George Orwell's fictional classic Animal Farm dominated my childhood. Either in the classroom with my peers, back home with my mom or alone on my bed, I never got tired of reading and rereading the timeless classic. As little as I was when I first read this piece, the memories of the anger, excitement and sorrow I felt still lingers. In fact, those memories set the tone for the way I've viewed this world ever since.
To start with, we are born - not created. So, are we born with equal privileges?
During my service years, I was posted into a remote location with no electricity or reasonable social amenities. One fateful evening, I decided to pay a friend, a youth corp like myself, a surprise visit. My friend graduated from the university as a medical doctor so he was posted to the community hospital. When I got to the hospital, I experienced an event that just wouldn't get erased from my memory ever since. That event tore away any lingering hope or ounce of belief that I ever had about equality and the possibility of an equal world.
The event? I stood outside the hospital ward in shock and utter amazement as my doctor friend delivered a woman of a baby boy with a KEROSENE LANTERN as the only source of light in the hospital. As I stood aside, thoughts flooded my mind. What's the fate of this boy birthed under this horrible condition? He's just starting out his life and already looked shorthanded : born to parents who cannot afford a good hospital for his delivery, will probably grow up in an environment with less than 30% literacy rate, will go to the community school where youth corpers posted over there for just 11 months represents their best bet of reasonable connection to the rapidly growing outside world that has left them behind. In short, he's already at a disadvantage!
In Animal Farm, when the animals canvassed for liberation and somehow achieved it, they created seven laws for themselves. The last one? ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUALS. As the pigs gained a foothold on proceedings and became the silent landlords who replaced humans, all seven laws were collapsed into a single one :
"All Animals Are Equal but Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others."
The above written statement looks as contradictory as it can get. How can they all be equal yet, some are more equal? Politicians who never cared for the citizens throughout their tenure will suddenly start making visitations to the neighborhood once election draws near. Some of them will eat on the street like common folks just to corroborate the first part of that hallowed statement and make the masses believe they are equals. Are they equals? No, they are not. Equality does not exist in this world!
What can be done to help achieve equality? As far as I'm concerned, nothing! I know this may sound pessimistic but that's the truth. From time immemorial, we've always had leaders and followers, slaves and masters, the rich and the poor. Will poverty end and we will all live in a world where everyone will be equally rich? No. Will the rulers and political class suddenly start seeing the masses as equal to them? Of course they won't. As long as some people control power, there will never be equality. In fact, the idea of equality is a farce. After decades of fighting racism, it's still very prevalent around us. If we can't stamp racism - which is just one of the several outlets to inequality - out after all these years, how do we achieve equality?
Equality will never happen, not now, not in 200 years time!
Image Source 1: https://unsplash.com/photos/98uYQ-KupiE
Image Source 2: https://unsplash.com/photos/0f3bZHXZSz8
Image Source 3: https://unsplash.com/photos/kyeJW1zRH0I
Image Source 4: https://unsplash.com/photos/iz_L6KnDAys
