In Continuum.

Africa has always been in a shade of blue or red when I was reading those maps, denoting the lowest and the highest in something, respectively. I've always wondered, when was the point in history when the continent just gave up, altogether. Or rather, when was the point when the rest of the world just kind of spurred ahead without them. You cannot help but wonder such things as you are watching some documentary about the country, and it is just sad that it takes a documentary or a movie to make people give a shit about the continent for, well, two hours at the most. Then life goes back to normal for the most of us, and children are still dying all the way over there. I am literally one ocean apart from them, and yet I can hardly feel whatever that is happening over there. All the horror stories I have read and heard about hardly affects me, or the rest of the world in general. They are just that insignificant, not because we see them as being that way but because we have better things to worry about most of the time. It does not make us selfish or self-centered, but humans are built to mind our own businesses most of the time, especially the life that we lead for ourselves. We already have so many things to worry, it's not like the financial market in America, you know? The economy in America is directly related to the rest of the world, and we are all so closely related. One country disappears in Africa, a thousand people get slaughtered there, nobody cares because it doesn't matter to us personally. We have bigger problems to worry about, like your grocery list or your taxes. Really, it is too far away for us to notice. 

Africa causes hardly a ripple, really. Maybe a whisper in the news, but that is as far as awareness goes most of the time. News flash, a hundred Somalians died of hunger today, famine is still a problem in many countries in Africa, genocide claiming thousands of lives, a million refugees being displaced. Then it is home news, some celebrity broke up again, the stock market is still in a mess, McCain is still being lame on television. I have a friend, and she is crazy about Africa. Everything she is doing now, everything that she has done, seems to have been planned for Africa one way or another. She wants to help out there, make people's lives better, make a difference, change the world. Of course, changing the world is a tall order, but only so if you see mankind as a collective. If you see individual human beings as having their own so-called worlds, then it is possible to change the world. It makes me feel happy, at times, to learn about people with such ambitions, no matter how unrealistic it may be. You know what "unrealistic" means - it means something that does not result in a sizable amount of cash in Singapore's context. That is the reality here, socially conditioned since young. It isn't realistic, but you smile every time you hear someone who wants to do something. We do have hope, after all. 

But as the years go by, and you hear more and more about Africa, you start to lose hope in the continent. I, personally, don't see the place climbing out of its hole anytime soon. Not in this decade, or this century for that matter. They have just been left way too far behind, ate too much dust, poisoned way too deeply. One generation passes on to the next, and then the next, and then the next. Whether or not it is a disease that affects the organs, or a disease that affects the mindset. It has gone viral a long time ago, and there isn't a cure for anybody there. It is a doomed continent, and it saddens me a lot. I mean, I look at my life and I sometimes think about how it could be so much more. Then again, it could be so much less as well, and in that way I am contented. I am glad that I have a school to go to, a family to come home to, friends to laugh with, a bed to sleep in. I have had a good teenage life, a great childhood, everything has been comfortable and nice, relatively. The idea of "a good life" is pretty much a socialized condition. I mean, the idea of a good life is what the society teaches us to think, right? But when you are on the streets, sniffing glue just to keep your mind off hunger, it really doesn't matter any longer if having an education and a bed to sleep in is a socialized idea. You want yourself to be manipulated in that direction, because being let loose just seems to be so much worse. 

I watched the following video and, as a result, typed this entry right here. It is about the children in Kenya, who has AIDS because their parents have AIDS. They wander the streets to steal food, sniff glue, and they know little to nothing about the disease. It is rampant in the country, but nobody is doing anything about these children. It is so heart breaking, so depressing, that sometimes you almost feel your heart imploding upon itself, just watching videos like that. It makes you feel alive, really alive, and motivated to do something. But still, you look at your hands and the life that you have, the responsibilities you have and the things you cannot let go of - what can we do, when we are already so burdened? Africa has been known for its wildlife, and that is how we see the continent most of the time on television and stuff like that. In our countries, we have animals in zoos or as pets at home, and there is a clear distinction between them and us. However, in Africa, the lines seem to be blurred, and it is a jungle out there even in the streets. Humans kill other humans for all reasons, and it is as raw and primitive out there as it gets.