Thriller (English version)

Thriller (English version)

By: Cristiana Guevara-Mena

"Thriller" is one of the most famous songs of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. The music video for this song is about corpses that rise from the dead to the sound of music, come out of their graves in a very frightening way, and become zombies, crawling through the streets in search of fresh human meat to stay alive. The most important part of this video is the synchronized choreography of a group of zombies that at the same time are dancing with the star Michael Jackson, who also becomes an otherworldly character.

These images remind us of Nicaragua's political class, whether they are in government or part of the self-called "opposition". They are nothing more than political corpses walking in search of blood to suck to stay alive. The zombies that are better off are the current rulers, since they have spent years sucking the blood of the State, but are so blackened with corruption that their stench of death can be smelled even from a distance. Likewise, the politicians who were born from former opposition are like the walking dead coming out of their graves, just like in the video of Michael Jackson, who want to return to acting on firm land. Most likely they will continue leaving the pieces as they progress.

This way, the old guard who was once government has become a sorry excuse for opposition, in other words, political corpses. Let’s understand that a political corpse is a person who shamelessly survives with lies and alms, who doesn’t struggle for ideals, and who acts according to the interests subjugated to the will of someone else. It’s someone who does not face reality, but hides behind those who do. Today, some of these zombies without scruples or decency want to stand as the owners of legitimate protest and truth. This happens because they live surrounded by other parasitical zombies that everyday sweeten their ears and raise them to the horns of the moon and beyond, and if possible, they compare them to God. If we observe the behavior of these pitiful people, we notice that in their lives they contributed little or nothing to the country, only speeches and nothing but words without value or consistency.

When these deadly characters try to interest themselves, or return to politics as the only saviors and redeemers of the country, they seem like those dead people from the Michael Jackson video, who push out their semi-boneless and rotten hand out of the land where they were buried, and wobble about looking for living flesh to eat and blood to suck. These individuals, besides scaring with their dead-like faces, make fools out of themselves by trying to pretend to be the salvation of a nation. They would be much more decent if they resigned themselves to staying in the respectable silence of their graves so that flowers could grow on their land.

There are a variety of zombies. One of the losers is the robust one, who was able to decide who would occupy this or that seat, who will be a candidate for deputy or vice president, and so on. There are others who speak of legitimacy and accuse other equals of corruption. Nevertheless, they occupy a seat in the National Assembly and dance to the music of money that other zombies, in turn in power, play for them. They are like the small group of mummies of the music video dancing a grim, gray, stinking, and synchronized choreography, in order to drink the blood of the state to stay alive. They have believed that they can give us democracy lessons, but please…they are more laughable than pitiful.

We’ve had enough of selfish, wandering, dead governing us, that only seek their own interests, even if it means sacrificing the flesh of the people. It’s necessary that we finish off these poorly resurrected bodies, so that those of us who are alive and want a better Nicaragua can govern. As a people, we must fight for our beliefs, and do so with courage, strength, safety, and in the public eye, in order to not continue the bad example of the political living dead. We must act responsibly as citizens aware of our rights, so that we don’t allow ourselves to be subjugated or  humiliated by anyone. The political bodies should not be more than a bad memory that we fear, or a video that entertains us as the famous "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.

"Let the dead bury their dead." - Jesus in the Gospel