The children are fighting

There's blood on the streets. Once again, politics, economics, and the failure of the systemic confluence of the two is being played out in the open, in the freezing cold this time, on the roads we take every day. It is young blood again. The one that has the courage to brave the weather, and the conviction that protests can change the world.

As I see images of kids, young adults, children of parents waiting anxiously back home, get beaten by the police, my heart is sinking. I am reminded, painfully, of a time when students went protesting, furious with political decisions, determined to change the future by their actions of the day. It all went horribly wrong. It didn't take us long to forget that mothers and fathers lost their children. They probably had hopes for them. And loved them dearly.

In a different part of the world, yes, but the strength of emotions is identical.

Youngsters are being told to get out of their dreamworlds and face today's hard reality. Where is this going to go? They are now talking about trust - trust in politics, trust in politicians, trust in the political structures. They are talking about lies, about broken promises. I am surprised that people are surprised - but then I'm an old cynic. What an eye opener for all those young girls and boys, battling batons and shields, kicks and shoves. Youth refuses to listen. Some lessons are learnt the hard way.

As we sit in our warm living rooms, debating to death in the studios, pacing the length of the front courtyard waiting for the kids to get back home, how are we going to look them in the eye? While we sit and argue about feasibility of systems and entertain ourselves with indulgent blame-games, the children are still fighting. A fight that, perhaps, they should have had more support for.

But we are wiser. Older and wiser. Let us just wait for the kids to get back home, and in time they shall become wise like us.