The Heart of Cognition

Those Children Are Starving

It is said that human has capacity, though not absolute, for comprehending the nature of reality . As Vincent Potter mentioned that the start of all cognitive knowledge is the sensory experience-these are evidences in support of the sense as the sources of human knowledge which is experiential in nature. This is turn will be processed through concepts and perceptions, then with the given preposition and evidences, one is ready to proceed to the last stage which is judgment.

An example of this process is my experience of encountering two children on brink of starvation when I passed by the overpass near Miriam College and the urban poor area of Marytown. Down the overpass, the heat waves danced, and dry dust rose in clouds from the dirt roads near the filthy area. Below the overpass stairs are two children, with shabby and ragged clothing and dirty faces. As I look intently to these two children, I saw the older looking child begging for alms while the younger looking child was laying on the floor seemingly lifeless. They both look hungry to the point of starvation. They look skinny, pale and malnourish. Skinny probably because starved individuals lose substantial fat and muscle mass as the body turns to these tissues for energy. The skin pale and dry appearance attenuates this emaciation. A one slice of bread for the two won’t satisfy their hunger. They reminded me of a picture in the television about those children in Africa who are suffering from starvation and famine. Then an old woman passed by their side and offered her piece of bread. The older child grabbed the bread hurriedly and in deep humility said thank you to the older woman. He broke the bread and shared it to his little companion and they both swallowed it rapidly. When I passed closer to these children, I heard the younger looking child saying to the older looking child, “paano pala si bunso sa bahay, hindi pa yun nakakain simula kagabi.” The clock struck five in the afternoon and the sun was setting in the west.