Yesterday I was passing near Holy Family Basilica in the city centre and I saw a man with a huge, swollen, wet, exposed and by all standards blood-chilling wound on the lower end of his right leg that reminded the public of a rotten red ripe tomato tumbled over! The site of the wound and the watery eyes of the man nursing the wound sent chilly quivers among the passersby who after quick darted glances would like the speed of a ratel whiz a fore as though to say, 'Ghosh!' God save us!
It was not the first time I was coming across such a scene. This is common place in our city. But what made me write this article is the fact that for the first time I forbade myself from thinking with my emotions and began thinking with my head. I usually give such people any coin I have in the pockets. But yesterday I paused and asked myself this critical question. 'If these people are sick and suffering this much, why can't they go and camp at the gates of Kenyatta National Hospital and cry out so that the government doctors there can attend to them?' For those of you who are doctors you will agree with me that there is no doctor in the world who would see such a patient and fail to treat them even if that person did not have money to foot the medical bill.
This incidence made me think deep and I finally came to a conclusion that the reason why those people sit at those city corners is not really because they want to be assisted to get medical attention but because they are trading their sickness for money! To them getting better means sliding into the agony of having to lose their income. It is the wounds that give them income! Then I proceeded to think of the twilight girls of Koinange street, Museum Hills, Arngwings Kodhek Road and Westlands. I immediately drew a connection between the two categories of these human beings. The common denominator that I could find was that both the beggar who uses his/her wounded body organs to earn a living by drawing sympathy coins from the passersby and the prostitute who earns a living by exposing her lithe, tender and voluptuous thighs to ignite insatiable lust and draw coins thereof from gullible passersby could not be any different! In all occasions, both the prostitute and the beggar are not interested in getting better, that is get healed for the beggar with a wound and the emotional and physical satisfaction that comes with sexual engagement for a prostitute. The more they get their money the more they want to stay there forever. In both occasions both the prostitute and the beggar use their catchment areas as shops or workplaces from where they earn a daily income. The only difference is that whereas the beggar opens their shop in the morning at around 6.00am, the prostitute opens their shop from around 10.00pm. Of course both of them retreat to their caves every time they know their respective customer may not be available.
Someone once told me that prostitutes really do not want to have sex every time you see them in the streets. They are there because of the addiction and the allure for money. So even when having sex with one never mind about their sexual satisfaction. Just think of your own satisfaction because for them they are in business not in love. The same case will apply to the beggars with exposed wounds. They will never thank you for taking them to hospital. They will only be happy to get the money from you. So the same way you treat a prostitute should be the same way you treat a beggar if you must help any of them.
What do you say?
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