This planet is not only for you. Nature does not belong to you alone, nor does the universe exist merely to serve your ambitions. I, too, have the right to live. I, too, have the right to breathe, to sing, to dance, to laugh, and to dream. This is my planet too. Do not block my way. Do not destroy my dreams. I have a past, a present, and a future, just as you do. Do not push me into a forgotten corner of society, treating my existence as insignificant simply because I possess neither wealth nor political influence. Remember, I, too, have the right to fish in the same ocean where you have been fishing for generations.
Who gave you the authority to divide humanity between those who deserve everything and those who must remain satisfied with nothing? Who decided that the rivers, mountains, forests, oceans, and opportunities of this world should belong to a privileged few? Was there ever an agreement between humanity and nature declaring that the powerful shall own the earth while the powerless merely survive upon it?
I ask these questions not out of hatred, but out of a deep desire for justice. I do not wish to take away your wealth, your happiness, or your achievements. I simply ask that you do not take away mine before I have even had the opportunity to pursue them.
To the capitalists who measure human worth through accumulated wealth, I say that money may purchase land, factories, and skyscrapers, but it cannot purchase the moral ownership of humanity. Your financial statements may reflect billions in assets, yet what is the value of such prosperity when millions remain deprived of basic opportunities? Economic growth becomes meaningless when its fruits are enjoyed exclusively by those already seated at the table.
To the politicians who speak passionately about equality during elections but forget the ordinary citizen afterward, I ask a simple question: Is democracy merely the right to vote, or is it also the right to live with dignity? Political power should never become a wall separating the rulers from the ruled. Leadership is not about standing above humanity; it is about creating opportunities for humanity to rise.
I have seen people working from sunrise until sunset, struggling not to become wealthy but simply to survive. I have seen talented young people whose ambitions were buried beneath unemployment, poverty, and social inequality. I have seen children watching luxurious buildings from crowded streets, wondering whether those beautiful places belong to another world.
Yet these children have dreams too. Their imagination knows no economic class. Their intelligence carries no political identity. Their potential cannot be measured by their parents' bank accounts.
Do not tell me that poverty is always the consequence of laziness. Do not tell me that wealth is always the reward of intelligence. History reminds us that opportunities are not distributed equally, and that inherited privilege often travels faster than individual talent. A child born into poverty should not have to spend an entire lifetime overcoming circumstances that another child never encounters.
I am not against success. I am against the monopolisation of opportunity. I am not against capitalism. I am against a system that forgets human dignity. I am not against political authority. I am against power that silences the voices of those it was created to serve.
Let me fish. Give me access to the ocean, not merely the leftovers from your table. Do not offer me sympathy while denying me opportunity. Do not praise equality in speeches while practising exclusion in reality.
Perhaps I will catch a small fish today and a larger one tomorrow. Perhaps I will fail, return home empty-handed, and try again. But let that failure be mine, not something imposed upon me by barriers you have deliberately constructed.
I, too, belong to this earth. My dreams are not inferior to yours. My future is not yours to decide.
The ocean is vast enough for all of us. Do not mistake your larger boat for ownership of the sea.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
