Odes to hopelessness?

We now do our duty in terms of protest or support by liking or disliking a comment on social media. And why not? It is a lot easier than writing a letter or getting into the streets and supporting or opposing what our consciences tell us.

I tried to explore this trend in a social media discussion a couple of years’ ago. Some people wrote that I was out of touch: Had I not seen the social media movement create a wave of liberation through North Africa? Well, actually I had. But apparently we were so stuck on making our own comments locally that we never had time to do what mattered: going out in the streets to be seen and counted as a force! Listen, our complaints about crime, poor education and health care, collapsing infrastructure, mismanaged State assets (that’s your assets, folks!), corruption and filth are valid, but not justified. That apparent paradox is probably our greatest handicap. We have no problem leaving our filth at the riverside or beach, but are furious if we see that by our homes. It is not enough to “like”, “dislike” or post a word-limit comment on issues. We have to go and show who needs to be shown that enough of us care enough to take it on and bring pressures where pressures must be brought. We need to justify our concern (if we truly feel concerned) by some form of action, not just by clicking “post” or “send”.

If we do not get out, one-byone, two-by-two, how will the others, the crowds, the mobs, know where to meet, to march, to bring enlightenment to the population, then how will enlightenment come? We woke up today to a New Year, a year of frightening uncertainties, here in our homeland and our homes, but more frighteningly, around our world. The oil and gas we breathe is running out in our reservoirs, and the price we used to sell it for is dropping.

This is a double-lose situation.

However we do nothing but hope and pray that we find more oil and that those external powers which rig markets and declare wars will send the price up again.

Our “Estates” are light-years’ apart in terms of seeking meaningful pathways out of our muddled darkness. Government, Opposition, Labour, Business, Civil Society, the Mob are all totally separate entities in our sorry little society.

All are shouting, and none are listening. This is a shamefully muddled scenario, and I wonder how Shakespeare might have described it—in a “crowd / riot” scene, no doubt. The word that comes to mind is Babble: Shameful, disconnected, dishonest clamour and babble, without even the energy to start a movement or movements towards rescuing ourselves.

You see, we have no leaders.

Not one of our estates has a leader whom anyone, including various memberships can respect.

This has been the legacy of over fifty years of so-called independence: A dearth of leadership. And if we have no leaders now, from where are we going to find them for the future? Young people world-wide are detaching themselves from the societies that have been built for centuries, retreating into the black hole of cyberspace.

And all around us, what they c annot see, the c louds of war are gathe r i n g .

W h a t are you g o i n g to do a b o u t this in 2017?