Yes, until the Blackman shows evidence of development, he will get no respect. This is not only true, it is a serious matter. It is a matter at the heart of the very existence of the Blackman all over the world. We know it, we are very much aware of the the impediments which lack of organization and backwardness have brought on us. It is the reason we have to get into the protest mode, ready to burn down an entire city just to make the point that we are humans and naturally deserve respect, dignified acknowledgement at every point and offered decent treatment.
We do all the protestations, our leaders, the intellectuals amongst us and pseudo-comprado business chieftains speak all the Queen’s English they learnt from parading metropolitan capitals of the world, and yet nothing changes in terms of how persons and governments of developed countries view the undeveloped people. The reason is found in the fact that respect and dignity don’t come by way of wishes, they are earned. It is the preserve of those who out of positive deliberateness chose to make the most and the best out of limited opportunities offered them by life and their environments.
Let’s draw from evidential parallels, some we can appreciate where we are and particularly the bug making life and living very unbearable for us. Many of us like to rush at the slightest opportunities to travel to developed settings. In fact it has for decades been a very shameful symbol of our “arrival” at the highest echelon of society’s very important people. For the developed world, the pervasive urging alone is indicative of low, underdeveloped people, deprived of the good things of life yet not ready to give what it takes to reverse the situation for their good and the well-being of upcoming generations.
Authorities over there understand this loss of esteem and above all absence of foresight, so they cash in on the situation to further destroy our psychology and more importantly for the, make economic gains. What do they do? They tighten entry requirements, making visa procurement very stringent and even humiliating. Before we had the “privilege” to step into their embassies for interviews, today that has changed, intending travellers or better still potential economic exiles or “voluntary slaves” in the making would have to go to points very far from decent locations offered by the embassies.
Visa applicants may even have to sleep around the vicinity, many of them in the open to be able to fall within the quota for the designated days of interview. There are high visa fees and silly questions including exposition of one’s financial standing to contend with before the visa is offered. What could be more humiliating than this, especially when it is known that an American or someone with their passport doesn’t require a visa to find him or herself in any part of Europe. This alone explains the point being laboriously made. How many of us blacks in white developed countries know that those countries are structured in a manner it offers no succour to citizens from poor, undeveloped countries especially the black people.
How many of our readers watched the Commonwealth Summit held recently in Kigali, Rwanda? If you did, what was your major take away? For the keen eyed neo-colonialism rode very high; in fact it flew on wings. Then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson would not come until everyone else including African leaders had come and taken their seats, then he strolled in with all pomp and pageantry, in great majesty. He did not sit through deliberations, gave his opening address, took his exit and gave way to young men and girls, all whites, to lecture African Presidents on such minor topics as “eradication of malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa”. The then Prince Charles (now King Charles III, following the demise of Queen Elizabeth II) did same.
At the burial ceremony of late Queen Elizabeth we all saw the disdain for low races elevated again. Zimbabwe President was virtually begging to attend funeral of a traditional ruler. He was scorned in writing and told clearly, “you can’t come, you and your people are examples of ‘deviant children.’” The ones that got invitations, our country among them, were stripped of presidential protocol, herded into a bus and packed like sardines and taken to the venue of the funeral. In the pictures we saw they all looked like kindergarten school kids on the way to school. By contrast President Joe Biden came in his full splendour and even got the right to fly in his special car, the Beast. Country pass country, as my people would say in local parlance.
One can go on and on presenting examples but what has been highlighted is enough to show our distasteful level in global placing. What should be very important is knowing that our lack of ability, and negative resolve not to do things very correctly is what has brought us great opprobrium. Every day our leaders talk about Nigeria and insist the fortune of the country can’t be renegotiated, yet every month huge funds are expended but when we look back it is difficult to say where the funds went into. What we see when in very few instances exceptions grace our eyes are nothing near the marvellous works these same leaders encounter in their many wasteful journeys across the developed world.
The roads they point to they built are bereft of class and standards, the asphalt layer is tiny, no markings, pedestrian walkways and lay-bys in the event of vehicular breakdowns. The gutters are not straight and above all they are all open drainage systems in the 21st century world, yet these leaders travel overseas. Most urban renewal efforts have no rail or motor rail components, we are yet to see a leader who made provision for underground tunnel transport. Our leaders spend nearly all the budget building roads, they don’t know social infrastructure constitutes only about 10 per cent in classical development model.
In eight years of naked power wielding and consolidation none of our executive office holders would be able to give excellent account on mechanized agriculture, addition of value chains, specific products in terms of human capital development in various critical areas and their place to jump-start real productive economy that supports life on a sustainable basis. Housing deficit is a far greater scourge than Coronavirus and HIV/AIDS pandemics. Citizens die in droves as a result of poorly equipped health institutions.
We saw a group of young Chinese in Central Europe recently, they strutted about elegantly with great confidence; their looks alone told stories of a people and country that has made it. The other races didn’t need to be told they must respect this group. It comes naturally. The Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert have become burial grounds for desperate blacks willing to run into modern slavery; some of them have found their way into developed settings, sleeping on streets and begging for arms to survive. We can’t live and operate this way and still expect the world to respect us. It won’t happen. Respect and dignity are for races who in modern times have clear evidences of sound development.