In these first two weeks of July, 1999, the US was swept with soccer
fever. And the fans were not disappointed. The US women's team won the
World Cup Series! England plays a similarly popular sport. The game is
called rugby. Butuan is also familiar with rugby; not because the game
is being played in our sports complex in Libertad, but because it is
popular with street urchins.
One May afternoon, as I was walking the grounds of St. Joseph's
Cathedral, I saw 4 kids (3 boys and 1 girl) holding up and sniffing a
plastic bag. I sensed that they were not up to something good. My
sister said, "See those kids? They're sniffing rugby. " In the open.
For all to see. There were people in the area. I saw a cop standing
on the street corner. Nobody seemed to care. These kids probably ranged
from ages 7-10. Then after a few hits, off they ran to JCA Avenue
heading towards Montilla Boulevard. Such a common sight? Maybe. Maybe
not. But definitely a pathetic one. One can almost predict what these
misguided kids will turn out to be, if not being helped.
Has the sight of these rugby kids become so common that we have grown
numb and desensitized? Don't we have a government agency tasked at
tackling a problem like this? Does our government even have an
appropriation for this type of project? Maybe our public officials
simply don't want to be bothered by it, hoping that the problem will
solve itself.
Without help, these kids will definitely graduate - not in school, but
from rugby to more hard core drugs like crack. Then it would be too
late. Or maybe that won't happen at all... when the child gets totally
wasted away even before reaching that stage in his life.
