This question has not ceased from my mind from the first time I saw those pictures on Twitter. The whole scene playing in my head takes the quest for power and domination to a new height. I would have thought to allow it lay low like I do the other shenanigans from our politicians but the responses of people have actually motivated this write up.
How can people be focused on condemning the kneeling man than the people who are the true culprits?
The emperor, who sits on his throne and wants more worship to elevate him to a super human or maybe a demigod; the top Zenith bank executives who are seated comfortably watching such humiliation on a fellow staff; and the photographers who mock someone else's sadness. I don't care if those pictures do not show the real Zenith bank staff kneeling or maybe it's an aide to the governor, I'm just disturbed that a grown man is kneeling in the presence of another grown man (who is not his father) as a way of punishment or as an apology letter to an emperor.
First to the Emperor, how does it make you feel having a fully grown man kneel before you?
Do you just love people kneeling? This does not seem to be the first time you are having someone kneel before you. I remember the late comers drama of a few months ago and how grown ups were knelt before you. To be sincere, I thought you'd use the cane to teach them real discipline but you somehow allowed those ones go after social media made a mess of them. Not like they were right but I guess I just have a problem with the 'worship me' syndrome.
What are you always trying to achieve by this your emperor system of discipline when you are always screaming at the top of your voice about impunity from above towards you? But from what we see, you've always dished out more humiliation to those under you than what you advocate for.
Does it matter that these are adults with economic, geographic, emotional and social lives?
Take for instance, the man kneeling before you is a family man, married to a beautiful lady and maybe with children. Besides uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces etc. They go to places like market, schools, mall, worship centres, etc. If he's been a community person, he probably holds a post in his town's meeting.
Do you consider how they are affected mentally and otherwise?
Mr. Emperor, it's true that social media banter will vanish after a while but the mockeries to the family members follow them for a lifetime. You should be a father figure now or at least be a human to humans.
Secondly, the bank executives, I can't find words enough to rain down on you people but I hope you understand the event shows how valuable you place positions and gains above those who work their butts out to sustain the fat allowances you enjoy. Sorry I forgot, the banks basically depend on government money to stand well, not them working their butts off. But to sit and watch the drama with no pain for the man kneeling is such a heartless thing. I wish he could make you people pay for such a degrading humiliation, but then, I'm not bothered that much about his reaction because he won't react. However, I have reasons to believe that the next kneeling before another emperor will likely be one of you, if not all of you. In my own judgement, I would have thought the MD of bank's official apology would have been OK than embarrassing your brand the way you did. Anyway, good luck protecting such brand from this mess and I pray the gentleman sues.
Thirdly, to the photographer. You are so wonderful in your doings. I'm sure your photographs will soon be nominated for 'mockers award'. I hope it brings you more peace than the fame, because others who have pictures which brought them fame than peace, have gone the wrong way in life. You have some of the most touching pictures of our time but also have some of the ones in which a man was least treated in peace time. A man was being made less than a slave while you flash your camera over and over again. You made fun of his sorrows. There's no compensation for that.
Finally, to the social media boys and girls, I salute. To everyone who saw this mistreatment as a way of scoring political point, well done.
To others who don't even care, I hail oo.
It's OK, since the problems do not concern your family, but then, the wind doesn't have a bus stop and the rain doesn't wet just a roof.
It's OK to mock the victim instead of questioning the authority of emperors. It will however be wrong to tell the man it's his choice to kneel before another man when you don't know his situation or the battle he's fighting. The man's choices were more limited for all we know, than you are willing to admit. If he was very egoistic like some of us, then he may have expanded the option of his choices but then what's the use of ego to a drowning man?
Ego won't feed his immediate family nor almost 500 people from extended families and his village members depending on him for survival. Ego won't help him maintain the lifestyle he's come to enjoy. His wife will neither understand why she can no longer attend events the way she's used to nor will she understand why they have to cut spending too drastically because her husband wouldn't kneel before an emperor. If you think that's hard, then you haven't considered how he will explain to the children why they have to change school and walk to school from tomorrow because he couldn't kneel before an emperor.
He may not have had the courage to place his manliness above his needs at that tight point in time but we are not boxed that way so we can resist such treatment of another man, at least for the conservation of the leadership hierarchy. The children may not care if he kneels now but they will grow to know how the society made weak their father and the possibility of them either hating everyone or being weak children is very close. It's our choice to act or wait till the emperor(s) cause us all to bow someday, just for their own amusement.
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