Roaming around town on a day of, I buy a paper, go to my favorite cafe and order a dobbel capuccion. Opening the paper and starting to read I just cant get the word Justice out of my head. The more I read and see how many cases of injustice that can fill one paper, the more I sit and wonder and just cant put words to what I’m feeling. Honestly, I can feel a slight fear wash over me. Reading about a man shot dead by the police yesterday right where I had taken the matatu, seeing the name of one of the villages we work in(and I was in yesterday) where two of the men involved where arrested I just find it hard to know how to react. This is a dangerous city.
Justice, I just cant get away from this word. Especially being here makes me want to explore it further. In a country like this and working as a social worker, injustice is daily in your face. What is real justice? Who decides? Why are so many people driven to injustice? Will humanity ever see justice for all the injustice that has been committed?
“As the ICC process begins, we urge all Kenyans to remain calm as we monitor the progress to ensure that justice is delivered both for the suspects and the victims” (The Standard) Todays paper is filled with articles on the six kenyans on pre-trial at the ICC in Hague. All Kenyans are talking about it and its all over the radios. Will this bring justice to the Kenyan people 4 years afte the post election violence?
The other thing I cant get out of my head is power and money. How power and money corrupts you from the inside out is so evident here. Its just so wrong, I cant even understand how somebody can believe its okay to use your position and exploit people so greatly. Some MPs here earn so much money and act like nothing can shake their power and like they deserve it. The other day the road leading out from a guesthouse we where at was blocked for 3 hours because Kibaki was going to pass. Nobody could get out or in. You where stuck because the President would possible pass within the next 3 hours, crazy. We ended up walking...
Power and money is dangerous, destructive and evil. Sooner or later it will destroy you and everybody around you... and your country. I dont think us humans are created to be able to handle to much of either of the two. And together, they are - a beast... an ugly one.
Growing up in Norway its hard for me to understand that somebody can have so much power and misuse it so fundamentally. I can walk around in Oslo and pass the prime minister strolling down the street. No road blocks, no security and no machine guns. What kind of power do the big guys have here? What do you control to have guards just a trigger away from shooting if they are the least suspicions of a civilian or if you decide to drive on a road to get home after waiting for 3 hours?
What is happening in the ICC now is exciting and makes me somewhat hopeful. If the Ocampo 6 are found guilty it wont make ammends for all the injustice that happened during the post election violence. They wheren't the only ones causing trouble. But, to me it shows that big guys with power and money cant just do whatever they want. I want to believe that the world maybe has some power over injustice, and seeing that people might have to stand trial at the ICC makes me believe that there is hope. Maybe the world can change. Maybe crimes against humanity wont go by unnoticed and unpaid for. Maybe 100 years from now people wont have to read about the things I had to read about in the paper today. Maybe there will come a day in Kenya where justice and democracy rules and you don't have to read about rape and shootings everyday in the paper. Maybe one day the police will be the most trustworthy of all Kenyans, and the President will walk on the street, just like everybody else...
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