I’ve been home for almost seven weeks now. Everyday I would clean around the house and then set off for my other activities. On the first Saturday, I was busy wiping a certain sculpture/statue that had been there even before I left for Morocco. Beside it, there was another one I didn’t really recognise. It was new ( well, to me atleast). I could have carried on with wiping them and getting them back to their positions on the stand, but then there was something stopping me. The two statues were similar and I felt they were sending a message; that there was a story behind their existence. I refused to believe they were only the result of one sculptor’s imagination. Call me weird, but I don’t even have a reason for this conclusion. This sculpture is of three monkeys: one blind, one deaf and the third, dumb. Today I was going through my numerous pictures and I came across one that made me freeze for a moment. Okay, that was exaggerated but, errmmm, we needed that. Non? Anyway, in that photo, I was with two classmates from Senegal. I had one cover her ears and the other, her eyes while I covered my mouth. This was sometime in May, on a school trip to Marrakech. We did exactly what the three monkeys had done. Now try to be nice and get that image of us being monkeys off your minds. Merci! 🙂

So I did a little Google search on these monkeys today and found different stories. Apparently, they represent the old Chinese proverb, ”see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. I thought it was a cool representation but then, WHY MONKEYS? I still have my questions about the choice. Monkeys are free to see, hear and (can I safely add) say everything. I don’t think they have much control over what they see, hear and say. Then again, I wondered if it had anything to do with the whole idea of evolution. You know, that story of how man evolved from apes or monkeys or gorillas and maybe even orang-utans. These monkeys could have stayed deaf, dumb and blind to evil for such a long time that it became something genetic. These genes were then passed on, through the process of evolution, to you and I. However, the word ‘mutation’ comes to mind and I wonder how much of it has occured through the ages.

The newbie!

The oldie!

Nabou, Louise and I seeing, hearing and saying no evil!

Google led me to this article, which reveals the addition of another monkey to the trio. I found it interesting and hope you’ll read it. It’s not too long and the author puts across some thought-provoking questions you might want to reflect on in due course. I’m too tired to do any more ‘googling’ so I’ll let you explore the numerous articles on these monkeys. ‘Deaf, dumb and blind monkeys’ is your passcode to the myth and mystery of the ‘anti-evil trio’. Check these out!

If you find anything interesting(maybe Monkey #5) or come up with a better theory on the reasons for the ‘monkey-choice’, you could share on the comments section. Keep reading! Allow the Royalty in you, Linguerites and Linguerians to manifest itself. Most importantly, ”See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil and do no evil”. Ciao!