I once attended a conference given by two young ladies belonging to an NGO in Bangladesh; the conference was about child abuse. When I heard them talk, and saw the way they dressed and makeup, I could not help but think that these girls didn’t really want the child abuse to disappear, because then they would lose their job and the economic and social status they were showing off. I know lots of people, our neighbors, working in Bangladesh’s tea plantations who live a permanent lent, who do penance every day of their lives, who do fasting and abstinence almost daily; and not because they want to, not because they don’t work and are lazy, but because it’s been imposed on them and they were born in the wrong place at the wrong time. The people who live in the house you see in the photo haven’t done anything to deserve so much indignity. Lord, give us eyes to see without filters what is really happening around us. Lord, give us hands to restore dignity to those who should never have lost it.

Una vez asistí a una conferencia impartida por dos señoritas pertenecientes a una ONG en Bangladesh; la conferencia era sobre el Maltrato Infantil. Al oír cómo hablaban, y ver cómo se vestían y se maquillaban, no pude evitar pensar que esas chicas no deseaban realmente que el maltrato infantil desapareciese, porque entonces perderían su trabajo y el estatus económico y social del que hacían gala. Conozco a montones de gente, vecinos nuestros, que trabajan en las plantaciones de té de Bangladesh que viven una cuaresma permanente, que hacen penitencia todos los días de su vida, que hacen ayuno y abstinencia casi a diario; y no porque quieran, no porque no trabajen y sean vagos, sino porque les viene impuesto por haber nacido en el lugar equivocado en el momento equivocado. La gente que vive en la casa que ves en la foto no ha hecho nada para merecer tanta indignidad. Señor, danos ojos para ver sin filtros lo que realmente está pasando a nuestro alrededor. Señor, danos manos para devolver la dignidad a quienes nunca debieron perderla.