Writings on the wall

One evening a few months after we moved into our apartment, I was working alone in the study while Brian was out teaching. My writing was interrupted by some neighbors fighting. While it is not uncommon that we can hear our neighbors quarelling, this time sounded a little too vicious. I tried to peep out of the window to see if I was the only one perturbed by the noisy argument but saw nothing. I tried to return to my work but the conflict persisted. A few minutes later, I heard a loud scream followed by a very loud noise that sounded like the crash of a huge closet or something. Then, silence.

Instinctively I knew someone was hurt but I had no idea where the whole incident took place. I figured that if someone was really hurt, the police or ambulance would soon arrive. And I was right. Within ten minutes, I heard the siren. Curious, I hurriedly went onto my corridor and looked down to see where the siren is coming from. As soon as I peered down, I saw a lifeless and bloody body of a big man facing facedown on the ground. The fight that I had heard earlier tragically ended with one of the man jumping off the building.

I later found out that this is a rather "regular" occurrence here in this city. In fact, when my neighbors found out that a man had jumped to his death, they were only mildly shocked. I also discovered that such end is common among those who owe illegal loan sharks money.

When we first moved to this city, we never understood why sometimes we would find numbers scribbled on the wall of our apartment building. Then, we realized that those were warning messages by loan sharks to their clients - "pay up or else..."

The last few weeks we noticed that there have been frequent writings on the wall on our floor. Apparently someone on our level owes someone money. One late evening, we saw the poor man trying to clean off the writing on the wall near his apartment with turpentine. Unfortunately, the loan sharks are still after him and a few days ago, we found more warning messages scribbled on the inside of the two elevators' doors (see pix).

I have often imagined that these illegal loan sharks are gangsters and probably look like it. However, that is not necessarily the case, I recently discovered. We were riding in a taxi to a meeting two evenings ago and the taxi driver (who looked "normal" and decent) got a phonecall on his cell. We could not help but hear his conversation about threatening someone to pay up and arranging with his comrade to beat up some guy! Go figure - conspiring a crime in broad daylight!

So, who is to be blamed for this social conundrum? Are the illegal loan sharks to be blamed entirely for the ill? What about the basic economic rule of supply to meet demand? Do the ones who borrow money from such parties know what they are getting themselves into? If they know the consequence of failure to pay back but yet go ahead with the loan, are they not responsible for what would happen to them? What do you think?