TO CHILL OR NOT TO CHILL

Most of us spend our times on the run, moving up and about every moment of the day, chasing one thing or another. We become so entangled that there is often no more time for our friends or those we used to chill and laugh with, the ones we don't have to be formal to; those who simply accept our silliness, albeit out of love.

But then again, we have to live. So we spend most of our lives embellishing different facets of ourselves to please whoever is in charge simply because they have to pay us. While such comformity is sometimes necessary, we must not forget that every human being needs a sigh. We must find time in our busy lives to lick some ice-cream, listen to rub-a-dub and speak without censorship. This may sound foolish for those who are on the run to accumulate as much wealth as possible, but for those who are satisfied with just enough to make ends meet, chilling is the essence of living.

We are all dependent on each other, and like machines, our energy sometimes depreciates or otherwise we get bored from doing one thing over and over. I believe that we are much more productive when we create a balanced life of work and play. The ability to take time off might not be as forthcoming for some people due to the kind of professions they are engaged in, but no matter what, we all need some time to be foolish. Go ahead, dance in the bathroom when no one's looking, lick that ice-cream, and speak some french without apologizing.

JABBER NOT MY FRIENDS!

I am sure we’ve all had moments when we wished someone could just shut up and maybe listen. Human society is full of the need to talk, sometimes leading to unnecessary jabbering until we loose our listening ears. Balanced dialogue is as important to good conversation as balanced diet is to good health. What we have to say might be very important, but we must be willing to give others the chance to express themselves so that a formidable conclusion may come in the end. Those who selfishly uphold their own voice and opinion to higher truth often fail to hear the echo of reason on the other end.

Improvements in telecommunication have made what is ought to be a two minute conversation into a quarter of an hour of mumbling and no new information. Our streets are full of people clinging to cell phones for hours and saying virtually nothing. Ours is one of the most modernized societies, but we are a generation most intoxicated by bullshit. I always admonish my friends to make an attempt in every conversation to cut the bull and say the shit. Eloquence is not about how long you speak, it is about how good is the information rendered. We could prevent our audience from descending into intellectual slumber by simply avoiding unnecessary tangents and saying just what’s ought to be said.

Simply put, the economy of words is vital to those who are public speakers. The more we can express ourselves in a few words, the better we can convey our message and avoid the temptation of falsehood. The curse of oratory is to feel that you always have to say something. There is nothing wrong with saying “I have nothing to say at the moment.” According to Gandhi, “silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth.” Many misunderstandings can be avoided just by saying what one has to say, in order words, cutting the bull from the shit. As the Mahatma most accurately emphasizes, “a man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word.”

We can save ourselves from many unnecessary ‘he said, she said,’ by simply measuring our words and remaining silent where there is no pressing need to utter a word. To heed my own advice, I think I have said enough on this matter. A cooking pot for the chameleon is a cooking pot for the lizard. Hush now!

HELP TO SELF-HELP

The ideology of help to Self-help is an idea of self-empowerment that is used by the Danish Kofoeds Skole system which now operates in several countries in Europe. It promotes self-reliance among people of socio-economic difficulties. Such empowerment is highly needed in developing countries where hopelessness often arises from severe destitution.

I became interested in the idea of help to self-help after visiting the Kofoeds Skole in Copenhagen, where people are gradually empowered and encouraged to self-regulate and become full participants in society. Denmark can afford to take good care of most of its citizens through the welfare state system, but they believe it is also necessary for everyone in society to participate in the maintenance of the system so that it does not crumble. Citizens and residents who receive welfare benefits are encouraged to find employment for their own development; otherwise their benefits are gradually reduced until it is sometimes taken away completely.

However, one element which deters people from engaging in full time employment is the fact that their qualifications are no longer on demand in the rapidly evolving labor market. Globalization and improvements in technology lead to rapid changes in society and the labor market. Hence even recent college graduates need to become flexible and prepared to learn new skills that can make them marketable. The motive of creating alternative skill training for those who need it makes the Kofoeds Skole a paradigm for developing countries.

The Danish Kofoeds Skole also attempts restorative ideas such as accepting those who are often regarded as ‘rejects’ of society. These are people with problems of drug abuse and alcoholism. Often times we tend to forget that behind the destructive element of substance abuse are bigger problems of family crisis, domestic violence, personal loss or other forms of disasters. While the Kofoeds Skole does not directly solve these problems, it gives individuals an alternative life by empowering them to help themselves through the concept of help to self-help.

I believe that the concept of help to self-help can be a pragmatic element in African development because of the fact that Africa’s problem is not the lack of resources or other forms of human capital. What most of Africa is suffering from is the lack of organization, planning and the incapacity to put the existing resources to efficient use. For instance, development is not entirely possible without a drastic increase in the literacy level in Africa today. But it will also be foolish to halt development until everyone is educated. We would have to invent other creative means of survival while we embark on educational or infrastructural development.

Through the methods of the Kofoeds Skole system, we can improve upon practical skill training institutions for those who can no longer frequent the normal academic school system and improve skills of subsistence agriculture or ameliorate local production. While a Ph.D in agriculture is very important, we do not need it to grow rice, cassava, potato or yam which is mostly our staple food.

The difficulty of acquiring higher education in most of Africa makes it very prestigious to be a college graduate than to be a farmer even if one is extremely successful. It is therefore necessary for Africans to know that while formal education is absolutely necessary, the lack of it should not become an incapacity to obtain other skills. The carpenters, tailors or farmers are as important as the mathematicians or the philosophers in the process of development. In fact, it is extremely vital that we diversify our intellects so as to leave room for a varied approach to development.

IT IS IN YOUR HANDS NOW

I was unable to attend the birthday celebration of my greatest hero, Madiba Mandela, but I was glued to my television set without blink to hear the message from one of the greatest men alive. Nelson Madela has championed history and set a challenge for freedom loving people all over the world. It is with no mistake that we gather together every year to celebrate the day on which we were blessed with the birth of an extraordinary man who was not afraid to risk his life for the liberty of his people. When faced with the dilemma of being bought by tyrants against his own people, Madiba chose instead, to remain in incarceration until the wind of freedom touches the heart of all South Africans.

Instead of indulging into glorious speech about his well deserved heroism, he offered us a simple phrase: ‘it is in your hands now.’ This phrase is very important for us today as witnesses to global tyranny, disease and starvation. As Africans, we have remained passive to the ‘failure of leadership’ in Zimbabwe, we continue to witness the human carnage in Somalia, and poverty and disease are taking a severe tour on our future generation. The challenges of our time are enormous, but our refusal to act against the ‘failure of leadership’ on the continent of Africa is inexcusable. More than fifty years after independence, we can no longer cast blames on the colonialists for the wave of violence that overshadow the freedom of our continent.

Another important aspect of this phrase is that it is embedded with the implication that the onus of finding solutions to our problems rests with us. Incapacity is no longer an excuse for refusing to act when the people of Zimbabwe wail, when xenophobia leads us to raid each other, and when the hunger for power drives us to murder our own people. We cannot blame the West for doing nothing if we ourselves in our own small huts remain crippled in the face of violence, poverty and disease. Leadership is not a position of selfishness, it a position in which one should be prepared to die, ‘if need be,’ to champion the cause of freedom, liberty and the rule of law.

What about those of us who live in the more prosperous regions of the world? Should we adhere to the warnings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere?’ How much are we willing to sacrifice as democratic citizens, in the spirit of Nelson Mandela, for the freedom of others whether they live in Burma, Iraq, Sri-Lanka, Palestine, Uganda or Afghanistan? Some of us will prefer to remain akimbo, but our common humanity in the age of globalization requires that we stand up against tyranny, prejudice and threats to human flourishing. It is crystal clear that on many occasions when humanity had cried out together, the heaviest walls of tyranny have crumbled.

What then, prevents us from standing up for the freedom of our fellow human beings? Is it the comfort of our own freedom or the weight of our guilt? While things may seen deceptively normal in our immediate spheres to make us think that there is nothing to worry about, we must be reminded that it takes very little for sunshine to turn into rain. We must never relent to stand up for equal rights and justice even in the remotest of places around the world. Madiba has now passed the baton to us, and it is in our hands now. The question is: are we determined to champion the next phase of history?