All men are created equal
Except that some are more equal than others. As I was walking back from the hospital having enjoyed a nice lunch with Estelle, I walked past a man in a doorway. Not an unusual sight to see in Paris, except that this man was just sitting in his doorway, with his bedding laid out, looking at photographs.
As is customary, I walked straight past him. Something compelled me to go back however and ask him why he was there. It turns out that this man was from Sri Lanka and the photos were of him and his wife. She was beautiful and they both looked very happy in the photos he was to proudly showing me.
A far cry from the yellow-brown sadness his eyes now held. He was holding back tears as he explained how he was once a fighter for the Tamil Tigers and was escaping certain death in his own country, should he return.
As this is not a political entry I don’t want to discuss the stance of the Tigers as freedom fighters versus terrorists. We may not agree with some of the things our government are doing but the worst that can happen to a European is that we are incarcerated if we fight for what we believe in. This is about a man with no options, with nothing and nobody to help him, in a place so far removed from where his life started.
He told me how he used to work in the restaurant trade when he was in Sri Lanka and how all he wants now is to get a job to be able to afford a roof over his head and bide his time until he is safe to go back to his own country and be re-united with his wife.
All I could do is give him my time and a small amount of money. Thankfully, Estelle is a social worker and an advocate for people with nobody to turn to and she agreed that she will try to help him.