What the hack

This week I messaged my friends for an odd request. But it’s not me. The supposed needy me asked mobile phone load. Many sent at once, probably not as fast as water gathers on the streets when rain pours. But definitely faster than the warning. By then it was too late. They have parted their money. Whether the amount hurt depends on who lost it.

If you have billions from flood control projects, you can afford to buy a multi-million peso principal of a luxury car, but what you really wanted was the accessory of an umbrella. If the revenues are exponential, the price must have been diabolical. Millions are drenched because they could not afford an umbrella, but a woman bought one for almost a million. She does not use it though, as opposed to thousands who cannot use one because they don’t have any.

But for those who sent an amount intended for their next meal, or bills at the end of the month that feels like the end of the world, or transportation under water on city streets, or tuition for education that does not teach them how to right a wrong, it was as big as their resolve to survive.

I do not blame them, no one should. Blame the hacker. When we exact accountability, let us not lose sight of who started the evil design. Never blame the victim, it doubles their misery.

Then do not spare the complicit, including children who flaunt their insanely lavish lifestyle on social media. The sin of the parent is not the sin of the child. Familiar. Yes, infraction is personal. Along the way however, the child who matures should ask the parent where did all the bottomless money come from. Of course parents never admit to stealing money in whatever way, they will always say hard work was the gateway, to their heaven and the country’s hell. Lucky them. Or filthy them. No one works harder than those whose problem is survival, neither convenience nor luxury. Bone tired, but still hungry no matter how they tried.

Blame them still, or more, if they stayed low-key. Concealment does not make it less of a crime. Otherwise known as hidden wealth. And they are not alone. Many others in the government are guiltier, they are custodians of people’s money. The problem is how to spot their identity. But even if people know who they are, they still go unscathed for reasons only hell knows.

Meanwhile, ordinary people continue to suffer more. But complicit too. For their inaction in broad daylight robbery. Nothing justifies a stolen load by a stolen identity, or a stolen money by the corrupt and the greedy. When will this country be angry? No way, the blind condones, defends and celebrates thievery and even attacks its enemy.