Social conscience

Nephew and family spent a last morning on the beach, so the boys could jump waves, then back to do some last-minute shopping and finish packing. It has been so great having them here. They have been the best guests, and the boys were a delight to have around. They play so well together and are very good at entertaining themselves. Two young boys who hardly ever quarrel – that must be a record, musn’t it? We will miss them greatly.
 
I made a quick, rather late, visit to the market, to stock up for the weekend, and found everyone packing up. Tiago and his father still seemed to have a fair amount of greens to sell and Tiago told me that it will all go to an old people’s home in the suburbs. I commented on the waste that we see every week, with offcuts of chicken and fish just chucked on the ground, as well as oranges, outer leaves of cabbages etc. , and how in the old days, people would have been gleaning busily. “Ah yes”, he replied, “but now there’s the ‘Bolsa Família’" (handouts by the current government). Hard-working people like Tiago and his father and our Hurricane Maria really resent the fact that these payments are made indiscriminately to the employed and the unemployed and, as in the case of similar allowances in the UK, mean that many people don’t bother to find work and just rely on the handouts.
 
Next time I see Tiago, I’ll suggest talking to the fish and poultry sellers in the market and asking them to throw the offcuts into a clean box, so they could also go to the home.