It’s your own damned fault !

When I was in Sri Lanka a few months ago all I kept hearing was people whining about the growing gap between the rich and the poor, the increase in cost of living (inflation at 22%) and all sorts of very valid (but moot) points. Yet I found it and still find it difficult to empathise with majority of these whiners, for three obvious reasons:

1. We live in a democratic country (another moot point).
2. All these poor people had and have the right to vote.
3. There are more poor people than rich people in Sri Lanka.

As a result, if they voted using their heads (thinking about what’s feasible and what was not) they would easily out number all the rich folk (who according to them – are out to get them). In theory, those unhappy poor people could vote for better economic reforms, or to tax the crap out of the super rich. Why didn’t and don’t they do it - instead of voting for loaves of Bread and Lentil soup?

I know the system is rigged in favour of big money, and the voters are manipulated into voting against their own self interests. That’s all true of course. Still, if you’re looking to place blame, it has to be on the low income people who don’t vote and when they do vote – vote for all the wrong reasons. If ever there was an appropriate time for the phrase “It’s your own damned fault,” it’s now.

All the rich folk vote like crazy (sometimes literally), and look at where they are. Personally, I don’t vote. That’s partly because I’ve not been in the country during elections (at least when I was legally eligible to vote) and partly because the rich (and yes corrupt) guys who come into power are doing a good job of taking from the poor and indirectly giving it to me, hence I don’t have much to complain about. I mean I can blow off the average monthly wage (if there’s such a thing) over a very average round of drinks.

But if I were poor and planned to stay that way, I’d certainly make an effort to vote for anyone that planned to screw the rich and give me free stuff – oh wait a minute that’s what they (the poor) always do…