Stop Playing The Blame Game
Stop playing the blame game - it’s for losers
I am writing this in the dark, afflicted by a power blackout. It seems a good time to pass the blame around. So let me start, obviously, by blaming our notorious power company, which has been blight on this country for decades. Let me also pass some blame to my landlord, who seems incapable of maintaining decent power back-up in our building, regardless of the inconvenience caused to hundreds every day.
I’m beginning to enjoy this blame game. The more I think about it, the more I feel the victim of things out of my control. I am not as rich or accomplished as I could have been, and I feel others are to blame. Take my father, for instance. Why did he not realise that if he had bought a few thousand shillings worth of shares in my name in the 1970s and 1980s, that I would be a multi-millionaire now? And why did my recently departed mother give away money, food and clothing virtually every day, to all and sundry? With more sensible parents, I would be better off today.
Thinking back, my education also limited my chances. What was all that nonsense I was being forced to memorise and then regurgitate? Whose idea of education was that? I particularly blame my history teacher, who would walk into the classroom, write thousands of words on the blackboard that I was expected to copy, and then walk out again. He detached me from a proper knowledge of my past, and I am a lesser person as a result.
Of course, I want to blame my country as well. It is a tinpot place, decrepit and amoral. It has been led by looters and blunderers for decades, and they have constrained me. Had I lived in a better country with more competent leadership, I would undoubtedly have prospered.
But let’s not just blame the leaders we elected; let’s go further back in time. Those colonialists have a lot to answer for, don’t they? They plundered this fair land and forced people into enclaves. They ran the place like one of their damned country clubs,...
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