Bassem Aref Al-Shoura
In broad daylight, where there is no place to hide, some vegetable sellers and some bread sellers stand, bargaining and selling. They may err and may become greedy, but their eyes meet those of the people, and their mistakes are plainly visible, requiring no proof. This one may overcharge, and that one may err, so we get angry and reprimand, but it remains within narrow limits; a piece of bread, or fleeting greed, visible and assessable and not hidden behind a curtain.
But… not all corruption is visible.
There is another face, harsher and with more dangerous consequences, not standing in markets, nor raising the price of a commodity, but working silently in the darkness…
Night bats.
Those who do not sell vegetables or bread, but sell conscience,
and do not raise prices but raise the cost of the entire nation,
they quietly erode its body and plant doubt in the souls of its children without noise.
And the painful thing is that they no longer hide as they used to…
Instead, they come out to us through some social media platforms,
with pseudonyms, fake faces, and embellished words that hide slow poison behind them,
they spread rumors, distort the truth, and ignite strife,
then they withdraw leaving behind a weary society, and confused minds.
These are not only greedy for a handful of money,
but greedy to weaken an entire nation,
they trade the trust of people, sell illusions, and buy minds,
until the honest becomes accused, and the loyal becomes dubious,
and lies turn into “opinion,” and rumors into “truth.”
They do not steal just the citizen's pocket…
but they steal his awareness,
and they do not just exhaust his day…
but they weary his future.
Nations do not fall from a single blow,
but corrode… when we are distracted by those we see, and neglect those who operate in the shadows,
when we hold the simple accountable in the market, and remain silent about the dangerous behind the screen,
when we get angry over the price of bread, and not anger at those who sell a nation cheaply.
The problem is not in who sold the bread dearly…
but in who sold the nation cheaply.
And here lies the truth that must be said:
The battle today is not only in the markets, but in the minds,
not only with greed, but with deception,
not only with poverty, but with those who create chaos and live on it.
And for this… we must be vigilant, discern, not be an echo to every voice, nor fuel for every strife,
and we must understand that the most dangerous enemies…
are not those who stand before you in broad daylight,
but those who speak to you from behind a screen,
with your name, in your language, from the heart of your homeland…
and they are the first to stab it in the dark.
