Raised On The Street

The government wants us to think that the problem is with us. If only people would do their jobs better, if only people would work harder, if only people would stop littering, if only, if only. While people have indeed reached new heights of slumber and dismay, it is apparent that this is not entirely of their own doing. They have been catalyzed, pushed and even hypnotized into heading into that direction by none other than the governments themselves. To make matters worse the government installs a sense of hopelessness that things cannot be bettered and this is the exact ingredient to stabilize the state of dismay. Things of course aren't bad for everybody, they're worse for the people and better for the government who will soon run out of people to rob and oppress and will look amongst themselves for preys to feast upon until they've destroyed one another and present us with another outright dictator who will govern a hopeless and non existent people.

They say that if we had the energy of those who fought the war back in '73 or if we had the energy of those who won the African cup twice in a row, we'd turn this place around. But I tell you, if only the government had that same spirit, and when I say the government I'm not talking about 80 million people, I'm just taking about a couple of thousand, if they had that same spirit we'd be on the verge of fixing things.

But these days all anyone wants to do is preach. All anyone wants to do is hand out burdens to people that he himself cannot carry. It's easier to tell people to do things better, but can you tell yourself to do things, not even better, just differently? It's a near impossible task, it takes effort to stop drinking your tea or coffee in the morning. It takes effort to change things that have been instilled in you for a very long time and the fact of the matter is that all the horrible things have been instilled in us since birth. Not only does the government not provide what we need to overcome natural obstacles of ugly habits, but they devise ingeniously obstacles that hinder each individual from progress. In order to actually progress just a little bit, a tiny bit that other developed countries may consider as insignificant, you need to be a great person. This seemingly little progress should not be evaluated of itself but in the context in which this progress was made. For to go one step forward rather than ten steps back is to overcome the immense boulders designed by the government to set you back. That kilometer you've walked is worth thirty of those walked by others who have real governments and countries.

We've been brought up on a vicious street and not a home. It's the survival of the fittest and punishment of virtue and the hindering of any progress that might endanger the pact leader even if it benefits the others. It's like a den of thieves where honest people are the real outsiders. It's not a home where we feel safety in everything we do, guilty when doing wrong. It's a jungle where we have to turn into carnivores in order to get to the top of the food chain. We need to eat each other alive and we have no real protectors but each other.

And to top it all off, they tell you the problem is with you. "Come let us talk," they say, don't revolt, it's a democracy. But when we go and talk, they arrest us, beat us and torture us. The perfect servant of theirs is one who is happy to be enslaved. But a hundred years from now who knows what can happen, whose children will be where. They're trying to ensure our children and theirs a life that's not worth living and a country that's not worth dying for.