Why breaking the hustling cycle is hard

Hustling is often associated with adults who do all sorts of things to make ends meet. But the reality is that children hustle, too. In the countryside, children get to school early after a long walk in the cold, often barefoot.

They learn that suffering is part of life and by the time they’re adults, hustling and suffering have been ingrained in their minds. They’re reminded often in school, at home and even in church that suffering is noble and is the route to a better life. One only wishes the journey to a good life would end that way - in a good life.

In urban areas, we often see children selling sweets and other items in the company of their parents or on their own.

They learn that hustling is profitable and can be a means to livelihood. Such childhood experiences prolong hustling. By the time we hit adulthood, we think hustling is normal and carry on with it. Breaking this cycle is hard.

Compare this lifestyle with that of children who rarely hustled, are chauffeured to school and are given all the necessities of life. They grow up thinking that life is easy and doesn’t require much struggle.

Their route to hustling is blocked by parental support. They’re provided with safety nets; from stocks to land and even cash.

Raising expectations

One of my biggest worries in the privacy of my thoughts is that rarely do hustlers graduate into the next social-economic class and stop hustling and join the leisured class.

One, because they come to believe that the vagaries of hustling are normal. Two, the environment is stacked against them; they need lots of both economic and emotional investment to change their lives. Often, they have no other help except from fellow hustlers, who may have problems of their own. Government support or not-for-profit organisations may try to change their lifestyles and life perspectives, but it is often hard.

Here’s a good example: Has the introduction of free primary and secondary education raised the expectations of the hustling generation? Are more students from lower social-economic groups moving up to the higher echelons of society?

The belief that things can’t change has been ingrained from childhood. Uprooting such beliefs takes time, and at times, a generation. It’s like converting someone from one religion to another.

Paradoxically, the best time to uplift hustlers is when they’re young. Yet, if you travel around the country, primary schools are always in a worse state than universities.

The truth is that hustling, despite its romanticisation, is not that noble, and though we shall not all be affluent, we should offer hustlers the opportunity to uplift their lives.

And the earlier we reach them, the better for them. After all, they are many and their success is the nation’s success. So the next time you see barefoot school children, don’t pity them; try and uplift them in your own small way so that one day they may graduate into genuine affluence and enjoy the economic part of their lives.

[XN Iraki; [email protected]]