Fetching the Clairvoyant at the airport when she arrives from her US trips, I am always amazed at how senior citizens on wheelchairs are able to take with them several balikbayan boxes aside from their own luggage. Often a senior citizen or two, who obviously are not that mobile anymore judging from their looks and their being wheeled out of the airport, will have more than a cartload of baggage with them and they are fetched by the typical barangay of relatives. The sight makes one want to laugh and feel pity at the same time. Laugh because of awkwardness and irony of it all and pity because you know that these people were being used as couriers by their relatives, often their own sons and daughters who are living abroad.
I was able to observe this practice first hand during trips to the US including the recent one we had last November and December. While I refrained from taking photos at the airport check-in counters (strict security measures in SFO), I couldn't help taking this photo at the departure area just when the airline ground staff started announcing the sequence of boarding.
 |
| Pole position? : Senior citizens on wheelchairs lined up for boarding as if they will be racing towards the aircraft. |
These same people will be assisted during boarding and again during deplaning upon reaching Manila. True enough, they are laden with valuable pasalubong for relatives waiting like vultures at the arrival area. I say vultures because a lot of these relatives are like the predatory birds that are nakadapo on the railings as they anticipate the arrival of these senior citizens. My apologies for the term and I am sure the latter are treated well and that their relatives mean well considering they are all family. It's just that it seems a little unfair to be using these people as couriers (mas mabait naman siguro sa kanila ang mga taga-customs?) just as its also unfair to use children for the same reasons.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment