The boy who cried wolf

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

By: Cristiana Guevara-Mena

Once upon a time there was a shepherd boy who tended sheep in the field. He liked to play around frightening the villagers because he was bored, so he repeatedly ran to town screaming that a wolf was attacking his sheep. Each time the child cried, the villagers rushed out with shovels and axes to where the sheep grazed to defend them from the wolf. The lying shepherd laughed heartily at them because they believed it every time. Until one day, the wolf truly appeared and the shepherd boy ran to town for help. He screamed and screamed “A wolf is coming! It’s killing my sheep!” But no one believed. Then the wolf destroyed the whole flock. They tell this story to children to teach them that in the mouth of the liar, the truth is doubtful.

When our president talks about his supposed big plans for the nation that until now we haven’t seen anywhere, hardly the population with common sense believes him. His promises of improvement in education, health care, jobs, among other things, are nothing but deceptions, just like the boy in the story. Since he took office in 2007 to date, we have not seen in action any of these projects, and the country is worse than how he received it. Naturally, we must understand that none of this is in his plans of government, because he is interested in keeping the people fooled with his "wolf cries" for his own entertainment in order to achieve his purpose: obtain absolute power.

As we can see, our president suffers from compulsive lying. His wolf cries are just false promises to deceive the people. The biggest deepwater port has already been mentioned as a project. To date we have not seen any port anywhere. The recently deceased President of Venezuela has come to promise an alleged oil refinery, today there is nothing more than a vacant land with the only stone that was put during the inauguration. A railroad that would travel the country has also been heard of, currently we have not even seen rails. A satellite that would be bought also comes to mind, until today we never knew what happened to that. These are some of the many cries of wolf from our President to the people, for his own regret no one believes him.

The latest wolf cry is the world's largest canal linking the Atlantic to the Pacific and that it will take us all out of poverty. This is a historic project that has existed since the colonization until this day; nowadays it represents to Nicaraguans the cure-all of our economic and social ills. At present, this project has been retaken by the president in turn and this time he says that it will be done. This is not possible for the following reasons: First, this government has never had national plan, and has only been interested in their own enrichment. They have never done a huge project in the seventeen years they have been in power counting the eighties, and it is naive to believe that now they have miraculously changed their way of thinking. Secondly, anyone with common sense won’t lend large amounts of money to someone who is insolvent and indebted. Any skilled businessman knows that such loan is not profitable for anyone, especially if the debtor has a bad reputation of all kinds.

It is necessary that Nicaraguans don’t let ourselves get fooled. We must learn to see through the words we are told in order to see the real intentions they have with us. Identifying liars helps us to avoid falling into traps. Let’s do like the people from the story and no longer believe the bored and lying child, we must let the child and his flock of sheep be eaten by wolves. We must teach the boy a lesson so that he learns that he has no popular support when it comes to bail when he really needs it, because he has believed that the people are foolish. The Nicaraguan people are not stupid, and in the moment of truth, the boy and his flock of sheep will have to manage alone. Most likely he and his sheep will be eaten by wolves.