Rabbie Serumula, author, award-winning poet and journalist. Picture: Nokuthula Mbatha.
Johannesburg - In the playground we call Earth, where human existence is child’s play, we often witness a stark dichotomy between those who are blessed with privilege and those who are burdened with disadvantages. It is a tale as old as time, where the haves and the have-nots exist side by side, their paths intertwined yet their destinies seemingly divergent.
Such is the narrative that unfolds when a group of seven bullies, born from well-off families, cries foul about a collective of five disadvantaged children coming together to uplift their circumstances, forging a bloc to promote economic co-operation, enhance trade, and foster investment.
The bullies seemed to only be concerned about controlling the swings, the slides, and even the sandbox.
The bullies, steeped in their narrow-mindedness and ignorance, fail to grasp the fundamental principles of compassion, empathy, and solidarity that underpin a just society. Instead, they view the unity of the disadvantaged children as a threat to their established order, a disruption to their perceived superiority. Blinded by their own entitlement, they fail to recognise the immense potential that lies within the hearts and minds of those who have endured hardship. Or perhaps they fear this potential.
They know the disadvantaged children will build their own swings, their own slides, and their own sandboxes if they have to. They have endured much – colonialism, imperialism, resource extraction, unfair trade practices, and economic dominance in this playground.
The bullies fear the collective strength that arises when individuals unite, driven by a common purpose and fuelled by a shared desire for progress. In their misguided arrogance, they overlook the truth that the disadvantaged children seek not to tear down the privileged, but rather to uplift themselves and others from the shackles of poverty and despair.
The problem is that the bullies want you to do as they say, they play on the moral high ground of the swing set if you do what they do. How dare your toy soldiers also spring to life, their animated forms transcending their origins? Like maleficent spirits possessing tiny frames, they bomb real humans, transforming this playground into a battleground, a nightmare that leaves scars both seen and unseen in Ukraine, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, the list is seriously long, but no life is worth more than another.
I suppose all is fair in love and war. Everyone in the playground is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their desired outcome, even if it means behaving in morally questionable or unethical ways.
The bullies’ disdain for the disadvantaged children’s endeavours comes from their fear of relinquishing their grip on power and privilege. They fail to recognise that a just society is not built on the oppression of the “weak”, but rather on the empowerment of all its members.
The G7, I mean the bullies, must understand that BRICS, I mean the disadvantaged children, are not here to challenge your dominance in the playground. We are here to change the rules that perpetuate inequality and exclusion.
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