Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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A Good Intention, Drowns Some Hopes. I taught Biology at the University of Lesotho, Africa, For several years. While there, I befriended a Swiss fish farmer, Who in all innocence created a large fish pond, By damming up a donga or deep crevasse, Formed from excessive erosion. The countryside was riddled with these long, deep wastelands. The intention of my Swiss friend was to create An aquaculture industry for the country. In this case good intentions ended in disaster. One of the challenges was to teach a landlocked nation to eat fish, But that was not the route of these troubles. One late morning an alarmed villager quickly knocked On the doors of our campus. Three teenagers had slipped down the steep, Muddy banks of the new pond, Struggled into ever-deeper water, and had drowned--all three! What to do? Villagers had been digging away for hours at the dam. Their intention was only to lower the water and retrieve the bodies. It would take days. No one wished to, nor was really able, To swim and recover bodies in the muddy water. Suddenly (and long before I became an aquaculturist), It hit me, there must be seines nearby which were used for fish harvesting. One long one was immediately employed and our 'fishing' commenced. Soon, sadly, the net was drawn onto the bank, And three young bodies were seen in this netted tangle. Their arms were frozen in a painful, as if reaching-for-air position, Their fingers and ears had been badly nibbled, feeding the innocent fish. The whole operation had been sickening with a terrible tinge of tragedy. The campus rescue teachers quietly returned home. Coincidentally, the University had an outdoor swimming pool For teachers and their guests. The school was far from a town or city, And perhaps the designers of the campus felt The pool would help entertain foreign, urban staff. So, then, teachers, being teachers, invited students to learn to swim. However, also at that time, a native Mosotho Was chosen as the new Vice Chancellor. The VC, perhaps in a surge of nationalism (?), closed down the pool. He viewed it as a western, useless pastime. This action took place just after the staff volunteered To recover the bodies of those drowned teens. True, nets were used to retrieve the victims, And no swimming actually occurred, But if those three were able to swim--an unknown skill-- The horror of that day would have been just an hypothesis. The rightful feeling of the Mosotho concerning foreigners Taking only seeming pleasure in the pool-- Opposed to considering the good being done By innocently teaching swimming-- Draws out the conflicts of one culture benevolently imposed on another. If the fish industry were successful and many dongas were aqueously filled, Swimming would have become a natural ability, As well as adding fish -- a wholesome protein source for the people. Frank Maurer 21 September 2024 0445 Hours.