SITTING in the lecture theatre one day, half-pretending to be paying attention to what I was actually supposed to be listening to, I was brought out of my reverie by a fly busily buzzing around and then stubbornly deciding to sit on the lecturer’s (tutor as we call them here) head.
It stayed there for a while, and was even still for a while, which gave the impression that it was actually paying attention.
When it decided to move, it went straight for his face.
I am not sure where exactly it was aiming.
The fly made me pay attention to what was being discussed that day which I have no real recollection of, but it made me think of a million things all at once.
The little comic relief got me thinking about the colonisation of Africa and other parts of the world by the West and this just took me into another reverie.
See how many times I space out in class?
First and foremost, please do not ever quote this as fact or truth in your discussions after reading this.
Also, this is my opinion. If I have my facts wrong, have the guts to correct me and even give me your opinion.
And most importantly, as I have pointed out when talking about everything else, I am not an expert, so I am talking in layman’s terms, which may be distorted.
Well, with that out of the way, I have a question which may have nothing to do with the subsequent discussion: What is the difference between being a colony and a protectorate?
Anyway, in my reverie it hit me that there are so many similar things in the world market with what happened yesteryear — colonialism.
The “allies” are basically still running the so called Third World countries and basically the world economy.
Come now, I am sure I am repeating something you have already read and even you know in detail more than I do.
This I say because some of the high “offices” that run the world are run by the same people in so many different areas; the economy, security, food — should I go on?
No, I think you get the idea.
But then, no one says anything about it, for some odd reason, maybe because they are doing a good job?
Well, I do not know the answer either.
My mind wandered further and it struck me that the newest trend in the business world is privatisation.
Everything is being privatised and we poor things get the smelly end of the stick because we cannot afford to put a foot in meaning we suffer worse than we had already suffered.
Privatisation is hitting all industries. I was surprised to hear of something termed the privatisation of the creative industries.
Now, what exactly does that mean?
This privatisation is going to land us even in deeper sewage.
And to get out of that deep smelly hole, I am thinking the next move would be the “sale of souls”.
Look, we are called developing countries and to get to the status of “developed” we have to get with the programme, unfortunately that train left us a long time ago, so now we have to hitchhike, and that obviously comes at a cost.
We all know who have the transport, and we cannot pay them with cash, so we have to give them something — are you with me?
Unfortunately, we have never learned to be brothers and at least give each other piggy-back rides, so meaning the “lend-a-helping-hand” idea would be rather out of reach!
We cry every day as nations that we are oppressed.
The truth is that the guns, missiles and all those things we say are ruining our lives do not oppress us.
The oppressor is money (lack of it rather, in our case).
Money has made us forget that we have to live.
All I hear our politicians promise us is that the economy will be up at a certain percentage by the year something and something.
But that is pointless when your generation will not be here because you sold your soul, along with the land, the air and the very atmosphere just to fit in.
It is a vicious circle isn’t it?
First, you are oppressed, then you fight for freedom, but while in the progress you incur some debt.
So, you run around begging, the big-shots with dough give you a loan, with terms that mean if you cannot pay you go back to square one.
I think I may have made sense of all these things that were churning in my head, but the tutor noticed my spacedout eyes and asked me a question.
