Like it has always been, perhaps since the advent of tome, this world is made up of three the good, the bad and the ugly. Remember the famous western by the same title! Yes, one can even say not a single square meter of space in the world could be free of this fact. To imagine a world where ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly’ is filtered with only ‘the good’ remains might be a well-intentioned wish though it is also equally unrealistic with the way the world seems to be working at present. The only difference might be in percentages of each. That is where the real issue comes. Why is it that these days, at least from the point of view of the-man-in-the-street, only ‘the bad’ and ‘the ugly’ seem to be maneuvering the steering wheel? Why does it look like maybe we have to acknowledge the fact that ‘the good’ has dimmed to the point it might completely vanish before we could do anything about it?
Of course dealing with issue of the good, the bad, and the ugly our conclusion might be that title it all comes to deeds. Yes indeed deeds certainly tell who a person is and also what they stand for. Simple, and to the point. But then what we have taken as simple might turn out to be the most complicated leading us up the wrong trees. There is this thing we call ‘intentions.’ Sometimes even deeds which on the surface appear not only good but ‘too good to be true’ might have intentions which might bring the whole house down. There are too many unseen and undiscovered strings which could pull us in all the wrong directions and what we took were good deeds on our part could prove otherwise. Mind you, these are not innocent mistakes, this is not a slip of one sort or another. It is deliberate, it is intentional, it is planned and executed as if it was some ground-breaking project. But all this time either the victim or the crowd around probably doesn’t know what is being cooked in the inner rooms. It is one of these things you wouldn’t know about until it hits.
Good people, well, are good people, what else could they have been! Good people help others; good people are always there when you need them. Well, all those generalizations might be good for the ears. But never has this world worked on generalizations when it comes to the better things. When it comes to the bad, and the ugly generalizations is the easiest way for them because they could do the most damage to most people.
Look, things seem to be so screwed up in this age where for some reason most things aren’t working the way you expect them to. In fact we’d pardoned to look at the wider things and forget what being good actually means. I mean it’s easy to conclude all the philanthropic deeds have some good intentions behind them. Of course having been suspicious of many things over the years we wouldn’t say every ‘humanitarian’ person, organization or whatever who claim they are there to work for the good of those who need their help. Nice, isn’t it? What else in this world could be any nicer? Well, quite a lot of them may be what they say they are. We hear of many things being done for the needy and those in want of help. And then there are the subtexts, subtexts which don’t play to what is supposed to be the conventional.
In fact over the years the talk of the town which never seemed to have run its course one way to just be financially well off and manage to lead a very good life, with your own house, car, and whatever is being employed in certain ‘humanitarian’ organizations. Of course that would be a very crude, and perhaps controversial generalizations. But we’ve been seeing people in the employ of such organizations just going through fast changes like the bullet trains and we wonder whatever pay is thrown their way every month must either be what they call a king’s ransom or very fishy dramas are being enacted away from the eyes of the wider public. I have to admit I’m not sure if current chemistry of such entities or individuals. But the narrative of ‘unseen-but-the-suspected’ has been going on for so long it is not that easy to part with.
Look bad intentioned people and perhaps bodies led by the bad intentioned people. You might wonder how come we have so many negatively charged persons amongst us; Not an easy question with an easy answer! But when one witnesses the level of erosion of what we know as truth, honesty and such issues.
Say some person stumbles upon some bundle of crudely wrapped actual cash somewhere else. It could easily be two or three grand at the lowest. In such times when economic hardship have put many in economic straitjackets this lot of money which could easily tempt even the nicest of fellows on this side of the universe to overstep one’s red lines. (And temptation is one thing you wouldn’t want to be trapped in especially dilemma-creating situations.) There might be absolutely no clues as to how that much money ended up in what could be described in the middle of nowhere. So what is the person going to do? You might say, “What kind of question is that! How can any sensible person ask such a question! Of course, that person hands the bundle to the relevant authorities.” that wouldn’t be a universal reaction!
Then the person would be engulfed with those nagging questions that nudging him from all the side. How could you think of parting with so much money when luck put it under your feet? “If it wasn’t meant for you, you wouldn’t have found it! Can’t you see! Your prayers are answered and you want to give it away!” The divine intervention argument could be so strong that any iron-boned person might lose their foothold.
Then the dilemma sets in; “Should I or should I not?” Believe me it’s one of those riddles we never want to be faced with! An Amharic pun says something like, “May the ears of the devil be sealed!”
BY EPHREM ENDALE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 20 APRIL 2025
