Hello, it has been 2 weeks since I last wrote to you, and I could barely wait to send you today’s mail.
How are you doing? Is there something going on in your life you will like to share with me? Positive, negative, so small that you consider irrelevant, I like to read all from you. Write to me please.
For me, life has been fair to me. That doesn’t me it doesn’t come with it chaos. Before writing to you, I had mistakenly deleted a research work I was working on for a group assignment. You guessed right if you think I had just finished crying.
I got a reply to the last mail I shared with you.
Can you remember my last mail to you? If you can’t, you can read it here.
Here is the reply below. and for clarity sake, my nickname is Yeesha.
“As someone who grew up in raging poverty, I think about poverty often, Yeesha. And I think the importance of choice is really overrated, in the conversation about poverty.
Two children will be born today. One in the squalor of a "face-me-I-face-you" apartment in Mushin; another in the opulence of a wealthy family somewhere in Ikoyi. Both are heirs, only one inherits hardship and suffering, as the other inherits grandeur and splendor.
If the former fails at life, who do we blame? Fate? Choice? Life?
I'm certainly not one of those who believe that your fate is in your hands. No matter how much we try to reject it, most of what we are, & most of what we will ever be, is the hands of chance: where you are born, when you are born, & to whom you are born.
Where you are born shapes your values. For some, the ceiling is a daily meal, for others, it is a private jet, and a luxury home somewhere in New York. These two sets of people will not have similar values. Where you are born also defines who you meet, & the interactions therein. It shapes your aspirations.
When you are born defines the opportunities you get. Take Elon Musk, throw him in the pit of colonial Nigeria, and he is no more than a frail, overworked slave. Take Aristotle & drop him in this era of "cancel culture", and he's no more than a madman.
To whom you are born defines your resources: The networks you make, or don't make, the material/mental capital you have - how much you can risk. It's not true that the wealthy take more risks, it is that they have better cushions to fall back on. Risk-taking is a privilege.
For some, loss is money; for some, loss is his life. Loss is death. These two set of people cannot risk the same, they don't have the same values & access.
And Yeesha, this is definitely not a condemnation of the affluent/lucky. They, too, had no say in the matter. All I am saying is I do not think them exceptional, and it should not be demanded of me.
Another argument that's often fronted is; there are kids who were born in similar circumstances, yet were able to overcome them. But when we look at the stats, we find that it is only about 2% at best, & it is because someone took a chance on them. "Not by them, on them".
This is why I can't understand when people say we have free will. Majority of the crucial choices in our lives have already been made for us, Yeesha; Starting from when we were born, where we were born and to whom we were born to.”
xoxo
Aisha
Environmental factor has a great effect in people's choice and fate, we will only conditioned to what we are exposed to,
For instance in Nigeria, we have may Nigerians doing pretty well out there in term of innovation and creativity these people when they are in Nigeria they might not seen that in themselves because of the environmental factor.
I used to ask myself if Nigerians Youth are truly lazy, to me, No. And yes we not.
But the environment we found ourselves is unappreciative and has made us useless and become lazy at the same time, If Aristotle was to be a Nigerian, perhaps, the story might literally different for what we are hearing today.
This is a great piece Yesha,