people will be without an income and if they don't have enough reserved, they will be unable to provide for their needs. Unfortunately, that is the time when some people find out that those they had hoped would help, really do not care. That brings a terrible kind of hurt.
Even worse, some people blame victims of misfortune for what has happened to them. During the hurricane season, many poor Jamaicans who live in makeshift informal settlements near gullies and other low-lying areas, lose their homes to torrential rains and flooding. But people blame them for living in these places, never considering that maybe they do not have other choices. In other disasters, some people even see it as an opportunity to further victimise victims. In the wake of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, many traumatised, displaced women and children were sexually assaulted.
Poverty is its own disaster. What makes people treat poor people so badly? Is it that they do not understand why people are poor? People are poor when they cannot provide for their own basic needs. Most people have to work to be able to provide for themselves. But there are many able and willing people who cannot find jobs. Also, children, the disabled and old people make up a large part of the poor population because they are unable to work. Yet some people curse and chase away children, the disabled and old people when they ask for help. I recently heard of a woman who cut down her breadfruit tree because poor people were picking the fruits. Now she will have no fruits even for herself. Yesterday, I saw a story on Facebook about children being shamed by school cafeteria staff for having no lunch money. They put these children to work cleaning the cafeteria, while they throw away perfectly good food.
Yes, life is hard and it is unfair. But it is harder and more unfair because some people do not care about other people. They either don't know how to care or don't want to. For such people, I am sharing a saying that I learned from my mother. "Today for me, but tomorrow for you." That is to say, while I have troubles now, your troubles are on the way. When life's hard knocks come we all need help from others to cope or even survive. Knowing this we should lend a hand whenever we can. And even if we cannot, we must not add to other people's troubles by blaming or shaming them. Instead, give them empathy. A day is coming when you will need it back.
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