Sorry sorry-o

A day on the English transport system nearly broke me. Somehow I expected that people who have little in the way of external concerns would be more polite in their bustling from one place to the next. Being trampled on by a woman carrying a baby on her back and a pile of cloth on her head, while she hitches her skirt to clamber across a swampy riverbank and onto a ferry which may or may not sink seems reasonable. Being trampled on by someone in a race to get onto an air-conditioned train with seating for everyone, when there is another in five minutes, does not.

Of course, life here isn't all that easy, even though it appears to be so. Life is hectic, expensive, and everyone is full of inward concerns (Am I happy? Am I fat? Am I earning enough?) that don't always exist in a place where more pressing concerns (Will this ferry sink?) do. Life here is just as hard as life elsewhere, just in a different way.

While I swayed about on the underground wishing I was anywhere else, I listened to Femi Kuti's 'Sorry Sorry' to remind me of people with different concerns. Friends in Lagos told me this week that they hadn't had electricity for days now and that they can't afford to fill the generator because petrol, in this oil-producing wealthy country, is now rationed. The batteries on their Blackberrys are flat as a result. When Femi played this song live at the opening of Big Brother Nigeria, the press damned him the next day in the papers, saying, 'why does he have to wash our dirty laundry in public?' It seems to me that if people like Femi and his father, Fela, weren't risking their careers and lives to wash Nigeria's dirty linen in public, then people would be even worse off.

Look my friends,
Them no like to hear word
They will follow follow, follow their enemies
Like zombie, they'll go march dey go.
They fight for other people
Wey spoil Nigeria so
These politicians and soldiers
They be one and the same
No one different from the other
My people don't want to know.
But with these kind of leaders
Africa no get hope,
Africans will suffer
We go suffer reach our bone

I'm sorry sorry o, I'm sorry for Nigeria,
I'm sorry sorry o, I'm sorry for Africa.
I'm sorry sorry o, I'm sorry for Nigeria,
I'm sorry sorry o, I'm sorry for Africa