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The prisoner writes

Who will wake up and fight for the needs of the needy and be the messiah of the weak? I am a prisoner, just like almost all of us are. We are tightly locked in our cocoons of rabid ignorance. We have sat back and watched our leaders gang-rape the constitution, turned our eyes away when they were annexing public resources and stealing our taxes. We have sat at the high tables and partaken in the meal of dirty and divisive politics, our tongues gagged by the sweet drink that is ignorance and unconcern. Our little children have been taught that the way to become men is not by using their head but their muscles. They have learnt from their fathers that some things are better unsaid than said, as long as it doesn’t concern them. They came for my neighbour yesterday, tomorrow it will be me and the other day you. The prisoner writes, is fear really worth the suffering we go through?
We think we have fought for change when we sit in groups like young choirboys and sing in nostalgia the sweet songs of freedom and reminisce on the days of the old. Do you think a song will be enough to exorcise the demons of the politics of impoverishment? Do you think loud and emotional prayers will be enough to clean the hearts of those soaking with greed and lust for public land? The prisoner doesn’t think so, nay, doesn’t believe so. Up till today we have refused to let go of that precious gift of mental colonialism. We have fallen head over heels with the shackles that hold us hostage to the extent of accepting it as part of our DNA. We have become the spectators who stand at the end of the line to cheer athletes running our races and head home to our cold bed and rumbling stomachs while they feast on our victory. We have thrown our ambitions out of the windows and opened the door for hopelessness and weakness. Our strength and unity is now an illusion, fissures on a giant black wall that nobody will bother to notice. Fear took us prisoner and has placed us behind plastic grills and convinced us we will never break them. We have come to fear a destiny that has always been in our hands and instead we are hoping karma will be king enough. Why do we let politics run our lives, tell us what to think and do? Why have we let politics turn us into zombies with no future or present to hold on to. We kiss the crown of those who lead us and pray God to give them longer lives while they lead us to our extinction. We have lost the sense of purpose in our lives and even though we might be having big houses and cars, we still are living a lie, false illusion of freedom and second hand democracy. We will only be free the day we get tired of activists being shot in the streets, media being gagged and our children being taught to steal opportunities that belong to them.

 So the prisoner writes, what is freedom if you are not free in the mind?

*A disabled person is not he who cannot see or walk without aid, but he who can’t think on their own and lets everybody do that for them.

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