Close your eyes and make-believe

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 to 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. For thousand generations the trick of seeing had been distilled out from their species. "Do you see what I mean? I said to the detention officers. Without light, how can you keep the sight of eyes? Without a future, how can you preserve the vision of government? We could try as hard as we liked in my world. We could have diligent Home Secretary of Lunchtime. We could have an excellent Prime Minister of the Quietest Part of the Late Afternoon. But when the twilight comes - do you see? - our world disappears. It cannot see beyond the day, because you have taken tomorrow. And because you have tomorrow in front of your eyes, you cannot see what is being done today."