A Working Class Hero is Something to Be

John Lennon’s Liverpool in the fifties and sixties is far removed from today's  streets of Bamako... 

But when I travel through the capital  in the comfort of my car I can hear the melody and haunting refrain and reflect that to be a Working Class Malian is certainly something to be admired. 

 For every economic migrant that reaches the shores of Europe after unimaginable hardships on the way there are thousands that stay and attempt to scratch a living in the streets of Bamako to support their families.

They pull  carts ladened by all sorts of goods through the pollution and searing heat of the Bamako noon;

 

 they risk their lives running after cars in traffic jams selling cowboy hats and prayer mats; pirated CDs; cheap torches and bath loofas:

 They wait by empty push-push carts hoping to get a load to push to earn a few francs and they continue until well after night has fallen since they may not have earned enough to go home. 

 John Lennon was not the only one of course.. Keith Richards sang The Salt of the Earth:  

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Let's drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Say a prayer for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

(from  Beggars Banquet )