Day 9: How Will They Know?

Wish 9: Trustworthiness

There is a Filipino foreign worker who was working his shift as a food counter supervisor when his left leg buckled. He was brought to hospital and he went through some tests. It took a while and a few procedures to find out that he has a brain tumor. It is malignant. His father was contacted.

The father took his retirement savings and got a ticket to Canada. Then, the mother followed after borrowing some money. They ran out of money and started asking fellow Filipinos for help, at least to cover their daily expenses only. (Thankfully, universal health care is covering almost all the medical expenses.)

Now, if I ask you for some money to help this family, it would be treated with some skepticism. There are too many electronic scams that sound similar. We cannot trust what looks like it was made up.

Now, assume this is real, and people begin to help. There are a lot of interested individuals. Most of them are concerned and genuinely want to help. Some of them see this as an opportunity for themselves. They can start showing off how they are Good Samaritans. They could also use the situation to further themselves economically. Those are the opportunistic vermin.

Some people are so charismatic that we trust them, even if what they say is too good to be true.

How will we know whom to trust? I don't have the answer. Even if we work strictly from facts, we cannot read motive. Only after the negative consequences do we begin to say, "I knew it was too good to be true," or someone will tell us, "I told you so."

That is why my wish for today is to have people we can trust; sincere and selfless people. Then, even the unusual stories and appeals could be trusted, and we are helping the right people.

[The story about the foreign worker is real. John Santiago is in Floor 16A, Room 300 of the Palliative Care unit of Vancouver General Hospital. Visit him if you can.]