"Tell me why are we so blind to see that the ones we hurt are you and me"
That's a line from Coolio's 1995 Grammy award winning hit single Gangsta's Paradise. Originally a Stevie Wonder song with title "Past time paradise". Coolio reworked the song and flavoured it with his own reality and rhythm. It has turned out to be one of the best selling singles of all times. There is a reason this song resonates across all ages and borders; the issues raised are universal and I guess the world identifies with reality no matter how sordid.
Why am I thinking about gangsta's paradise now?
Well, I was sitting minding my own business when this bit of human mystery was tabled. We were four patient people waiting to be attended to, three men and I when one of the men exclaimed "But we men are fools" in my mind I went 'you don't say', he then went on to regale us with stories of men's foolishness and women's treachery. When he was done, the second man took his turn and the third. Some of the stories were very sad and depressing, some humiliating and downright evil while others were hilarious and very unbelievable.I found one particularly ticklish. This one was related by the youngest of the three." I bin dey date this babe enh one time, after a while now, we started doing work, on this particular day, we don begin d work nah, she just got a call and told me that the guy on the other end was her fiance and asked for my permission for her to pick the call, wetin i for do nah, I allowed her to take the call, but I continue with the work, but, e come be like say the guy feel say something dey go on as she take dey breathe nah, so e be like say the fiance ask am wetin make am dey breathe like that, na iim this babe tell the guy she's having stomach pains, iim come ask am whether she don take anything for am, na iim my babe say she dey take something now. I nearly burst laughter there o but I maintain. Since that day enh, anytime a girl tells me she's having stomach upset over the phone, I just dey imagine say she dey with another guy dey do work o.Very difficult for me to believe them now" they all agreed all over again how treacherously evil women are. At this point I couldn't hold my silence anymore even though I knew I was outnumbered and outexperienced? oh well, I had to speak up for my gender. I told them that just as they have gathered to bemoan women's inhumanity to men, so do women gather to bemoan the beastly treatment of women by men. As I opened my mouth the stories, faces, names just flooded my mind: is it the beautiful to die for friend who was so tenaciously chased by one man for three years and when she finally gave in, discovered he had a wife and five children some days before her supposed wedding to him, or the one who got home one day to discover the fiance had changed the locks, burnt her things and moved in a legal wife,after having been engaged to him for four years or the one who was single handely raising six children that the husband had abandoned to her and travelled abroad, telling her he wasn't coming back, this happening after they had sold everything back in Nigeria to raise money for him to be able to travel abroad...too many unbelievable sob stories.
who is to blame? how do they start?
Men think women are evil
Women think men are beasts
A bad man sours a good woman who in turn pours her venom on another unsuspecting man who if he survives becomes the devil's incarnate to another woman and the cycle of meaness continues and hence the Gangsta's paradise thrives with us hurting you and me.
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