By: Ahmed ELNAHAS – Milano, April 7th 2013.
Ages ago when I was just a young child to a privileged family, I never gave much thought to the question of ‘class’.. I took for granted the ease of my family’s way of life, as well as the existence of many household helpers as a matter of fact.. I never questioned their whereabouts and how or where they lived.. I guess I thought they lived in houses similar to ours only maybe smaller or without a garden.. I believe that the majority of my contemporary peers did the same.. We never questioned the issues of rich and poor. Till we grew up.. In every sense of the term.
What could be the reason to explain the accelerated return of certain types of criminality, and more violently incisive into our lives; causing serious social terror and general disorder?
From the present growing clandestine assault arms trade down to the sexual harassment passing by the unprecedented violence of street bullies, breaking and entry even into inhabited residences with the purpose of robbery and if opposed to kill, car thefts, gang rape, kidnappings, crop burning and stock poisoning…etc. And I mentioned these only as samples portraying some rural and urban criminal characteristics, because the list is much longer and the numbers are very frightening.. Nevertheless the question is still: WHY?
Sure ‘poverty’ is a main part of the problem; maybe also the abused cliché of ‘social frustration’ could participate, even ‘ignorance’ would be a valid accelerator; but what is the real force which triggered all that anger?
I say “Revenge”! Time for us to “Pay Back”.. Yes.. The true primordial motivator for the worst human instincts at all.. Because all the way throughout the past three or four decades, the serene minority of a prospering political and financial “Élite” flanked by an advantaged “Upper Middle Class” have enjoyed the fruits of the soft living, manifested by private schools for the children, cars, sporting clubs, underpaid domestic manpower (belonging to an envying, aspiring and imitating much lower classes), guaranteed and well paid job offers opposite to the swelling unemployment rates; and both grew richer and more powerful by enhancing a system that allowed ‘corruption’ to become itself the ‘System’. And while taking full advantage of that silky way of life, both classes comfortably residing on top of the social ladder forgot, or chose to neglect the crucial fact: that their ‘acquired privileges’ were:
a) not the fruit of the real economy based upon “Production Capitalism”, but the mere result of the worst speculation as practiced in the “Financial Capitalism”;
b) at the expenses of crushing other classes of society (shop-girls, rank & file clerks, artisans, industrial workers, farmers, regular and casual labourers, and other salary slaves) between the steel jaws of poverty and ignorance, forcing them to live in degraded abusive areas deprived from basic human and hygiene standards;
c) protected by the brutal and barbarous methods of a cruel and selfish sense of security delivered by various institutional organs operating under endless “Emergency Laws” at the verge of illegality, and totally free from any kind of control; in a state where the institutions of control are not only well tamed but kept as well closely leashed.
So that once unjust regulations and security forces have deliberately loosened their awesome grip over the crushed majority, grudge became anger and anger mutated quickly into blind rage producing enough pressure to release the underground energies of revenge. The kind which was kept in a state of lethargy for very long time in different hide-outs: brotherhoods, clans, associations, drugs, religion, envy, daydreaming, sexual obsessions, and all submerged by an infinity of interpretations given to flexible terms like “…social injustice, change by force, an eye for an eye”... Etc.
We denied for too long the existence of these classes, we welcomed their continuous suppression, and refused to acknowledge their grievances.. While calming our conscience by a charity hand-out every now and then, and satisfying our Ego by receiving as authentic the “Thank You Sir” or “may Allah protect you Madam”, refusing to see the hidden grudge beneath the smiles. We paid for these smiles.. Didn’t we? So everything must be alright.. As if a generous tip can wipe out the client’s arrogant lack of human modesty, or the insult delivered by our publicly delivered charity.
If we add on top of the above the well orchestrated blind religious fundamentalism, which infiltrated deep into every angle of the establishment; to the financial muscles of what some define as the counter revolutionary forces, we would certainly find out our answer(s)..
By the way, I did not overlook the principal actor playing in what seem to be more like a “Shakespearean Tragedy” rather than a “Molière Comedy”; the actor I consider an accomplice in that plot designed to demolish whatever is left of Egypt to the Egyptians.. That actor is “The Inexperienced Ruling Cast”.
After all this, I want you to guess who’s gaining the most from our social insecurity? Who’s maneuvering the full scenario?
When the state is weak it becomes vulnerable to hazardous penetrations, a secure home for crime to prevail and for terror to reside.. Being a strong state doesn’t require by force becoming a Dictatorship, because dictatorships end sooner or later.. Strength come from education and participation.. The two wings of a secure and souring “Free Democracy”.
Until we understand that, more crimes will terrorise innocent citizens and deprive them from the very basic of human and constitutional rights: Security.
Pass On The Word.
No comments:
Post a Comment