The Seven Floors of Human Indignity
- Lim Tola
- July 7, 2019 6:44 AM
PHNOM PENH--First floor, cupidity: One builds fast to earn faster.
Second floor, cheating: One cuts corners on quantity and quality to build cheaper.
Third floor, scheming: One respects no rule, no regulation, no permit, none of those things claimed to only be imposed on those weaker.
Fourth floor, arrogance: One is convinced that money gives one the power to be above the law.
Fifth floor, unaccountability: It doesn’t matter what happens to others as long as one and one’s own are spared.
Sixth floor: One couldn’t care less about the foundations being sound providing the facade looks good.
Seventh floor, inhumanity: One doesn’t give a damn about the fate of the workers one hires since one views them as interchangeable.
Of these seven floors, all that is left is the tears of families in mourning since, when they collapsed, they took the lives of 28 workers.
One knows how crops up such hellish structures since, on each floor, it is people’s doings. The gloomy ones will say that the human soul is black, the resigned ones will just go on their way. Those hopeful will cry out: If that hell is people’s doing, people only have to eliminate it.
Beyond paying them respect—no matter how sincere—this is only what those 28 killed workers deserve.
