Jeffrey Sach

I just had to post this...from an editorial

THE kids watched as I tightened a shoe lace along one of Cagayan de Oro city’s poorer but remarkably clean-swept barangays. A tutorial on urban sociology was the last thing I expected.

“My mother is in prison,” volunteered Clara, 7. Why? “Shabu,” she said matter-of-factly. Paula, 6, claims a neighbor rival tipped off the cops. “Her mother burned all the shabu before the police arrived.”

Will you visit her in the Davao jail? “We have no money. But my lolo has been released.” He’d also been in the clink for drugs. “He often beats us though,” Clara gripes.

They proudly point to “our school.” Paula likes to color. “But I have no Crayolas.” Clara’s schoolbag has a book and a pencil. Nothing else.