Slumdog Millionare in NY?

While trudging myself home after a bad and lazy case of the Mondays, I hear Fur Elise being played in the Union Square station. It was a familiar sound, not because it was the first official piece I learned to play when I first began learning how to play the piano, but I had heard it before at this same location not so long ago. I look for the keyboardist and I see a boy who could not have been older than six years old sitting on a stool playing so apathetically and emotionlessly. It was the same little boy who played the last time but I didn't have a chance to see him up close since he was playing across the subway platform last time.

Why is it that when the Oscar-winning film, Slumdog Millionaire, was released, people suddenly felt such compassion for children's suffering when today, it is happening right before our eyes? Given the circumstantial difference between the scenarios, (and I couldn't help but to check the Union Square little keyboardist's eyes to check to see that, God forbid, he is blind; he wasn't) I'd like to assume that the Union Square little keyboardist is hopefully in a far better situation than the children depicted in the film. However, the truth or the matter is, they are still children and there is no doubt in my mind that the Union Square little keyboardist is playing to showcase his talents. Where is his parent(s)? And most importantly, where is the justice?

What affected me the most is that I, with all the other commuters and students, turned a blind eye with justifications for my behavior such as what can I possibly do? What kind of a change can I possibly make? Can I even make a difference?

What are we waiting for?