Thursday, 8 March 2012

"Keep Your Coins I Want Change"

A beggar's sign that read, "Keep your coins I want change."

Never got to see this myself yet how provocative is such not to mention quite a profound statement. It sort of inspires me to raise my fist  in Lady Liberty fashion (the woman in French revolution pictures,on the Viva La Vida Coldplay cover art and if you still not sure think Statue of Liberty.) Ima tone down a bit though coz i don't wanna turn this into a YOUTH RISE UP and CREATE CHANGE read or even worse turn this into one of those things that make you feel guilty of the blessings you have in life. I'm writing this coz growing up it seems I've developed a passion or softly put a care for wanting to help alleviate social issues such as poverty,child abuse....(continues rambling like the inner social worker I am becoming) Now i  understand in the society that we are in such is difficult not just coz of the systems and bureaucracy established but very predominate is the individualistic culture rising and i could go forever about that maybe i will leave it for another post. To just summarise if the problem aint happening to you then it's not your responsibility to fix it. I stumble upon so many people who can not sympathise for the poor at all and some of their reasons are quite valid on the other hand its starting this cycle where it only creates more problems than solutions.

I'm a known classic to try talk about too many  subjects at once so lemme zone in. Back to the title, "keep you coins, i want change" Ima try to this Westville Girls' word for word analysis starting with "coins" well obviously these are usually those silver round things that can buy you a chappie with yet for the purposes of this post i take it as a representation of well duh something small but not just that something that's inadequate but we take coz we not given another option. In the case of beggers like honestly really can we say those coins we give them are enough for living?? Shout out to those who bother to give though than offer the cold shoulder. Also in terms of the word "coins"we could link it to a materialistic idea which would hence imply superficiality. The world has lost all our Karl Marxs (blame sociology for the previous and next analogy) our Webers. People who think beyond the material but still manage to acknowledge its there. I swear the world has become too comfortable with accepting less than it should,we are not surprised by tragedy anymore!! Is it ignorance I think not what i think the main reason responsible for this is we believe there is nothing we can do about it there is no change we can bring about. And truly even i am hit by this sober attitude when I ponder on the hunger in Somalia. . .sigh. . . how can I a 19 year old little as I am help that.

The positive or power of the title comes in the word "CHANGE"(clears throat to break into Barak Obama voice) YES WE CAN!!! haha ok ok i wont go all political on you but most certainly as demonstrated by Obama's placement into presidency there is a strong yearning for change. Now what kind of change am I proposing? Well lets start with a change of heart. To be radical and uncomfortable with tragedy the way we supposed to be. To be touched by statements such as "Keep Your Coins I Want Change" because seriously the world will not change if we keep accepting the inadequate "coins" its as futile as  the beggar accepting R5 upon the streets. Maybe if we change our hearts we will be inspired to change more.