Some are construction workers and factory hands, others are thieves and con men. Some are beggars and sidewalk vendors, others are prostitutes and toro performers. These are the people who flit by you like shadows, whom you do not see. These are the people who are made invisible too by your scorn or indifference or dread. It compels you to gaze through the prism of a titillating act the refracted light of a humiliating experience.
Nothing can be more alienating than exhibiting the most intimate of pleasures to a panting crowd.
But that is possible for some people because they have become invisible. You will learn that not everyone has a wealth of options in this world, the way those who blithely condemn others for plunging into depravity do. These are not admirable deeds, these are not admirable people. They themselves are constantly filled with self-loathing, and dream only of the day when they might find salvation in Japan or Saudi Arabia. It is not that they do not have free will, it is that they have, as that vivid Filipino phrase puts it, to cling to the edge of a knife kapit sa patalim to survive.