AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?
by Roberta Ivanova
Then the lord said to Cain, -Where is your brother Abel?, and he replied, -I don't know. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”. What do you think about this verse? Is uncomfortable for everybody, even for those who don’t know what it means and who these brothers are. This photograph is of homeless near Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. (1989). Imagine that you lost your brother when you were a child because of famine, without being able to do anything, something as simple as food, what people who live a “normal life” don’t even appreciate and, in the meantime you would do the impossible to obtain it. Seeing how someone you love is dying for lack of what others throw out and you praying for his life at the same time. It’s fair? What you would do? If you would have to choose between eating the last slice of food and saving your life or saving your little brother’s life, what you would do?
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What I see? Is what I see really important? The description of what I see would change the situation of this man that we can observe in the photograph? If we imagine that my words would change his situation and the situation of the millions of people who are suffering the cruel reality of poverty, I want to say that I see a horrible part where people are suffering and dying in this world. As you can see, this man is alone, I can guess that he lives below a bridge because, who would be having a nap in a dirty bed below the bridge? There is nothing else around him, just a river of dirty and polluted water, a bag with the size of our backpacks to go to the high school where he probably keep all his belongings and a hotel on the other side of the river where nobody seems to care about this man's situation. As I said, this man surely keeps all his things in a ridiculous bag while we have a whole house to keep our things. Over him there is a USA flag, why? I don’t understand why this man have a flag of the country where he lives, the country that doesn't care nor a bit about how homeless people like him live, It may be an irony of the importance they give to people who are homeless, that is, none. And as we can see, he wears old but warm clothes since probably there is cold outside, especially at night. What about the feelings? Not only what we see is important, also is important what we perceive because we can realize many things through our emotions. Solitude, lostness, sorrow, wrathful, coldness, darkness… We cannot define with words how these people feel because these people are very damaged by the society. The looks, the gestures, the insults… If any of them is evil and steals and hurts people, it's because society has done him so. We don't put ourselves in their shoes, we don't understand what they feel, and we prefer to do nothing to help them. When we see some homeless, we are afraid of them when they are people who need help. The world would be a better place if we realize that we are all equal and that we have all the same rights to live normal life.
But, what is normal? What is the normal life? This, where we live as people who spend the month's salary on necessary things, on some unnecessary things and on some cravings, that where people lives only spending on cravings and luxurious trips or that nonexistent in which we all cooperate so that all people on the planet can have at least what is necessary to survive, form a family and be able to study? We are selfish, we only look at what is happening around us, we only care about our mobile and what the others think and say about us. it's time to open our eyes and realize what's happening. About what happens in other countries or in the streets where we live and how people fight for their life. When they wake up in the middle of the street, between two containers, hungry and that the only thing that really matters at that moment is to survive.
