I finally understand what Machiavelli meant when he said, “Never play fair in a game where others cheat.” It doesn’t mean become evil. It means stop being naive. Stop bringing honesty to people who study manipulation, stop giving access to people who weaponize closeness, and stop expecting clean hands from people who already showed you they’ll throw dirt. Sometimes wisdom is not revenge. Sometimes wisdom is learning the rules of the room before the room uses your goodness against you.
By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
– 1 Corinthians 15:10
Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today.
– Deuteronomy 8:11
Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
– Hebrews 12:28–29
"The greatest remedy for anger is delay."
— Seneca
Sit on the message for one night.
Sleep on the email for eight hours.
The reply you would have sent at 9 pm and the reply you will send at 6 am are not written by the same man.
Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.
– Psalm 5:11
Singapore has no minerals. Japan was bombed to rubble in 1945. Vietnam was at war for decades. All three built cities with parks, public squares, functional public transport, and green urban spaces that serve their people.
Walk through Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, Douala, or Kinshasa and find somewhere to sit that is not a shop, a bar, or a church. You will not find it.
These cities sit inside some of the most fertile, green, tropical land on earth. And somehow every trace of it was designed out of the urban experience. No parks. No shade. No public squares. Nowhere a person can simply exist without spending money.
The geopolitics argument runs out when you look at who recovered from worse and built better. We are collectively and embarrassingly disorganized and we need to start saying that out loud.
Change does not start with governments. It starts with enough people refusing to accept this as normal. Share this if you agree. Talk about it. Demand better from your city.