Tagalog can be very expressive. As with the term batang hamog - the children of the dew . Lovely, expressive, term for a horrible thing. The batang hamog are the children of the streets; feral children of the big city. They are scary. They sleep under bridges, during the day, and come out at night. They sniff glue and snatch bags and wallets. They try the doors of cars stuck in traffic jams;, they knock on the windows and pretend to beg whilst casing the inside of the car for valuables. They are the children that nobody wants, and nobody helps. They fight, they rape, they steal. They may be as young as seven and as old as fifteen; they are boys and girls - some of the older girls carrying babies. At sixteen, if they live that long, they are children no longer. http://opinion.inquirer.net/15185/children-of-the-dew http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/opinion/columnist1/7263-pangilinan-law-and-ba At sitang-hamog http://ph.news.yahoo.com/batang-hamog-known-attack-makati-motorists-163705497.html
It's very sad. These children are left to live in squalor without any elder carers to help them, no wonder they end up as thieves, muggers and worse. When society pushes you away, you push back!
Absolutely right. There ARE organisations that help with street kids - the Salesians of Don Bosco come to mind right away - they provide a really good technical education so a boy can get a real job when he leaves (and it's not every day that you find me praising the Catholic Church in the Philippines!) and on a more local scale I know the Rotarians in Angeles City have a scheme. But more is needed. You don't find this problem in the countryside - only in the big cities do you seem to find the sort of complete social breakdown that leads to the "children of the dew". No matter how poor, a rural farming or fishing community looks after its children.
