A teenager was recently gunned down in America. Two bullets reportedly hit him. One to the head and one to the shoulder. And had his survival instincts not made him scramble for safety, he probably would have been hit with a third bullet. His crime was being in front of a wrong house, pressing a wrong doorbell. He mistook Northeast 115^th Street for Northeast 115^th Terrace, just a block away. His aim was to pick up his younger twin brothers. But he picked a wrong house and picked at a wrong man. An obviously racist 84 year- old man whose biases should have been tempered by age but were unfortunately not, was the resident in the house the teenager mistakenly found himself. For this, he paid dearly. Even if his life was saved and the wounds healed, what about the scars – physical and emotional? What about the additional trauma he would have to deal with probably for the rest of his life? This old man would probably get away with this attempted homicide. Even in America of 2023; or especially in America of 2023 where the life of a stray dog is more valuable than the life of a stray human being if he happens to have a black skin. To be young, black and male is a life threatening combination in America. The black parents know this as they try to guide and curb the ‘exuberances of youth’ in their male kids; especially around certain precincts. They know from bitter experiences, that the cops don’t offer too much protection either. After all, some cops who reportedly shot a black man have just been set free. In many respects, knees of different sizes, with varying degrees of pressure, are being applied on the necks of Blacks and Coloured in America.

To those of us watching from the outside, gun control will always be a joke because white America doesn’t really want gun control. It is their protection against the changing face of America. Or the ‘darkening’ of America to be more picturesque. Unfortunately, the guns find their way into the homes of mentally unstable characters who turn guns into confetti to be sprayed on innocent lives in schools, malls and work places – or on a glass door as was the case with this young man. A day hardly passes now without some mass shootings in one part of America or the other. In the week of this incident, a man and his young daughter were shot because a basketball strayed into a neighbours’ compound; a lady was shot because she mistook a car similar to hers at the parking lot; a lady was killed because a car turn was made in somebody’s driveway. These are but parts of the unintended consequences of self-serving gun control laws and intolerant mindsets. In spite of this, I am yet to see ‘an advisory’ from other countries on how unsafe America is. I am yet to read about people being warned of the risk of visiting America. More to the point, I am yet to see Americans spreading negative vibes about their country. On the contrary, the queue to America is lengthening. In my country as in many countries, you might have to wait for six months just to get a visa appointment. I know people who are pulling many stops to get an American passport so as to have unrestrained foreign travels. I know many people who will give anything for an opportunity to live in America. The list is not restricted to the poor and unemployed alone. It includes middle-aged people who are considered to be in good employment already. Yet the odds about living the good life as an immigrant are no longer very favourable and are dropping by the day.

I recently watched a CNN documentary about what people in Latin America are willing to brave to set foot in the US. It is harrowing at best. Also harrowing is how to describe the voyages people make to cross into Europe. They depict desperate people who have lost faith in their countries or in their ability to survive within their countries. They depict people who believe that to be a slave in Europe and America is better than being a freeborn at home. It is sad. I once watched a documentary on the English Premier League which busted many myths around elite football. One of them is that only a miniscule percentage of those talented young boys who start out playing football actually end up at the topmost level. Yet everybody looks at that tiny percentage as if it represents the whole. They look at young men earning three hundred dollars a month and being flown around in private jets and forget the many who buy their own boots and wash their jerseys. I feel the same way about those who throng Europe and America seeking greener pastures. Only a miniscule percentage will make it in the real sense. The rest will just add up the numbers. In any case, what they gain on the straight, they lose at the bend. The greatest losses for many, being of identity and self-worth on account of heritage and skin colour.

When we hear catch phrases like ‘God’s own country’, ‘world’s oldest democracy’, ‘equal opportunity for all’, we tend to believe all we hear. But in reality, they are myths woven around the countries; they are governments and media packaging their countries. Petty crimes in the UK have reached an alarming proportion. Nobody has issued ‘an advisory’ yet because of it. Those who can are leaving the country in droves. Nobody is talking about it. The economy is performing badly, but UK still sees itself as ‘Great’. Perception after all, is someone’s reality.

Our greatest undoing is that we take our strengths – friendliness, culture, diversity, climate, land, talent, youths – for granted at best. Or we count them as inferior to the countries we look up to. We emphasize the negatives so much that we don’t think there are positives any more. Nigeria has a good chance of turning the corner when its people begin to speak positively to it, and act positively towards it. The exploits of our people in different fields show we are not that far from greatness. People fleeing abroad are chasing more of the illusion created by these countries than the reality in those countries. Many immigrants will still end up making lemonade out of the lemon life gives them. So why not do that at home? After all, east or west, home is still the best.

•Muyiwa Adetiba is a veteran journalist and publisher. He can be reached via titbits2012@yahoo.com

Update news