Unpopular side with Thomas Oti
It is during a hunt where co-operation between wolves within a pack is most apparent. A wolf pack may trail a herd of elk, caribou or other large prey for days before making its move. During this time, they are already hunting, assessing the herd, looking for an animal that displays any sign of weakness, and this is just the beginning. Wolves must also factor in other conditions that will affect the hunt; weather and terrain can tip the scales in favour of predator or prey. For example, a wide-open plain favours the ungulates, who, if full-grown and healthy, can outrun the fastest wolf. On the other hand, crusty snow or ice favours the wolves whose wide round paws have evolved to perform like snowshoes and carry them effortlessly over the surface. An experienced wolf is well aware that hoofed animals break through the crust and can become bogged down in deep snow.
It doesn’t take much for these wolves to gather. Hunger. The smell of blood. The smell of fear. The smell of food. The smell of change. Any kind of smell in the air that is not the regular kind of smell is reason enough for these wolves to gather. They don’t necessarily talk about it like the Korobas might do on social media. Korobas are famous bayers. Rather than fight, they will talk. They will rabble rouse. They will abuse. They will curse. They will run up and down the whole place pretending to be ready to take the world apart and the object of their opprobrium with it and then they will crawl back and wait for people to stop the fight.
Wolves don’t brawl like the Kokorikos. The Kokorikos would probably negotiate the prey out of its flesh and then sell the meat for a tidy sum, make isiewu with the head and sell the ponmo to the Karakitis.
The karakitis will not waste time talking or arguing because they are not great talkers. Don’t cross them. They won’t even bother wasting time gathering. Only one willdunbu you and that’s the end of the matter. Was there a matter in the first instance? Actually, you don’t matter.
But we digress. We were looking at the gathering of the wolves. And right now, there is cause to gather. There is meat. It hasn’t quite showed signs of fear yet. Neither has it necessarily given off a strong ‘come-eat-me’ scent yet either. But it has done enough to get the wolves to begin barring their teeth and closing in. And they are doing so noisily and hungrily too. On social media is where they are the loudest. The Korobas amongst them are making the loudest noise as usual. They feel the most aggrieved because they fought off the baying pack together so many times they are flabbergasted and incredulous that now that they should be eating together in the elite circle their claws are clipped yet they must suffer the indignity of the attack of the wolf pack? If they are ‘eating’, surely the noise of the pack could go on for as long as it wants and they won’t care. But now the noise is unbearable, the hunger isn’t funny and here they are, right in the centre and still having useless pot shots taken at them! Such indignity!
The Kokorikos are making subdued loud noise. They had originally outfoxed themselves so now they are cautious. Rather than continue to misbalance the polity off their favour, they are playing a precarious balancing game. They are baying but rather advisedly. They are baring fangs but with common sense. They had eaten more than enough before. And there is still meat to eat if they play their game well so they mainly relax at the back of the herd and let others close in. Behind, they are taking counsel for an opportunity to fox the wolf out of its skin and sell its flesh. And they are still content to pick their teeth from the last voluptuous meal they principally presided over. They over fed that time but they are afraid to belch too loudly less their hungry pack members realize how annoyingly full and bloated they already are.
The Karakitis are unsure what to do. The ones in the circle that the rest of the herd is closing in on are theirs. They are helpless to do anything about it. They snap back sometimes at those taking aim but it is an uphill task. The meat they are protecting from their kind is nonchalant. He keeps exposing juicy flesh oozing with very fresh blood waiting and waiting for the rest to devour. And they can’t stand together with the meat in the spotlight too much. Because instead of counting on them and bringing them together so they can collectively fight off the baying hounds, he is busy picking them off one by embarrassing one instead. He is finishing them off. He is exposing to the enemy the arsenal they could have deployed to his use anytime he might have demanded it. He doesn’t understand that yes they have eaten the herd out of fauna and flora and then stored the beef they could no longer swallow in every pouch of their ragged skin and Panama, the entire purpose being so they can ‘help’ him when the time comes. He doesn’t get it. The fact that they didn’t support him to get there doesn’t mean noting! He is there now and he is one of them. They won’t abandon him now. He doesn’t seem to care.
So, they all gather. And throw barbs. No light. No water. No fuel. No food. No dollar. No this. No that. Too much travelling. Too much body language. Too little action. Too much power in the prime minister who has in turn now collapsed like the utilities he’s carrying. A government in disarray because the men on top keep claiming there is too much rot they don’t know where; one year later. Have we been sold a lemon? Has the change we were promised turned sour? Or are we the ones that need to change and not the ones that sang and now lead the change? What is happening? Are the wolves right to brush their teeth? Or is it just the pain of loss of 16 years of chunky meat resident in the gums of the pack the reason they are baying now?
