teach them how to fish

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whenever i went out of the office i either ride a cab home, take two jeepny rides to up then to katipunan or take two train rides to cubao then to lrt katipunan.
yesterday, i opt out in taking the last option. usually, i take the escalator because of obvious reasons. but it seemed like the escalator was out of order, looking at road pole that was tied across the elevator entrance to prevent from persistent commuters from crossing and doing katherine zeta jones' entrapment acrobats.thus, everybody needs to take the the "road block" either the elevator which would take the rebirth of the dinosaurs to get to the second floor or take the stairs that would give you varicose veins as large as balate roots.
i thought time is gold so i took the stairs instead. while i was struggling with my breath, i saw a little girl begging for some spare coins and food sitting on the next flight. i remembered that she happens to be the same girl who was stationed on the entrance of the elevator. it seemed like she was displaced from her branch.
as i mentioned on my previous post, normally, i don't really give alms to such not because i am a born pathetic. but simply because sometimes sparing some coins or food would not really help them rather they would continue depending to others and doing this for the rest of their life. as the old chinese quotaion goes, give a man a fish and he'll live for a day. but teach a man how to fish and he'll live for the rest of his life.
nonetheless, the look on the little girl's face just basically crashed my chest. i might be very pessimistic in thinking that she is a good actress. but what's on her play is something that you don't normally see among beggar's faces. others might call it conviction. but for me, i call it hunger. it gave me no options but to pull up spare coins on my pocket and gave it to her.
as i walk away from her, the words "salamat po" kept on echoing on my ears like thunders cloud sitting beside my shoulders. i just can't stop blaming so many people regarding the little girl's fate. i am blaming her parents because they springed her without any guarantee if they'll be able to support her. i am blaming the government because it can't provide appropriate social services for people like her. i am blaming the people who just walk across her as if she doesn't exist, i am blaming god for giving her such fate and i am even blaming myself because all i could do is give her spare coins.
there are so many to blame, in which, i then realized is inevitable. but i am thinking that if we could atleast lessen it, then there would probably no street children sitting on those cold, hard and dirty floor asking for something to survive each day.
before i thought of applying for a non government agency or organization, regardless if it would just promise me a low salary. atleast i thought, at the end of each day, i have a smile on my face as i go to sleep knowing that i have helped somebody. for me that was the definition of a fulfilling job. but then, i need to work first and earn sufficient money to bring myself to post graduate school.
there were lots of things, realizations and plans that keep on flying in my head, as i wait for forever to get a single journey ticket. when finally, it was my turn to buy a ticket, a girl guarding a tin can said to me,
"sir, konting donation lang po para sa mga nangangailangan."
she was holding a big tin can full of coins that has the red cross logo on it. then i just taught of the girl again and thought of these organization. when i realized that my sudden pause was already blocking the next person on the line. i just walk away from the booth and concluded: "let's just teach them how to fish, instead."