The burden of optimism
People like to think that other people are honest, helpful, kind. It’s our default. That’s why acts of selflessness, especially in adversity, make us believe and rejoice in the human triumph and global humanity. That we’re all going to be ok. But what if you live in a place. In a place so remote, so undeveloped by global ‘standards’, that even with all the optimism, all of the trying, all of the spirit you have, you are still dampened by injustice? Where your closest school is on the other side of the island, and between you and an education is a mountain range, that is impossible to access if the brooding purple skies loom on the horizon. Where the choice between a physically abusive partner and poverty, is painfully clear. In the literal sense of the word. Where you have the potential to grow cocoa that can be awarded the highest accolades by global ‘standards’, yet you can’t muster the meagre money that’s needed to repair your cocoa dryer in order to compete. How
