Life is often difficult to describe Men of wisd... - JAMB English 2008 Question

  Life is often difficult to describe. Men of wisdom in every society often find time to discuss life in order to explain it to the younger generation. I had been present in some meeting s a number of times. One topic that was discussed in one of them was beginning of life. ‘When did life begin?’ asked one of the men of wisdom. It was such an open-ended question. None of us could say precisely what happened when he was born. If he was born poor, he hardly would be very rich, particularly, if he was born honest in a corrupt society. If he was born rich, he might lose all his riches in one day. So, we often gather to tell one another about life. Recently, a statement was introduced into the vocabulary of English-Language – ‘The rich also cry’. The statement demonstrates, to a large extent, that even the rich people have their own period of time when life may prove very difficult and even meaningless to them. Have you not heard the experience of a very rich family whose vast business empire crumbled, in just one day? I have heard of a very rich man who lost his wife and three children in just one accident. Another rich man lost his thriving manufacturing company in an inferno. The compensation from his insurer could not solve half his financial problem. When one is poverty-stricken, that is a difficult dimension to the story of life. The poor person may prefer to die. Imagine when members of a family eat once a day! The quality of food becomes a different kettle of fish in such a circumstance. The dietician’s prayer that every normal human being must have a balance diet is cock and bull story to the poor. It is either that the poor do not have any opportunity that serves as recourse for them to be rich or that they are lazy people. Provisions must be made to create opportunities for self-development and self-realization. A lazy person cannot have his cake and eat it. People like him are not just only a problem to themselves but also to others in society.
At times, such people are dangerous to their communities.
Finally, what can one say about people who are terminally ill or insane? Perhaps silence becomes golden in that respect.

the statement I had been present myself in such meetings a number of times implies the writer’s