Injustice

Source

This morning, I heard a very annoying story that did piss me off. What happened was that a girl took her sick mom to her older sister in the city so they could take their mom to the hospital for treatment. Heartbreakingly, the older sister said she has no money for hospital bill and that the girl should call their older brother, as he's in a better position to finance their mom's treatment, given that he is the first child doubling as the eldest son.

To further strengthen her argument, she said since she's married, her mother is no longer her responsibility as per their tradition.

It is worth noting that in my part of the world, the family responsibility is usually placed on the first son along side any inheritance as per the head of the home after the father. Due to this practice of inheritance allocation, there is usually this silent animosity among siblings.

It's even worse when one of the siblings is female because usually upon marriage, she is no longer entitled to her family's wealth but yet expected to assist the same family with finances.

While I tried to understand the older sister's argument, her stance didn't make sense to me because at the time all this was happening, the older brother was facing serious financial difficulties to the extent that he and his nuclear family were feeding from hand to mouth.

Looking at the situation, the older sister was in a better position to finance the mother's healthcare because she's head of HR department in her company, earning almost 7 figures. Her husband is also a senior executive banker heading a branch, so it really made no sense when she said she had no money.

Moreover, compared to her older brother, her finances combined with that of her husband far outweigh what the older brother gets from his business, not to mention she has no children that she's catering for, unlike her brother.

Well, her refusal to help their mom wasn't what pissed me off, but the fact that her husband asked the mother in her condition and the sister to sleep on the mat. To further add salt to injury, it was reported that the said husband called their younger brother a son of a bitch because he failed woefully in his exams.

While all this abuse was going on, the lady said nothing in the defense of her family, and that was where my anger began. I was so pissed that I wished I could be their sibling just so I could take up the case and deal with both husband and wife for their utterances and actions.

As I expressed my anger and intention for revenge, my mom cautioned me to calm down, stating that pushing for revenge is not the answer.

You see, whenever situations where I feel offended or hurt arise, my mom would always preach to me the need for peace and forgiveness without taking laws into my hands. She would always say, "Leave it for God," but honestly I feel such a statement of hers is why some people misbehave because they feel they can do anything and get away with it.

Again, when dealing with people, I have since noticed that once you show zero tolerance to bullshit, you will be most unlikely to face any predicament of oppression, abuse and the likes.

Personally, I am not the type that people offend, probably because I always fight back. The thing is, it will not be me settling for peace when I've not had my pound of flesh because I am an advocate of payback.

Nasically, I want the offender to at least feel some of the pain that I felt when I was offended. That way when we talk about forgiveness, it will be two or more hurt people making genuine amends not one which I believe to be the fairest form of conflict resolution. No grudges, just lessons.