The Grief of The Invisible Class
A paragraph in Manolo ‘s entry on The Long View Insecurity and The Invisible Class caught my eye:
And meanwhile, there continue the biting criticisms. Blogger Caffeinesparks puts it this way, reacting to the outpouring of sympathy and shock over the death of Amiel Alcantara, the child accidentally run over in Ateneo de Manila: ““in the shanties along Pasig river, a kid playing falls into the waterâ€â€drowned. Dead; a street urchin playing on the island along the road, runs after a kitten, gets run overâ€â€dead; babies die because their mothers live too far from health care centers or can only afford a manghihilot; 10 mothers dead a dayâ€â€due to childbirth.” These are the grim and unnoticed statisticsâ€â€so plentiful as to be unfeltâ€â€of what she calls the Invisible Class.
Why is it a biting criticism? If the blogger had access to the mortality statistics, why not write about it instead of criticizing the sympathy showered over Amiel Alcantara’s death? And perhaps, take it from there?