Firing Blanks and Why it Happens So Often in 21st Century Africa.

Just to clarify for those of you who were pulled in by the title and are actually firing blanks (sexually), this isn't about that..and you really should get that checked by an actual doctor (Google doesn't count). I am talking about firing blanks with regards to life, careers, entrepreneurship and business. The soul sucking kind of blank that leaves you feeling empty and lacking purpose. Like that thing you were convinced to buy on the strength of a commercial and have never really used since taking it out of the box, because it serves no purpose, and it sucks, and you suck for buying it. Like the USB Pet Rock, which is literally a rock, which is supposed to be a pet, that has a USB port, but doesn't actually use any power, gives you love somehow and doesn't require any care or feeding (umm..what??@_@). FYI, if you actually bought one of these, you and that rock deserve each other.

From what I know about Firing Blanks, it could be the most common shared occurrence in the world. It basically involves people dreaming stuff up, stuff that could change their lives in an instant, breaking that annoying eat, work, poop, sleep cycle that has plagued humanity for centuries. Only problem is this stuff never really materializes, never gets past the planning phase for reasons ranging from laziness to life beating the living sh#t out of people. We can call them mind farts that we just cant smell, always there, ready to pop, but they just never do because of the thickness of the human skull, hardened by years and years of societal panel beating and folding.

I grew up in a society that believed that formal education was the only key to success and that anyone who wasn't lucky enough to get one was bound to be a thief who would be dead in 40 days, or poor and living on other peoples mercy. A society that taught its children that dying to get good grades in school and getting employed was the only way to make it in life. A generation of parents, teachers and schools that were programmed to make the children square pegs that were meant to fit into square holes. And that round pegs and triangular ones had no place in society. Straying from this path meant beatings that to this day linger in our memories, refusing to fade away. In fact, the only thing I remember about primary school, aside from the beatings and how Muchai (rest his soul) used to crack us up with his endless streams of jokes, are the words “You are the leaders of tomorrow.” A lie that was meant to keep us in check, keep us sedated in a dream state of sorts that assured us that the future had something for all of us within the confines of societal norm.

Needless to say, the leaders of yesterday are pretty much still the leaders of today, and probably tomorrow (apparently these f#%kers may have found the elixir of life). Many of us still believed the lie up until we finished campus and found no jobs, which meant we were no different from the ‘unlucky, uneducated’ lot. All the square holes were filled by a system that kept churning out more and more square pegs, giving no mind to the number of square holes that were. In some cases, we came out of campus to find some of the ‘condemned’ running successful businesses driven by a sense of rebellion against the system. And so started the ‘entrepreneurial revolution’, which demanded that an entire generation of people, hardwired to work a certain way, rewire themselves in order to have a go at life. It has been largely successful to some extent, giving rise to innovation in science an technology, finding smarter ways to solve every day problems.

Unfortunately for a majority of youth, the damage was already done. Rewiring never really worked because of how rigid they had become from the constant and endless beatings society meted out to them. Like folded steel, layers and layers of steel upon steel, heated to sun like temperatures and hammered into place. Or maybe they are all just lazy people who just don’t want to put in the time to get results. Either way you look at it, its still pretty messed up. So now they are stuck looking for employment, some of which is available for those few who ‘know some people’, with the rest being left to their thoughts and to the will of the politicians. An entire generation stuck in the wrong gear, being ridden to their deaths by people who only care about the age of their whiskeys, and the holes they get to play on their next golf outings. A generation of beautiful, brilliant people who dream of futures filled with hope and joy for themselves and their loved ones. Dreaming stuff up that could make a huge difference in their lives, but remain confined in their brains by a present that doesn't allow for tomfoolery. An unforgiving present that is enforced by the landlords and the schools that require fees for the children and the medical bills for the ageing parents and the beer that never becomes cheaper. A generation of mind farting, blank firing, rapidly aging leaders of a tomorrow that never came.