"LAGOS, Nigeria — A recent demolition effort in a teeming, floating slum in Nigeria's largest city has some activists fearing the government may try to entirely destroy an area that is home to about 100,000 people.
Some say the government's warnings about the demolition make it sound like the state wants to entirely destroy the area. But those in Makoko have created their own life independent from the state, with its own schools and clinics, however ill-equipped."
The most telling line in this short report (Note: compare the amount of media lines devoted to celebrities, with reports like this about human degradation), is the last one: "But those in Makoko have created their own life independent of the state...". And SOYMB suggests this is the real reason why the slum is earmarked for demolition above all else.
The human tragedy of capitalism that allows people to live in such a manner at all is bad enough, but the response from the state is worse. Rather than trying to make things better, they merely want to destroy and force those living there back 'into the system' such as it exists at all in Nigeria. Ordinarily the poor are of no interest to those concerned with making money because they have none. But their lack of usefulness to the system is tolerable up until they try, often without choice, to live outside it as these people are, then they become a threat.
SussexSocialist
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