I read a story when I was young. Can’t remember all the details now. It happened in the king’s palace. It was about a horse that was prancing around, running here and there, kicking its legs.
The cat saw it and asked the goat to advise the horse to stop running around. The goat refused, saying what the horse chooses to do does not concern him in anyway.
A few minutes later, the horse ended up kicking one of the king’s children, and he dies.
It was soon time for the funeral, and needing to kill an animal to prepare food for the guests, they chose the goat.
Moral of the story?
What you think does not concern you actually does.
If you live in a family house and see a nephew abusing drugs, don’t say it does not concern you. He might end up becoming mentally deranged and hack down somebody close to you tomorrow or end up doing something that affects everybody in that household.
If you are living in Keta(Ghana) with your nuclear family, how does the fate of a Kayayei(Street Hustler) on the streets of Accra or a pregnant teenager in Kumasi affects yours?
They might end up giving birth to children who, in the absence of father figures and the extreme poverty of their mothers, might grow up to become hardened criminals and likely to be operating in Keta or Tamale tomorrow.
We are all connected. We all have a common destiny. We are only truly safe if everybody else is safe.
May the new year to come see you changing your perspectives and attitudes. May you develop a predilection for helping others with the little you can afford to give and may you support social intervention programmes and advocacy seeking to being about change and national development.
We all should.
Credit:- Stan Dugah
