Okaz

This man believes that society owes him because he is poor and he decides to solve his problem through an illegal act. This is emotional blackmail, which is totally unacceptable.

SOME people resort to emotional blackmail citing their difficult living conditions. They believe that such suffering is a free card for them to break the law and subject society to their whims and wishes.

For example, I will tell you of an incident that I witnessed recently. A man complained to me about injustice he was subjected to by a government department, which seized equipment that was his only source of living.

How did that happen? The man was cooking food for distribution at a very dirty place. When authorities discovered this illegal activity that put the health of the public in risk, they seized his equipment and shut down the place saying he did not obtain a permit to open the food stall, which lacked basic hygiene.

I asked the man why couldn’t he go and obtain a permit and adhere to hygiene regulations. He said he was poor and did not have the money to rent a place and modify it, adhering to the environment and heath conditions.

I told him I understood his predicament, but he could not carry on with his activity at the expense of the health of others. I told him that this was an illegal practice that might solve the problem of one person, but it would create problems for hundreds and maybe thousands of others.

This man believes that society owes him because he is poor and he decides to solve his problem through an illegal act. This is emotional blackmail, which is totally unacceptable. If he has talent in the cooking profession, then there are many charity institutions as well as government and private sector programs that could provide him with support for opening a small business so he could run his operation legally.

Today, there are many people and productive families that support themselves by practicing such activities. At the same time, there are supervisory criteria that provide them with the ability to work freely.

As for those who want to engage in food production without conforming to hygiene criteria just because they are poor, this is something that is totally unacceptable. People in our society already suffer a lot because of food cooked by some licensed restaurants, then how can they bear food coming from unlicensed ones.