Hunger.

Sometimes I am absolutely disgusted by my own lack of sensitivity.
A week ago,
In the language school where I go, one of my classmates brought some food for all of us to share.
A savoury accompanied by tamarind sauce.
After the savoury was eaten, he went on to dispose the sauce,
To which I said,
“Don’t waste the sauce, think about all the children in Africa.”
This elicited the expected response, chuckles and laughter.
But from the moment I said it, to right now nearly a week later, I still feel miserable about it.
How could I so casually mention the plight of millions of children in some other continent for some cheap laughs when in my own country the situation was just as prevalent if not worse. How could I make, the struggle of survival for all these people a punchline to my joke?  How? When the mere change in my birthplace could have meant I would have been one of them.
I think a lot of us do struggle with these things, understanding and adopting a sensitive attitude, not belittling other’s difficulties by disassociating ourselves with it, especially when these are social difficulties of a huge scale, something that all of us as humans must help to abate.
I have no pointers to offer of course, no method to follow that I can share,
I wrote this piece only to calm the turmoil up to a certain extent in my own heart, this is my letter of apology.

R.S.