| Chercher du visages |
| |
| "a seeker of faces" |
Jean-Maurice Derrien,
Labour Inspection and
the Adoption of a Policy
on Child Labour |
| From The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry |
| |
" It is such a secret place,
the land of tears." |
" But the eyes are blind,
One must look with the heart ... "
|
" It is only with the
heart that one can see
rightly.
What is essential
is invisible to the eye." |
"One only understands
the things that one tames,"
said the fox. "Men have
no more time to
understand anything.
They buy things all
ready made at the
shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends anymore." |
"If you want
a friend,
tame me." |
"What does that mean --- TAME?"
"It means to establish ties ... To me,
you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys.
And I have no
need of you. And you, on
your part, have no need
of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world." "What must I do, to tame you?" said the little prince. "You must be very patient," replied the fox.
"First you will sit down
a little distance from me -- like that --
in the grass. I shall look at you
out of the corner of my eye,
and you will say nothing.
Words are the sources
of misundertanding.
|
But you will sit a little closer to me,
every day ... "" ... if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow." |
"It is the time
you have spent for
your rose
that makes her
so important." |
"What moves me so deeply, about
this little prince ... is his
loyalty to a flower ---
the image of a rose
that shines through his
whole being like the flame
of a lamp, even when
he is asleep ... "
|
"You become responsible
forever,
for what you have tamed." |
"One runs the risk
of weeping a little,
if one lets oneself be tamed ... " |
All the knowledge in the world is not worth the tears of children.
|
If a child labourer feels the love of a caring adult, he is better
able to cope with his situation and develop a sense of self-worth so necessary for facing the future.
If only we can love,
we can perform the greatest possible service to the other.  But love always needs to find a way and appropriate means to express itself. These appropriate means cannot be based on what we think may be best for the other person.
They need to be based on what is genuinely good for the other.
Love, therefore, needs to listen
before it speaks and discern before it acts.
Love needs to come close to the other person before it seeks to give.
It needs to build bridges of understanding before it seeks to serve.
From Seize the Day by Charles Ringma
- COURAGE TO ACT:
- Serving in the Face of Difficulty
- By Charles Ringma, Dare to Journey
There is never an ideal time to do anything. We can wait forever if we think that ideal opportunities will present themselves for acts of kindness and deeds of love. We have to seize the day. Grasp the opportunity. Make the most of good times and bad times. There must be a certain reckless abandon about the way we act. We cannot always be careful and calculating. We must do what should be done even when we don't have the time or things are not convenient.
Henri Nouwen captures these sentiments in the following prayer: "Let me have the courage to live fully even when it is risky, vibrantly even when it leads to pain, and spontaneously even when it leads to mistakes."
This attitude should characterize not only the way we live, but also the way we serve. Service is never safe. We never know how we will be received and what the outcomes will be. Service is also never perfect. We serve in spite of our mistakes and our weaknesses. And service can also lead to pain. It can lead to the server feeling empty after having given much. It can result in a lack of appreciation. It usually involves burdens that are not our own.
The more we think about all of this, the less we are likely to do. Thus, service is an act of courage. It is an act of boldness. It is in some ways a foolhardy thing to do.
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You may download the following Powerpoint presentation on "The Challenge of Child Labour in Asia".