[SydneyBoy]

I was in Cambodia once and I was having lunch at some lunch stall place and a small boy pushed up a wheelchair containing a man with no arms and no legs - just a torso with a head on top. It tore my heart out to see... poor man unable to do anything but rely completely on his young brother to move him around.

Im not sure if he lost his limbs in a landmine accident (there are lots of those in Cambodia) but it seems a little unlikely to lose all four limbs neatly at the shoulder/hip joint and still survive the explosion. Then I started hearing stories about parents who do nasty things to their children when young to increase their begging potential and wondered if his parents had done it deliberately.

I gave him some money but wondered if I should have because they have begging syndicates and such where the beggars don't actually keep the money they beg, it goes to some master beggar somewhere.

Then I thought wouldn't it be amazing if I could get some money together and buy the guy a motorized wheelchair that he could steer with his mouth and give him a little independence from his brother. But someone would just nick it off him.

Damn its a cruel world.