Tomorrow is the last day of Ghost Month in Taiwan. According to Buddhist mythology, hungry ghosts are denizens of a different plane of existence.
They often make their physical appearances in wild, abandoned, dirty places; graveyards, slaughterhouses, places of disease or disaster. Their chief characteristic is their unquenchable thirst and hunger. Their greed seeks to always have more, no matter what the cost.
They wander in a kind of limbo where they can find no satisfaction. Hungry ghosts are condemned to endure such existence until the negative karma which they acquired in their human life is exhausted. I mention this not because of Ghost Month but because of a recent investigation involving the mayor of Chungliao in Nantou County (front page, Aug. 23).
According to news accounts, this official's "villa," as the newspapers described it, was raided by investigators from the Black Gold Investigation Center.
What they found was truly offensive. This official had stolen relief supplies meant for 921 earthquake victims. He had helped himself to donations from the Red Cross, World Vision and the Taipei City Government. Not just a few items -- lots of supplies.
Two truckloads, in fact, plus five prefabricated houses and five water tanks bearing Taipei City government logos.
I ask myself, is this creature -- this official -- who stole these donated items a human being like myself. I almost cannot belief that this creature is a fellow human being. I rather come to think that this creature is not human at all, but a hungry ghost who has assumed the outward shape of a human, the outward appearance of a government official. And like all hungry ghosts, this creature is driven by one thing and one thing only; insatiable greed. A greed that is both monstrous and at the same time petty. Many of the items that this creature stole from the earthquake victims under color of his official position are, in fact, not worth that much money. But he stole them nevertheless. It is as if he stole simply to steal.
Perhaps hungry ghosts are, in fact, not appeased by the fake "hell money" that is burned in such large amounts here in Taiwan. Perhaps hungry ghosts are smarter than the living think. Perhaps ghosts hunger for real money, for real possessions.
Perhaps we should not be so concerned about what happens in other planes of existence, but rather concern ourselves with what happens here, among the living.
Brian Kennedy is an attorney who writes and teaches on criminal justice and human rights issues.
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