Passing passages

You are not bad people. You are blind to the present and we are blind to the future. In the immigration detention centre I used to smile when the detention officers explained to me, The reason you have come over here, you Africans, is that you just aren't capable of good government over there. I used to tell them that near my village there was a wide, deep river with dark caves under the banks where the fish were pale and blind. There was no light in their caves, so after a thousand generations the trick of seeing had been distilled out of their species. Do you see what I mean? I said to the detention officers. Without light, how can you preserve the vision of government? We could try as hard as we liked in my world. We could have a most diligent home secretary of lunchtime. We could have an excellent prime minister of the quietest part of the late afternoon. But when twilight comes- do you see? our world disappears. It cannot see beyond the day, because you have taken...