Beware The Stones Thee Cast
What I am writing in this post is harsh and will offend – don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you’d rather go about your ‘holier-than-thou’ existence unconcerned about the reality of who (and what) you really are; now is the time to stop reading…
Saddened by the senseless and totally avoidable tragedy that hit the city of my birth, Dar Es Salaam, on 03/29 – where a building under construction collapsed…the last time I checked, 25 were confirmed dead – at least 4 of the dead were children; and depending on which news channel you subscribe to, there are anywhere up to 70 people still unaccounted for. The building seems to have collapsed onto a neighboring field where about 15 kids were playing football – it definitely wasn’t the most auspicious of days to be playing football for at least 5 of those 15 kids. The building was still under construction and unoccupied…imagine the devastation if this happened with all 16-storeys occupied 
While such tragedies are a common occurrence globally – in the macro-perspective, this is not a ‘big deal’ comparatively speaking – but for me: this hits very close to home…this is personal…and therefore an ENORMOUS deal! – having roamed the very street where this has occurred as a youngster…the site of the devastation itself: I can clearly recall the very spot I see in the pictures from when I painted the town red as a teenager 20-25 years ago.
The resulting emotional outpouring has angry, bitter, saddened Tanzanians calling for the blood of those who caused that 16-storey (some reports out there peg the completed structure at being 12-storey high when it crumbled) structure to just disintegrate for no apparent reason. Angry, bitter crowds are out there demanding the heads of the building owners, their contracted builders and engineers, and the corrupt government officials who seem to have neglected their civic duties of ensuring that building codes were adhered to in the construction of the structure.
…and the clowns that make up what the citizens of that land call ‘the authorities’ have been quick to please – nabbing pretty much everyone that they can use as scape-goats for public appeasement. I am confident that those high-and-mighty – under whose auspices that banana republic breathes – will not lose any sleep over this…but that is a rant for another day…today we stick to those casting stones in anger and grief…
In a few of the emotional outbursts I’ve seen in social media circles, there are calls for the building owners, contractors, engineers, and government officials responsible for this tragedy to ‘rot in hell’…careful now…CAREFUL…beware the stones thee cast people…beware the stones thee cast!
It is true that those directly responsible for this particular senseless, avoidable tragedy obviously put their own selfish interests ahead of all sense and sensibility. That’s how things like these normally go down: either the perpetrators seem not to have taken any time to think through the consequences of their actions – or seem to have known all along that the extra buck or two in their pocket today would mean the senseless death of an innocent child tomorrow and have opted to behave the way they did anyway…
I’d like to believe – and accept – the former reality though…that the perpetrators didn’t think through the consequences of their actions…and I hope that this, and not the latter, is the truth…
But who are these people? Those who choose not to think through the consequences of their thoughts, deeds, and actions? Those who seek self-gratification and selfish gain over everything else? Those who, in their bottomless greed for all things shiny, choose to put blinders on and float around aimlessly in a world with a ‘micro-view’ – and shrug their shoulders citing ‘”not my problem” when challenged? Those who are so concerned with accumulating excess for themselves that they fail to acknowledge (or in most cases, even realize) that some innocent soul somewhere will have to be subjected to a life of scarcity – deprived, in certain cases, of even the bare essentials for a dignified existence – to provide for those excesses in what is a ‘balanced’ eco-system…
Who are these people?
See the reflection in the mirror yet?
Those greedy building owners decided to pocket a few extra bucks – cutting massive corners in this project – not thinking through the fact that the extra monies accumulated to pay for their next shopping extravaganza in the glittery middle-east would come at the cost of the lives of innocent people…of the innocent children minding their own business in the neighboring field…of the innocent laborers – most of whom being the sole bread-winners in their families – who were only in that building so that they could feed their children that day…of the innocent bystanders…and of the forever scarred and damaged families of those who have lost their lives in this senseless and totally avoidable tragedy…
But how are those greedy building owners different from the rest of us who choose to pocket a few extra (illegitimate) bucks everywhere we can? Cheat the tax-man…cheat the insurance company…cheat one another even – from the slick salespeople knowing very well that what they’re selling is pure shit but choosing to scam even their own grandmothers for a few more zeroes in the commission cheque to siblings ruthlessly stealing family wealth from each other…me me me me me….what’s in it for me?!
Those contractors and engineers knew exactly what they were doing…I’d be very worried if any of them claimed to have no clue…but they did what they did anyway: at the cost of the lives of innocent people – of innocent children – of innocent laborers – of innocent bystanders – and of the forever scarred and damaged lives of those who have lost their own in this senseless and totally avoidable tragedy…
But how are those ‘self-preserving’ leeches – the contractors and engineers in this context – any different from the rest of us who would rather ‘mind our own business’ as long as we had ‘jobs’ to go to everyday? There’s no difference…none at all
The corrupt government officials who turned a blind eye to the scheming, corner-cutting, and scamming going on in return for generous contributions to their childrens’ foreign-university-education fund will most likely wear a huge smile to their childrens’ graduation ceremony somewhere in Europe in the coming future…but if only they had taken a moment to think through the fact that their happiness – that proud moment in their lives and in the lives of their offspring – would come at the cost of the lives of innocent people – of innocent children - of innocent laborers – of innocent bystanders – and of the forever scarred and damaged lives of those who have lost their own in this senseless and totally avoidable tragedy…
But how are those corrupt government officials any different from the rest of us who choose to consume so much more than we need just because we can? Our children go to bed eating much more than is even good for their health – at the cost of the children of a lesser god elsewhere who have to make do with scraps that we discard after our endless indulgence…do we stop to think through the consequences of our own actions? Do we even bother?
And who made them corrupt to begin with? We didn’t want to be bothered standing in queues for our turn…so we bribed our way up to the chief’s office. We didn’t want to pay taxes…so we bribed our way out of it. We didn’t want to obey the laws of the land…so we bribed our way into the system – rendering it impotent and at the mercy of our self-gratifying whims. And now we have the audacity to lament the status-quo?
It’s no different up here in the first world: from the filthy smokers who flick their cigarette-butts onto live traffic without any concern for the safety of others to the corrupt heads of state who get elected under the pretense of serving the masses that elect them to office but end up serving the special interests of an elite few instead – everyone refuses to think through the consequences of their actions and do what is most convenient, rewarding, pleasurable, and beneficial to their micro-perspective…no one gives a fuck about the fact that their thoughts, deeds, and actions – every single thought, deed, and action – have consequences…those hard-ons that you and I get when we get away with scamming our way through life are temporary rushes of blood in our system – the consequences of the stuff we do for the thrill of those hard-ons scar humanity permanently…
Yes: it’s very sad – what happened in Dar Es Salaam this past Friday…very sad indeed! A senseless and totally avoidable tragedy. But before you cast those stones in anger and grief and call for the blood of those responsible; wipe those crocodile tears of yours and take a brief moment to have a sincere conversation with yourself.
You and I are the problem here – you and I have killed those innocent people – those innocent children – and only you and I can be the solution…only you and I have the power to stop this from ever happening again.
Beware the stones thee cast!
RD
