Hornbill’s Problem……….

When I was in primary, we read a story about a hornbill and the problems he brought about to the entire forest. The noisy hornbill kept on quacking through the forest. The forest was indifferent to its tirade. One ladybird was however cautious and skeptic of the wanton indifference by the forest. It warned that the noisy hornbill would eventually cause trouble. Everyone simply minded his own skin until one day a hunter was lured by hornbill’s incessant noise. He immediately shot off the hornbill which fell off the tree onto the mushroom next the snail.  In the bud, all the animals including bush rope met their dead end only leaving a lonely ladybird.

In another epic allegory on the emergence and collapse of Soviet Communism George Orwell posits how gullible, loyal, and hardworking animals abate instances of oppression not only from the motives and tactics of the oppressors but also from the naïveté of the oppressed, who are not necessarily in a position to be better educated or informed.  Using Benjamin, an old grumpy donkey, he stereotypically demonstrates how the inability or unwillingness to question authority condemns the working class to suffer the full extent of the ruling class’s oppression.

Benjamin, the long-lived crotchety but intelligent donkey refused to feel inspired by the ideas of rebellion and windmills. Hence whilst many of the other animals worked harder after the animals took over the farm, he maintained the old way. Firmly believing that, life would remain unpleasant no matter who was in charge, that life is inherently hard thus any efforts to change will always be futile. Despite being smart to recall every detail of his long life, he reiterated that hunger, hardship, and disappointment would be the unalterable law of life. Of all of the animals in the farm, he alone comprehended the changes that took place, but was unwilling to oppose the pigs. His cynicism and apathy notwithstanding, when the men attacked the farm, Benjamin rushed to the front line to defend it. However, when it came down to the political debates between Snowball and Napoleon, Benjamin is the only animal who refused to choose a side. Generally speaking, Benjamin would complain about day-to-day life, but fail to link its woes to leadership. He stayed out of all political discussions, which kept him out of trouble. One of the novella’s most impressive accomplishments is its portrayal of the danger of a lethargic citizenry in propagating tyranny among its rulers.

With this I came to a conclusion that one of the most life threatening perils to human kind today is indifference. Even more than hatred, indifference elicits no response and neither is it a response. Conversely it is the complete opposite of social commitment. A person becomes indifferent to another because the feeling of responsibility and respect towards humanity doesn’t mean anything to him anymore. Indifference is something that hurts those who are already suffering pain, as it is a lack of recognition to their humanity, and therefore, dignity.

And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor — never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. Stupefying maternal mortalities in Wajir, teenage pregnancies in Kibera, the educated but jobless, famished plantation workers of Karuturi, the starving Marsabit kids, the homeless evictees with court orders  — not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.

Of course, indifference can be tempting – more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from the excruciating police brutality, to shrug off as BBI is stuffed down our gut, healthcare and agriculture are undrefunded in budgetary appropriations and CBC is wambling kids into dimwits. It is also much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, to sneer at conversion of Nairobi County into an army barracks. It is after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the afflicted to an abstraction.

Perhaps, as a country the countless atrocities we endure could be God’s wrath for our indifferent attitude. We are too frazzled and stupidly subservient to take a stance and speak out. Against an illegitimate system of public plunder and elitism, gross human rights violations, social injustices and dominance as well as electoral bloodbath. Instead, we choose to go to church and pray for more “uvumilivu” impalpably preserving slavery, corruption and misery.

Banishing apathy requires, I believe, recognizing it is beyond being troublesome to be involved in another person’s pain and despair. Moreover, it is in our capacity to give all people who suffer avoidable anguish due attention. That single tweet, like, share or even sign up of a petition cumulatively counts in honouring the humanity of others and of ourselves. So at an individual level, we cannot do it all, though most of us could do more as history has proven hereunder.

While agitating for equal employment rights, elevation to positions of authority and freedom from objectification, left wing feminist of the second wave mobilized a mass boycott of flowers.  Being the ultimate consumers, the idea was to effectively sabotage the entire global supply chain of flowers. This was in response the plight of exploited women in flower plantations whose resentments ranged from sexual harassment at work, squalid working conditions to underpayment by their masters. As a result, they did effectively impale the demand of flowers while mildly upsetting the global economy and their counterpart’s grievances had to be redressed.

To wind up, I refer to the powerful words of Koffie Anan which inspired this piece, “the greatest tragedy of this period is not the vitriolic words and other violent actions of the bad people but the appalling silence and indifference of the good people.”

Godspeed.