Position Paper - Deliverance

De Mesa, Shane Anne O. May 21, 2012
BS Architecture
POSITION PAPER
DELIVERANCE

The given article of Conrado de Quiros on a Philippine Daily Inquirer entitled Deliverance was about the encounters of a Police Vietnamese immigrant in Fukushima, with a 9-year old Japanese boy. As these Vietnamese, Ha Minh Thanh, worked for the charity organization, he saw this little boy whom had been patiently waiting in the line for food. Worried that the boy might run out of food, the man called him and spoke to him. The little boy told him that he had lost his family and other relatives. Feeling sorry for the boy, he offered him his own bag of food. The kid took it and ran up to the end of the line, placed back where the bags of foods were and left. Shocked, the man asked him why he didn’t eat it. The boy answered him, “Because I see a lot more people hungrier than I am. If I put it there, then they will distribute the food equally.” The Vietnamese was amazed of how the society can produce such young people who could actually understand the concept of sacrifice.
The concept of the article was really about sacrificing; How we are different from other societies that ours are not as good as any other countries, How other countries prefer to be faceless or nameless when it comes to volunteering and here in our country, we flaunt our names on Charity works in order to look good in the eyes of the people and How it is hard for us Filipinos to think first of the welfares of others or to sacrifice for others.
Not too long ago, The Vietnam war had affected millions of lives for over a decade, A massive human cost of death and countless injuries, physically and mentally. Vietnam was scorched by napalm, dead bodies were scattered everywhere. And now, if we would look at how Vietnam has made it, it spontaneously survived the war times. People understood the concept of sacrifice for the greater good.
Vietnam’s War is no different from today’s tragic event in Japan. The 9.0 magnitude of Earthquake that shook the city of Fukushima and the Tsunami that drowned thousands of citizens and flooded the whole town was a big shock to the world. Many people have died, have suffered and had lost everything they have. The Japanese boy whom the Police had helped was just like the people from Vietnam during their war. He was a young hero. He sacrificed his meal for the others. Maybe to some it is no big deal, but to think that this 9-years-old boy thought of others before himself is truly heroic.
Japanese and Vietnamese people have strong beliefs in their spiritual beings. We also have our own version of Christianity. Jesus did not call His followers to lead selfish lives. He taught about selfless living. Jesus calls His followers to live simply so they can meet the needs of the poor and so they will not become slaves to money. Jesus called us to live generously and sacrificially. He told us to put our desires and rights aside and put the needs of others first. Jesus didn’t tell us we should not work to meet our needs. But He did call us to avoid seeking wealth as our main pursuit in life. The main problem of us Filipino Christians, is that we are doing terrible job of following Jesus’ teachings about wealth and giving. We choose to satisfy our selfish desires instead of meeting the basic needs of the millions of starving, homeless, hurting, and sick around the world. And it’s not that we just do these things once or twice in our lives. We have made an entire lifestyle – developed an entire culture – around it.
This article of Conrado De Quiros was too good to be true that it really happens to be true. Let this be a thing to ponder over the next few days. We should take actions in sacrificing for the benefits of others, not just for the benefits of ourselves. Let this little boy be an inspiration to all of us. The tragic events in Vietnam and Japan may happen to us anytime, so let us be selfless and share on what we have, because despite how hard our situation may be, there are others that are in more difficult situations. And we might be the reason, if someday, they made it thru. Then we will be the ones who they’ll be thanking and helping in life.

Works Cited: http://www.providentplan.com/613/selfish-or-selfless/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/vietnam_35_years_later.html