Don’t take the children growing in the ghettos lightly. They are potential future presidents. They are the real rags to riches stories.
Few rich people become really exceptional. May be they lack the attitude to persist, to want to succeed so badly. Upper class children are always out of touch with the reality and tend to disconnect with the common man. They grow in an easy life – no fetching water. The maid handles everything. No real exposure to the vagaries of the street life as they are always safely tucked in cars as they ply to school. They have all the books they need. They are not allowed to mop the floor, etc. They grow with everything at home. They even wonder why some kids at their school are so brutal to want to fight for food. To them, food should be thrown, wasted because it is just too much everywhere at home. And money is picked from ATMs.
Not for the ghetto kids.
They have seen it all. They aim to make a better life for themselves and their children. They wake up at 5am to walk to school. During exams, they are the last to enter because their guardians have not yet paid fees in full. They are set to be alert, to deserve whatever they get. Nothing comes for free. They grow with a mindset of working hard to survive. They are ready and have nothing to lose to take on any one that tries to get into the way of their dreams. The pressure to move up is so overwhelming that any opportunity to do so will be taken as the only available one.
Fighting a ghetto kid is like fighting a coward. They bring to the bout all their energy regardless of the size of the enemy. It is the only opportunity they have and are not prepared to mess it up.
And that is precisely the story of Bobi Wine, the Ghetto President.
He knows the problems of Kyadondo like no other. He has lived it. He has sang music to lift the souls of the people. He has identified himself with the opposition figure heads as the man that is not interested in personal enrichment, but rather the benefit of the community. In this opportunistic city, that is not a cheap statement.
One things special about Bobi Wine is consistency. His music has always been about life’s challenges. The day-to-day realities that afflict the majority.
You may call it political opportunism. I will call it a political strategist. You see, unlike some musicians, Bobi Wine is a graduate and married to an equally intelligence lady. These two embody a model family.
This is a wakeup call to all middle class parents. Change your ways. Bobi Wine’s ghetto environment made him a man at an early age. He is very articulate and composed. In him you see a great leader. You too, successful or not, ask how do you parent your children to attain the mindset and focus for future success. For once a ghetto kid becomes rich, they spoil their children. Their generation forget everything about the ghetto. New ghetto children come up and they soon overtake the siblings of the middle class that once was in the ghetto.
May be this is the natural wealth redistribution mechanism.
Never splash water to a ghetto kid and ignore! You easily make them the ghetto’s wine. From Phiona Mutesi, the chess prodigy to now Bobi Wine, the ghetto is here to stay. In the next 50 years, we will surely have more kids from the ghetto dominating our sitting rooms. That is the way it is. Too much poverty has a way of losing grip on some few people who, once they escape it, become really exceptional.
To all the ghetto kids. Your tim
