Education - MISSING THUMBS

By Layton Lolo 29 March 2016, 12:00AM

Light seeps into

The holes of the bag

Placed over my head

And on my mouth, a rag

Strong hands hold me

And drag me with ease

I could feel the sun’s rays

And a slight gentle breeze

Then I’m put on my knees

And the bag is gone

I see the horizon

And the glowing light of dawn

I’m quickly dragged to a small alter

And my hand strapped with ropes

And I’m encircled by people

Dashing away my hopes

Hopes of escaping 

This torturous fate

If only I were lucky

But now it’s too late

“For what you have committed

You know what’s to come

From here on out

Your thieving is done”

A man came beside me

With an ax in his hand

He position the blade

And adjusted his stance

He looked to the man who spoke

The man nodded in reply

So he turned to face me again

And raised the ax up high

I screamed for mercy

Saying this isn’t fair

But no response came to me

And the ax dropped from the air

It struck the alter

Hitting its mark

I looked to my hand

And saw something so dark

My thumb had be severed

From the palm of my hand

And I watched in horror

As the man re-positioned his stance

I screamed again

This time with pain

As some form the crowd laughed

As if it were some kind of sick game

The ax dropped down

And my eyes filled with tears

My thumbs were now gone

I looked at them with fear

The man spoke again

Saying that the job was done

And the man with ax smiled

As if this was fun

They untied my maimed hands

And I fell to the soil

I was still in tears; still in pain

And I could feel my hatred boil

I hated what they did to me

And that I didn’t put up a fight

But deep down I felt it clearly

That they somehow right

Hove you ever had a time when you were stolen from?  Or a time when you had something missing and you now it was taken not misplaced?  I’ve had my share of moment where I had something taken from me.  In the olden times, when someone was caught stealing or was found to be a thief, then the penalty for it was you got your thumbs cut off so you couldn’t steal again.

I had a friend at school who had an experience with stealing.  One day he was in his P.E. class and he left his uniform aside so he could participate in the activities.  When they were finished, he went to get his uniform to change and his uniform was gone!  Another person I knew a while back had the same experience, only this thief took that person’s entire bag!

I love Samoa.  I’ve lived here nearly my entire life and I’ve come to love most everything it has to offer.  But I am ashamed that I have to hear that the people of Samoa are stealing form one another!  This isn’t who we are!  If this continues, then we’ll be “Samoa, Island full of thieves” rather than “Samoa, people from the sun.” 

I know Samoa is better than these sins that we commit, because I’ve seen that kindness and love Samoans bring first-hand and with my own two eyes.  But it’s not only in Samoa, it’s all over the world!  Let Samoa be the start to change that.

If you haven’t already guessed it, my challenge for this week is to “Be honest.”  There will always be a time when someone can’t resist looking through someone’s bag or stuffing something from the shop’s shelves into your pocket.  Start trying to change now, because if we were in the olden times, then we’d be trying to sew our thumbs back 

By Layton Lolo 29 March 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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