Let’s never forget that when adults wage battles, children suffer to paraphrase Elie Wiesel. September 15 was supposed to mark the official start of the school year. The date was later postponed to an ulterior date October 3, and then October 8. A month later, school has not officially started. Most public and private schools remain locked. The teacher’s union is asking for an inexplicably exponential increase of their salary and the government is refusing to negotiate or to even hear their request. Every year, it is the same song. It just rhymes differently. Their inability to agree is holding the rest of the population hostage.
Every morning on my way to work, I see children deprived of the right to dream or to expand their perspective because adults have decided to wage a never-ending battle. Most children want to get back to school. They want to reconnect with their old buddies and to learn new things in a safe and guided environment. What anger me is no longer the carelessness of the government or the failure of leadership coming from both sides, but the indifference of the majority. In reality, Guinea is at a deadlock situation not just because of the actions of the government or the civil society, but also because too many of us have decided to become bystanders. Most of us have become indifferent to the struggle of our fellow brothers and children. We have simply reduced their struggle, their fight for better condition to an abstraction; thus, depriving them of their humanity. We would rather spend our days talking about their struggle than picking a side; running away for our day to day survival than forging a better path for our children. In this place, we are all gradually succumbing to the perils of our indifference. Sadly, we are dragging along the hope of tomorrow.
Progress requires struggles, tensions and actions. It also requires picking and standing for a side. Unfortunately, in this period of struggle, too many guineans have decided to become victims or beneficiary of their indecision. They want to go along with the wind without never having to dictate the direction of the turbines. They are idle bystanders; hopeless individuals and faithless believers. Their indifference is an end; not a beginning. This indifference is more pernicious than the actions of government or angering than the actions of the civil society. Certainly, indifferentism is the worst disease that can afflict a people.
Leave a Reply