You want it all.
You want nothing,
You want to brandish authority without legitimacy,
elections without accountability,
Sing the merits of citizenship without citizens,
Praise civil society without the civil or society,
Boast of human rights without humans with rights,
Demand efficiency without transparency,
Hope for a professional press without its freedom,
Desire a robust judiciary without integrity,
Can one attain happiness without justice?
You dream of your universities entering the ranks of the most high, but critical thought will not qualify.
You summon gender equality without women,
You want to enforce religion without the divine reckoning,
You want to build mosques without a soul,
Churches without a voice,
You are all ambition without humility,
You are malls without public seats, malls without alternatives.
The speculative future without the touchable present,
You want the reap without the sow,
You want the glory of history without its lessons,
You want the glory of history without its preservation,
You want the glory of history without its inevitable equaliser – mortality.
You want the west without the east, the east without the rest.
Your world is a world of glistening buildings, solid bridges, and long highways, but no people.
You see no people, you hear no people, you know no people.
You are the slow release of anesthesia spreading through the decrepit hospital corridors under the rapid flicker of fluorescent lights.
