Look, I’d have robbed a bank to keep her alive, but there was another problem: there were no beds. I have a university qualification, and that has afforded me a modest life. But I was rudely reminded that the trapping of comparative privilege brought about a university degree, mean nothing so long as the socio-economic foundations upon which the entire country rests, is fundamentally flawed. No one is safe, until everyone is safe. I lost her. As a general proposition, people aren’t poor, because they are lazy. We are thrust into and innately unfair world, from positions of inherited, and sometimes enforced, socio-economic inequalities.
A young girl must deal with the reality of having been raped in their infancy before they can muster the courage to face the world. A young boy must emerge from child labour to find his place in the sun. Someone must overcome challenges that come with social stigma, albinism, and tribal prejudice, before they can compete for limited opportunities in a rigged economic system that perpetuates class inequities. Often, we look to someone, who has achieved mozdes success, and parade them as an example of what we could all be, if we tried harder. Fair enough, one who rises to be a general where they were born a private deserves commendation and generous applause. What we overlook, is that effort does not always translate to upward mobility, and financial success. There are those who have put in twice as much, with little or no success. Merit is not a guarantee of success, even though it is as a general proposition, a function of it.
