Disheartening Incident

I witnessed a very disheartening incident today. I'm totally loss for words when i saw it, i felt disgusted and seriously, my heart went out.

What's supposed to be a nice meal with my ex colleagues ended quite weirdly. We were sitting down, eating as usual. After filling up our stomach (few of us didn't finish our food), we just spent some casual time chatting. Out of the sudden, there's this auntie who appeared from nowhere and sit beside my friend as the seat was not occupied.

She gave my friend a long glance before she finally blurped out something from her mouth. She said this to my friend in mandarin ,"你吃饱了吗？你还要不要?" My friend was stunned for a moment, temporarily lost for words. Without any second, that auntie just stretched out her hands and took that plate of un-finish rice and put it in front of her, and then, she started tucking away. The moment i saw her eating, i feel that sour ache in my heart. I couldn't believed what i've saw.

Me and my ex colleagues looked at each other, not knowing what to say. Without hesitating, we left the table. Just as we left, a group of people wanted to take over our seats (it's lunchtime and food court is packed, so seats are all occupied). Just then, i saw the auntie stopping them from sitting down, and there she went, helping herself to the plates of leftovers.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't expect that to happen in my very own eyes. My heart reach out for her. I had this thought of giving her money to buy a proper lunch, but i didn't. I was too stunned to do anything. So many thoughts running through my mind out of the sudden. I was wondering, it's either she's really poor and hungry or it's just that she has mental illness.

To be frank, i hope it's the latter. It's really disheartening to see someone going around and eat leftovers. This is Singapore, isn't it supposed to be a developed country with how the ministries has always promised better lives for us, Singaporeans? Moreover, i would rather see her beg than eating leftovers. Had someone knew of her plight, perhaps things would be better, or worse enough, nobody even cares. What's the annual report of how much GDP Singapore is gaining quarterly, yearly or whatever shit? There's actually lots of people still starving in Singapore, worrying over their daily lives. I can still see people sleeping on benches under void decks or even on the bus stop.

This incident has been on my mind the whole of today and i'm really bothered by it. It's not her fault, perhaps it's the society's fault, it's the government's fault. Whatever....i don't know what to say...