Entry 5
The rains yesterday were assymmetrical across Lagos State. At Ikeja, it was a light shower, at Ile-epo and Abule Egba, life became a river. Some places didn't even see a drop of celestial piss. Actually, that's how rainfall has always been across a given wide geographical expense with differing topography e.g a State? It just presented an interesting observation yesterday. I'd try to find out why it is that way(a bit of googling might suffice). As I am writing this, an altercation just broke out in my bus. It seems to have to do with people standing, the bus being filled, blah blah(I have to put in the effort and learn Yoruba well, I am all for the violence). Anyways it was brief.
This morning, the OPIC plaza at Maryland was burned to the ground. A gas leak from a Tanker is suspected. Yesterday, students from Federal Government College and some of their teachers were kidnapped in Kebbi. Everyday, the deformed and the pseudo-deformed loiter the streets to my workplace crying out their need for help(at least to get their next meal) and now I am truly wondering "what truly is the value of a human life?'". Many times this thought has occured to me but I have never actually pursued it. Today, I might explore it a bit more, in this entry perhaps.
Everyone seems to believe a human life is important, even priceless, at least their own if nothing else. Many even mouth it, on TV, in places of worship, when criticising murderers (whether the killer is real or a movie character— he who kills by the sword dies by the sword blah blah). How well do our actions support such a belief. Is such a belief even true? There are multiple perspectives from which to look at this. Take life insurance for one, the payout an insurer makes on the death of a client to the beneficiaries. Is that a representation of the client's value to his/her beneficiaries? A new trend in relationships is that no one is irreplaceable (while not always true, it is true sometimes). Is that a pointer to what we truly think a human life is worth?
All along the route to Slot Systems HQ from my dwelling, there are deformed and pseudo-deformed men and women begging for money, for change just to get through the day. Many times passers-by ignore 'em. Just taking note of one of the most grotesquely deformed ones and how many people on the queue for the bus he has to beg before he gets NGN 20? NGN 50? and I begin to think: Is that what that unfortunate fellow's well-being is worth in our eyes, 20 naira? 50 naira? Not a bloody Kobo?
It is said that actions speak louder than words. It is also said that silence implies consent. You don't have to stab a person to kill him, he would be dead all the same if you refuse to lift a finger while he perishes. Obviously, my exploration of this theme is yet incomplete and just to be clear, my objective wasn't to state moral right or wrong, but to ascertain whether the value we claim to place on a random human life is the same as that our actions so loudly proclaim. So far, I have asked more questions than I have provided answers for, and as futile as this state of things might be, I once heard someone say that, that's the definition of progress....
PS: This was written some weeks ago, when the events referenced were merely hours old. I just forgot to err...post.
#sound’n’fury
#aninternshipchronicle
#theStormGod
