Liars, one and all.

We are all corrupt. We are all complicit in corruption. We are the reason why a Cabinet Secretary publicly declares that she is afraid to name a suspected land-grabber. We have enabled the escalation of high graft, and we can no more escape responsibility than we can hide the sun under a bushel. We are the proof that when the rubber hits the road we will all fall in line and rob our fellowman blind. It has taken children in the line of fire - literally - to bring out our shame, yet we are not ashamed. We have no shame. We still hold our head high.

One of those sometimes edifying morning FM radio shows examined our complicity in the deaths of tenants living in deathtraps masquerading as flats. One of the callers to the show baldly stated that if he raised his voice about the quality of construction and the apparent unsafe foundation of the building, he would be branded as a troublemaker by both his landlord and his fellow tenants and asked to vacate the premises post haste. He announced to the approval of the radio show's hosts that he chose discretion and would continue to live in the deathtrap.

Children are taught to value truth and justice. It is drilled into them. Sometimes the infliction of pain is used to reinforce that truth brings pleasure and lies bring pain. This message is put across by their parents, relatives, teachers and their very own government. The message is a bald-faced lie. The adults live by the adage, do as I say, not as I do. The adults perpetrate the most monstrous lies and commit the most heinous acts of injustice. They do so without shame. They do so in the full glare of their children's eyes. They do so because they have persuaded themselves that "this is how the world works."

As we have accepted the lie we have accepted the liars and those in the service of liars. It is how a Governor and two Cabinet Secretaries will not hesitate to pass the buck to some mysterious powerful person. They will argue without shame that they did no wrong, that it was some underling who's "values" have been perverted by a mysteriously powerful outside force. They will plead weakness despite the obviousness of their power. They will plead ignorance despite the obviousness of the information at their disposal. They will threaten resignation despite the obviousness of that lie.

And as we have accepted the lie and the liars we have made liars of ourselves. We pretend that we do not know the people whom we allow to wield such power. We pretend that we do not know that they will rob us blind or allow us to be robbed blind. We live in a make-believe world in which we are the only honest ones, forced to do unspeakable things in the name of survival. We know it to be a lie. We want to lie. We want to lie because we all want to be rich. We all want to be rich without the benefit of hard work, intelligence and luck. In a month or a year or five years, when our pigeon-like memories of #OccupyPlayGround have faded, we will pretend that the newly constructed five-storey hovel on the same playground has always been there. We will have come full circle. And we won't care.