O sofrimento

The suffering.

I was handed this leaflet when I was walking near the Catholic church. The sweetest and politest young girl who was with her grandmother then asked me for my response to the question posed on the leaflet, which translated is whether I believe suffering will end one day.

The girl was too earnest (and she was about 9) for me to launch into a tirade about things getting worse before they get better due to the absolute stranglehold on society by private profit-making interests and right wing elements, which create suffering and inequality. So instead I said something vague about keeping positive that fewer people will suffer in the end, to which she urged regular prayers so that this goal is reached. I’m afraid it’s principally going to take the redistribution of wealth and a stronger agenda of equality and justice in pretty much every country. The prayers can be done alongside those things.

Talking of corporate strangleholds, I am stuck in a death spiral with my credit card after a fraud alert, and various idiosyncrasies including a UK SIM card that isn’t working, inability for the bank to deal with non-UK numbers (despite promoting a credit card for use overseas) and circular loops in call centres where you can never speak to a person and only listen to recorded messages that they are ‘exceptionally busy’. I think dealing with call centres is included in the category of sofrimento.