“You know, people are forgetting about moral values these days. There is so much greed and selfishness!” You think that is a safe and sound topic for small talk. But it’s not long before small talk turns into bizarre talk.
“Well, it’s not our fault. They were the ones responsible.”
“Who are they?”
“Those who used to rule this country in…”
Believe me, at that stage the ‘distribution line’ from the ears to the brain are compromised. That’s how absurd things could get these days. Someone, other than you should take the blame for something done wrong. It’s like going all the way back and ‘Bang’… the world is full of scapegoats! Eighteenth-century mortals are blamed for twentieth-century evils!
Well, I, too, have discovered the culprit for the sorry condition our world is in at present.
“Had it not been for that guy Adam we wouldn’t have been in this mess.”
“Who’s Adam?”
Oh no! I’m not going to go into all that Big Bang and the like stuff.
“You know, the very first guy on earth…”
“Oh;” It was “This is another one of them, Oh! “So what are you saying that guy did?”
“He ate The Apple! That’s what he did: He knew that the moment he buried his teeth into that godforsaken apple a heavy curse would fall on his children.”
I just hope he wouldn’t say, ‘So what! What he does about his children is his choice. What are you whining about?’
“Oh, where did he get it from?”
Where did he get what! He got it form your uncle’s backyard’ that’s what he did.
“Eve gave it to him.”
“Oh! (Another one of those …OH’s.)
“Was he sleeping around?”
“I beg your pardon…
“You said Eve gave it to him; was he playing around with another man’s wife?”
Oh God!
“Eve was his wife, sort of.”
“What! You blame the guy for eating something his wife gave him?”
“You’re not getting me. I’m telling you he was forbidden in so many words not to come close to that apple.”
“And you are suggesting…”
“…he should have thrown a big NO at Eve.”
“You think you’re some warrior afraid of nothing on earth! Let your wife gives you something and say ‘no’ to her. You’d feel sorry for your Adam guy; He was the perfect peacemaker; and all he had to do was take a bite of some apple.”
How did I get myself into such a conversation? I’ll tell you how; Why did I have to go all the way back to the poor guy when you have a million and one examples close at hand. That’s one reason why there is so much mess around here. All of us tend to go back and drag someone’s name and reputation through the dust for things we messed up.
I some time couldn’t help thinking that maybe, just maybe it’s our ‘political culture’ that got us into such a mindset. In politics there are always others to take the blame. In fact, things have become so petty politics back here seems to be about blames and counter blames than policies and other more important issues. The favorite phrase is “They did it!” with the ‘they’ including Adam and every soul ever since. (Time to shift gears before someone pulls the Darwin Card at me!)
Say some fellow is appointed as the new head of an organization where nothing seems to be working right. He is supposed to bring things back on course. Eight months and some weeks into his ‘reign’ nothing has changed! In fact things were getting worse.
A ‘special meeting’ is convened, with the only thing ‘special’ being the pounds of flesh hanging from the boss’s cheeks. (Well he has to prove people who say ‘nothing has changed’ wrong!)
“Our organization is in such a bad shape because of the mismanagement and corruption of the previous administrators.” That’s all he has to say after eight months! “We have been trying to adjust all the things…” Wait a minute! You have been taking a CEO’s salary for eight months, enjoying all the nontaxable benefits and that’s all you have to say! Hey; you were appointed to FIX those very problems!” Someone should tell him blaming the previous brass, many of whom are probably smiling their way to the bank every now and then doesn’t fix the problems. No one does. So he continues his ‘everything to the warfront’ strategy.
“There was favoritism and employees were not treated equally.”
Now, you’re singing our song! I mean, come on, you can do better than that! Aren’t you in the midst of trying to find out who among the staff were from your birthplace! People talk, you know! For a full eight months you have been poring over administrative files to build your own ‘team’ and you blame others of favoritism!
Look if your boss talks nonsense well he is your boss and he is entitled to all nonsense in the world! (With that, I could have made a perfect PR guy in many places!) Who do you think you are to tell him he is talking the most stupid thing only Mr. Bin could think of?
Look, around here for ages bosses have been, what else, bosses. Once firmly in the leather chair ‘dislodging’ them proves to be… Even if they get the ax it is just about geography; moving to a similar ‘chair’ elsewhere with salary and all the benefits intact. A boss in a certain organization could be there a decade and half and no one cares. In the old days there was this famous saying attributed to bosses; “You can overturn my decisions, but you can’t overturn me.” Doesn’t that say it all!
I only wish I hear less of the blame game; let the bygones be the bygones! I don’t see and benefit, strategic or otherwise, rolling back time by decades and even centuries, to shift blame on the shoulders of the gone and forgotten.
You know who is behind all the mess in this world? No one other the Adam fellow! At least there is no danger of facing a backlash, since no one would be rooting for the guy!
The Ethiopian Herald May 15/2020
Ephrem Endale
Contributer
