“Life isn’t hard, it
is the people of the world that have made it a war zone”… Ebenezer Obey (Nigerian Artiste)
#Fact
Yes it is highly understandable that “A State of Emergency”
is a situation of national danger or disaster in which a government suspends
normal constitutional procedures in order to regain control.
Apparently, it becomes a somewhat impromptu wake up call
which instigates the citizens to change their normal behavior and orders
government agencies to implement emergency plans. But what do we call a
situation where conspiracy, bureaucracy and propaganda are used to manipulate
not just the minds and psyches of people, but also the media in the eye of the
storm of real danger.
“You are staring at
me.”
“I am not. I’m just…
thinking. Without blinking… Summer Lane, State of Emergency (Collapse Series,
#1)
Are we at War?
 |
There is a school of thought that if the rate of hate and
violence existing simultaneously at different parts of the world were combined,
it is equivalent to the magnitude of the First World War. The negative impacts
of violence from the world over have continued to reverberate beyond human
comprehension, ripping families apart, causing mistrust, birthing disloyalty, and
destroying our psychological well being.
The mysteries of the world in all ramifications which ranges
from physical strengths and challenges, intellectual content and lack of
initiatives, psychological cause and effect, spiritual healing, provocation and
even conviction to massive greed, intolerance, selfishness, deceit, and myopic
visions have continued to constantly blind us from what we should actually
see…the future.
“What greater war
could we be in, than with ourselves”… Unknown
United In Fear?
There is hardly any country in the entire world that is not
presently dealing with one crisis or another which is capable of consuming
them. From the separatists of Ukraine to the religious fanaticism in Egypt, from
drug war in Colombia to immigration issues in the USA, especially at Mexico
borders, and then to Leadership, greed, mismanagement of resources, avoidable
epidemics, unclear goals and complete lack of profitable direction in Mother
Africa.
It is most probably high time we grew far beyond the western
colonialism saga and stopped dwelling upon the slave trade story, but instead
learn from the misfortune and circumstantial mistakes of ours that has haunted
us for as many centuries as we can remember.
“Peace is not merely
an absence of war. It is also a state of mind… Jawaharial Nehru.
Awareness, Ideas
& Initiatives
There is a very imperative need for us to realize and also
appreciate the fact that we actually do have a serious problem capable of
completely consuming us all in a single gulp. Yes there is a saying that goes
thus: “A Problem identified is half
solved”. But how can we actually solve it half way if all we do is constantly
say false things as opposed to the truth either out of deliberate lies due to
cowardice and deceit, or incompetence due to laziness to painstakingly upgrade
ourselves having corruption under our sleeves as negative stereotypical alibis?
“Challenging the
meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human… Viktor E
Frankl
Most adults of this generation and even older would have
their faces lightened up when they tell you that when they were much younger
their teachers referred to them as the leaders of tomorrow and that the country
looked up to them to make a huge and positive impact, but in Africa, they
become downcast as they come to the realization of how badly their nation has
disappointed them. Well, it apparently has a two dimensional view.
One: If Africans become educated enough and have as much
goodwill, positive mental attitude, ideas, initiatives and virtue enough to
drive them to succeed no matter what, there might actually be headway in view,
like light at the tunnel’s end.
The second dimension is that, well yes of course Africa has
had a bad reputation of churning out extremely selfish and blindly corrupt
leaders very evidently devoid of both financial and emotional intelligence, and
her present predicament is the testimony available to show for it. Not wanting
to pass buck to any party, good to say that our destinies and future are
actually in our hands.
“Freedom has many
difficulties and Democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall
up to keep our people in, to prevent us from leaving us.”…John F. Kennedy (35th
President of the USA)
Freedom of the Mind
There exists another school of thought that “Life is
indeed perfect”, Well…yes its quite difficult to marry such a thought with
the present reality that stands before our very eyes, except perhaps we dig
deep into our history to appreciate the “Evolution of Man” (A topic for another
day).
The point being sought here basically is that different nations have peculiar
lifestyles and ways of life. So using for instance Western system as a
yardstick to judge the African culture will not produce fantastic results.
The
United States is a free Country of settlers, Europe has a royal lifestyle, Asians
have a reputation for hardworking and self-styled ancestral origin and Africa
has a history of deep rooted culture.
No one culture can claim outright
superiority, its simply like comparing a pretty white girl to a pretty dark
skin girl, the bottom line is that they are both pretty in different ways and
they appeal to varying races differently.
There has been consistent comments that Africa was a lot more peaceful and perhaps better before the advent of the British. They brought to Africa religion, work ethics and learning systems which has thoroughly made our population hand full of activity. Apparently they are the ones that best know how to utilize their religion and learning systems because here in Africa it has the downside of physical wars and that of the mind, allowing the love we once had for ourselves to implode right on our inside.
Our youths have become misguided, confused and clueless about the world around them so much that their priorities have become seriously misplaced. This new generation have become slaves to internet enabled devices, series movies, deviation from tradition and withdrawal syndrome from stereotypes, with our kids lives wasted at the expense of the bottom line of major companies, causing a salient justification for successive causes and effects that eventually spiral into terrorism, both of the society and of the mind, both also capable of destroying mankind.
So who needs declaration of State of Emergency? we all do, our systems are full of ignorance, hate, greed, errors and misconceptions, therefore we are under siege and gravely in dire need of our saviour, ironically that will be a smarter version of ourselves.
Thank you.
Akin Abimbola (akinzogee@gmail.com)
Sources: Google
Search quotes
Obey
Oxford Dictionary
Wikipedia
