Dealing with Hyenas

Last year, on my way to an appointment in Makati, I decided to take a taxicab to reach my destination on time.  Upon boarding the cab, the driver instructed me to lock the door and, under any circumstance, NOT open my windows – not even to a beggar. You see, the day before that, his fellow driver fell victim of the ‘children of the dew’ (aka batang hamog). He related to me how the poor fellow wanted to give a little street urchin a few coins from his pocket, when his hand was grabbed from the outside.  Immediately after that, seemingly out of nowhere, like a pack of hyenas, more delinquent youths, about the ages of ten to twelve, charged towards him, pushing the car window down and opening the door.  The driver was mauled; his savings were gone.  The little devils, having gotten their loot, ran off and disappeared into the nearby alley.  The money they took, meant that the family would have to scrimp on their meals the following day. Days before, my brother related to me two similar incidents he personally witnessed, one at EDSA Guadalupe and another along Ortigas Avenue.  The Ortigas incident involved was worse; the victim this time was a woman. My brother was driving along Ortigas when a similar bunch of drug–crazed hyenas stormed a woman driver.  They managed to open the car door, and started MAULING the woman.  Had it not been for the fellow motorists, the woman would have been hospitalized black and blue – aside from a vandalized car and stolen belongings.  The incidents started with the act of giving alms. Going back to the taxi cab driver, he then told me that he and his fellow drivers now carry with them a crowbar kept within arm’s reach.  He then described to me in gruesome detail how they would put the law into their own hands, if the inevitable happens. On the Internet there advertised, is the use of the stun gun to address the batang hamog issue.  This is a long stick whose tip is equipped with two pincers wherein a considerable amount of electrical charge is emitted.  It stated that the object is to stun the ‘hyena’ on any part of the body.  Then once stunned, the pincers are aimed directly below the ‘hyena’s’ jaw, thus sending the electrical charge directly towards his brain.  This would cause severe muscular contractions and a painful death – and road–kill. I do not blame the victims if they resort to these ideas.  To be assaulted for being charitable is a traumatic experience.  It would certainly take great grace to go beyond one’s lust for revenge to forgive the critter. I am fortunate that I am not involved in such situations as I take the bus and only take the taxicab on special cases.  I, myself, have decided NOT to give alms to street children when I ride a taxicab.  That is my stand. Oh and yes, I have with me a pepper spray handy.