The V Monologues
When the V Monologues premiered in London a couple of years ago I shuddered every time my eyes or ears caught a review. I was, quite simply, appalled that yet again in liberal London we were evidencing the negative externalities of democracy and an open society – that notion that all things are permissible, although not all things are beneficial.
Deeply sanctimonious and intolerant of the blatant public coverage of all things intimate and personal, I wondered once again what the world in the first world had come to.
But I hadn’t bothered to find out what the drama production was about, mind. I hadn’t made the effort to actually read through a review, and neither had I taken the time to listen to the opinions and discourse on the television and radio about the V monologues. In fact I couldn’t bring myself to do any of these for I was deeply offended by very title of the Monologues drama.
Why so? Well, I thought my Christian faith would not, could not, allow me to appreciate such dramatic entertainment. God bless my soul.
The Tarzan Monologues
Decades later, a little more mature and more appreciative of the diversity of the creation of The Creator (in thought, skill, persuasion and creativity) around me, I have learnt to be less judgmental and more receptive and respectful (even if not consenting) of the thoughts of others.
It’s the notion, once again, of deciphering motive and intent, reading and interpreting experience and exposure in the content of people’s speech, actions, thoughts and creations – whether that is literary creation, musical creation, or dramatic art and performance. And some of these motives are quite innocuous.
So The Tarzan Monologues premiered at Terra Kulture on Sunday afternoon and guess who was on the front row seat to witness this world premiere? Having denied myself of the pleasure or anger of watching the V Monologues a decade or so ago, I was determined to see this one through.
And what utter pleasure! Big ups, Wole Oguntokun.
The Insightful Monologues
The monologues chronicled the thoughts, insights, fears and joys of men. From The First Time to The Purse Strings. From 6 Myths About Marriage to Defilement. From Open Letter to my Father to Powerful, Sexy and Grey.
And these monologues were insightful! Imagine the learning and knowledge opportunity of having seven or eight men of various years of age sharing lessons and experience of their own respective life time? Forget all those self-help books on knowing yourself and knowing your garden. Go see and hear the monologues and you may just finally get that bingo moment on understanding your brother, your nephew, male boss, male domestic worker and so on.
I left the theatre feeling sorry for having denied myself of the opportunity to have learnt @ play years before through the V Monologues. And I further queried why I had denied myself the opportunity in the name of Christianity.
My Light Bulb Moment at the Theatre
Fact remains that there is much in the Tarzan Monologues for our pastors, counselors, deacons and church leaders, and everyone else for that matter, to learn from.
We’ve become so accustomed to focusing on separating ourselves from the ‘world’ and working our way up to heaven – my senior pastor once put it this way: being so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly use. But to consistently and deliberately remove yourself from the ‘world’ as many do in Christendom when many a time the world needs your perspective and yet also has lessons and knowledge in it for you is to my mind an act of counterevidence. Even Christ Jesus Himself came down to planet Earth to demonstrate how to live.
But I like the way St Paul puts it in the first book to the people of Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapter nine:
19-23Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
To my mind you cannot go out into the world and be a breath of fresh air, you cannot provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God if you have not bothered to understand and appreciate their mind, their issues, their thoughts - in effect, what is driving them.
That is the art of relationship, the art of counseling, the art of relating, the art of exchanging, the art of evangelism and the militant zeal for a cause.
Thursday 8 October 2009
Monday 28 September 2009
On the Eve of Jubilee
My Nigeria is a Nigeria where we place priority on adherence to the rule of law and a culture of proactive service delivery. A Nigeria where we discharge participatory governance; a Nigeria where we practice transparency; and a Nigeria where we ensconce accountability.
My Nigeria is a Nigeria exemplified by physical, artistic and cultural attractions with international appeal; a clean environment of aesthetic beauty and serenity; and affordable, accessible and quality goods and services. A Nigeria where there is security of life and of property. A Nigeria where I can go to sleep at night without the racket of my and my neighbour’s power generator bawling in the background.
Where is this Nigeria? It is a Nigeria in the mind of my future.
It is a Nigeria where our children and our grandchildren will be able to say of us: “the elders did well.”
Our Traditional Societies
In traditional societies, the elders are those to whom everyone drew to in search of wisdom, knowledge and guidance. My Nigeria is not devoid of such elders. My Nigeria merely needs the right form of governance and public administration, in character and content, willing to wage a true and fitting warfare against the ills of poverty, underdevelopment of mind and infrastructure; and social and economic demise.
The Future of Government?
What is the Future of Government globally and, as we bring it home, the Future of Government in sub-Saharan Africa? The Future of Government in Nigeria?
What can we do to redress our regress? What should we do to redress our regress? What will we choose to do to redress our regress?
It was only a few months ago that Barack Obama stood on the podium in Capitol Hill and gave his inaugural speech. The Future of Government to his mind involves a nation and government of risk takers – the doers and the makers of things:
“We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less…. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do”
All this we will do. That’s affirmation for you.
New Public Management
Perhaps what we should actually be asking is this: what can be the future of Government in Nigeria? Without doubt the future of Government in Nigeria must include the core values embraced in the ethos of new public management.
Recent developments in public sector management and reform from around the world shout out to us that contemporary governments will only attain credibility, development and expansion results if they readily embrace and demonstrate the following key features:
(i) Public Engagement;
(ii) Customer-focussed public service delivery;
(iii) A serious and compelling movement and drive from policy formulation to policy delivery;
(iv) Management for service effectiveness and results; and
(v) Joined up government
If that is what contemporary governments are currently doing, then the future of our government and public administration must be in substantively embracing and demonstrating all five of these features. It remains the burden and responsibility of our times. That burden and responsibility of the work that must be done demands that the government of the future must:
(i) Ensure that public services are fit for purpose;
(ii) Deliver services, quality services, that stakeholders actually want;
(iii) Meet the basic needs of society consistently and sensitively (here we have the notion of inclusive governance, the rights based approach to governance);
(iv) Transform the experience and contact of stakeholders with the public sector; and
(v) Ensure stakeholder satisfaction
Bringing It Home - My Nigeria
My Nigeria stands tall as a country filled to the brim with bright, intelligent and hopeful people. As a nation we are very proud and as a nation we are so very confident. Our resilience and ‘can do’ attitude is quite simply as astounding and it is even unbelievable. It is no wonder that the first black African Forbes billionaire is a Nigerian.
But our overall metrics on government and public administration have been the antithesis of this our enviable national character, and fraught with immense challenges.
It remains the responsibility of each and everyone of us, corporations, electorates, civil society, NGOs, the young and the old alike, to ensure that The Future of Government demonstrates and exhibits the positive externalities of this our national character - in our macro-economy, our public and civil service, and in our parastatal institutions of social development. Yes, we can.
Lessons from the World Economic Forum
Six metrics have recently been put forward by one of the councils of the World Economic Forum as the key determinants and propositions for the transformation of democracy and the transformation of government for the future:
(i) A digital Marshall Plan to take broadband to every corner of the world
(ii) The establishment of ‘digital brainstorms’ (I like that phrase) whereby knowledge partnerships between public/private/civil society are established and entrenched as deliberate, established mechanisms to ensure and secure citizenship and citizen engagement (a celebration of that most famous phrase: E pluribus, Unum – out of many, one)
(iii) A new accountability paradigm for business
(iv) Reinventing public service to achieve a networked government
(v) Rethinking and re-architecture of human capital of the public service
(vi) Creating the infrastructure for accountable government
If we accept these metrics, what they reveal and challenge us to do is to make the business of government relevant and valuable to the citizenry and each and every stakeholder; for indeed government is funded by the citizenry, mandated by the citizenry and instituted to realise dividends for the citizenry in terms of social and economic development; safety and security; and the freedom to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the basic idea of government being a service to the people and for the people. It is no coincidence that government and public sector workers are known as civil and public servants.
Our failure to respond to this cry proffers grave danger that our governments and public sectors will be left even further behind as futuristic and responsive governments emerge and address each of these challenges highlighted here. The end result is a possible deep democratic, economic and social demise.
Nairobi, Kenya. December 2007
Far fetched? I certainly hope so, but I was in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2007. I marvelled at the apparent ease of democracy in this city one week before the Presidential and parliamentary elections. I was resident in Ghana at that time and had travelled to Kenya on business. I and my travelling companion hoped that Ghana would make Africa proud in exactly a year’s time when her people would go to the polls to give voice to their political opinion and preferences. Indeed, one year on, Ghanaians have proven that the Voice of The Citizen and democratic integrity lies at the heart of her public administration. But that is Ghana – my week long stay in Nairobi in December 2007 was the week that preceded the massacre of neighbour by neighbour.
Back home some weeks later, unbelievably I watched the ensuing events in Kenya from my TV screen. The message was loud and clear: there comes a time when, if the dividends of good governance and democracy are not evident in our societies, some will take to the streets. Rev Martin Luther King Jnr did so. Emily Pankhurst and the Suffragettes somewhat did so. And Zackie Ahmat of the TAC in South Africa is doing so. Our hope is that many other will join in their methods and advocate for democratic and inclusive politics, and responsive government via peaceful means.
THE Leadership Challenge - The Voice of the Citizen
But this leadership is our collective responsibility. No one person is born a leader. Leaders are created out of the choices they make and the challenges they chose to confront. Our government (and corporate and social leaders alike) will rise and emerge from the responses and reactions we the people persistently challenge and present them with in question and query.
My Nigeria is a Nigeria exemplified by physical, artistic and cultural attractions with international appeal; a clean environment of aesthetic beauty and serenity; and affordable, accessible and quality goods and services. A Nigeria where there is security of life and of property. A Nigeria where I can go to sleep at night without the racket of my and my neighbour’s power generator bawling in the background.
Where is this Nigeria? It is a Nigeria in the mind of my future.
It is a Nigeria where our children and our grandchildren will be able to say of us: “the elders did well.”
Our Traditional Societies
In traditional societies, the elders are those to whom everyone drew to in search of wisdom, knowledge and guidance. My Nigeria is not devoid of such elders. My Nigeria merely needs the right form of governance and public administration, in character and content, willing to wage a true and fitting warfare against the ills of poverty, underdevelopment of mind and infrastructure; and social and economic demise.
The Future of Government?
What is the Future of Government globally and, as we bring it home, the Future of Government in sub-Saharan Africa? The Future of Government in Nigeria?
What can we do to redress our regress? What should we do to redress our regress? What will we choose to do to redress our regress?
It was only a few months ago that Barack Obama stood on the podium in Capitol Hill and gave his inaugural speech. The Future of Government to his mind involves a nation and government of risk takers – the doers and the makers of things:
“We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less…. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do”
All this we will do. That’s affirmation for you.
New Public Management
Perhaps what we should actually be asking is this: what can be the future of Government in Nigeria? Without doubt the future of Government in Nigeria must include the core values embraced in the ethos of new public management.
Recent developments in public sector management and reform from around the world shout out to us that contemporary governments will only attain credibility, development and expansion results if they readily embrace and demonstrate the following key features:
(i) Public Engagement;
(ii) Customer-focussed public service delivery;
(iii) A serious and compelling movement and drive from policy formulation to policy delivery;
(iv) Management for service effectiveness and results; and
(v) Joined up government
If that is what contemporary governments are currently doing, then the future of our government and public administration must be in substantively embracing and demonstrating all five of these features. It remains the burden and responsibility of our times. That burden and responsibility of the work that must be done demands that the government of the future must:
(i) Ensure that public services are fit for purpose;
(ii) Deliver services, quality services, that stakeholders actually want;
(iii) Meet the basic needs of society consistently and sensitively (here we have the notion of inclusive governance, the rights based approach to governance);
(iv) Transform the experience and contact of stakeholders with the public sector; and
(v) Ensure stakeholder satisfaction
Bringing It Home - My Nigeria
My Nigeria stands tall as a country filled to the brim with bright, intelligent and hopeful people. As a nation we are very proud and as a nation we are so very confident. Our resilience and ‘can do’ attitude is quite simply as astounding and it is even unbelievable. It is no wonder that the first black African Forbes billionaire is a Nigerian.
But our overall metrics on government and public administration have been the antithesis of this our enviable national character, and fraught with immense challenges.
It remains the responsibility of each and everyone of us, corporations, electorates, civil society, NGOs, the young and the old alike, to ensure that The Future of Government demonstrates and exhibits the positive externalities of this our national character - in our macro-economy, our public and civil service, and in our parastatal institutions of social development. Yes, we can.
Lessons from the World Economic Forum
Six metrics have recently been put forward by one of the councils of the World Economic Forum as the key determinants and propositions for the transformation of democracy and the transformation of government for the future:
(i) A digital Marshall Plan to take broadband to every corner of the world
(ii) The establishment of ‘digital brainstorms’ (I like that phrase) whereby knowledge partnerships between public/private/civil society are established and entrenched as deliberate, established mechanisms to ensure and secure citizenship and citizen engagement (a celebration of that most famous phrase: E pluribus, Unum – out of many, one)
(iii) A new accountability paradigm for business
(iv) Reinventing public service to achieve a networked government
(v) Rethinking and re-architecture of human capital of the public service
(vi) Creating the infrastructure for accountable government
If we accept these metrics, what they reveal and challenge us to do is to make the business of government relevant and valuable to the citizenry and each and every stakeholder; for indeed government is funded by the citizenry, mandated by the citizenry and instituted to realise dividends for the citizenry in terms of social and economic development; safety and security; and the freedom to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the basic idea of government being a service to the people and for the people. It is no coincidence that government and public sector workers are known as civil and public servants.
Our failure to respond to this cry proffers grave danger that our governments and public sectors will be left even further behind as futuristic and responsive governments emerge and address each of these challenges highlighted here. The end result is a possible deep democratic, economic and social demise.
Nairobi, Kenya. December 2007
Far fetched? I certainly hope so, but I was in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2007. I marvelled at the apparent ease of democracy in this city one week before the Presidential and parliamentary elections. I was resident in Ghana at that time and had travelled to Kenya on business. I and my travelling companion hoped that Ghana would make Africa proud in exactly a year’s time when her people would go to the polls to give voice to their political opinion and preferences. Indeed, one year on, Ghanaians have proven that the Voice of The Citizen and democratic integrity lies at the heart of her public administration. But that is Ghana – my week long stay in Nairobi in December 2007 was the week that preceded the massacre of neighbour by neighbour.
Back home some weeks later, unbelievably I watched the ensuing events in Kenya from my TV screen. The message was loud and clear: there comes a time when, if the dividends of good governance and democracy are not evident in our societies, some will take to the streets. Rev Martin Luther King Jnr did so. Emily Pankhurst and the Suffragettes somewhat did so. And Zackie Ahmat of the TAC in South Africa is doing so. Our hope is that many other will join in their methods and advocate for democratic and inclusive politics, and responsive government via peaceful means.
THE Leadership Challenge - The Voice of the Citizen
But this leadership is our collective responsibility. No one person is born a leader. Leaders are created out of the choices they make and the challenges they chose to confront. Our government (and corporate and social leaders alike) will rise and emerge from the responses and reactions we the people persistently challenge and present them with in question and query.
The Voice of the Citizen and the stakeholder must be loud and clear in the Future of Government – indeed the Voice of the Citizen should shape the future of government. Accountability and responsiveness in the development of public policy; inclusiveness and integrity in the implementation of public policy; accountability and transparency in the evaluation of public sector programmes and projects.
These are the rules of engagement; and this is our hope. These are the notions alluded to in Rousseau’s Social Contract – and these are the notions which caution us against inviting the absolute authority of a sovereign as chronicled in Hobbes’s The Leviathan.
And it is here that there is room for all of us.
A consulting firm can demonstrate leadership in the articulation of a blueprint for the future of a government in terms of the transformation of the systems, process and people; inputs and outputs of MDAs; and similarly a law firm can demonstrate leadership in the articulation and collaboration with Government on those business laws that must be reviewed, amended and enacted to ensure that the legal environment drives the future that our economy and citizens need and want.
Likewise a civil society organisation can demonstrate leadership through the gathering of citizens and stakeholders alike for us all to discuss and debate where we are, where we want to be as a nation and chart the path of how to get there for and with our political leaders.
That is democracy.
That is citizenship, and
That is development.
There is room for all of us.
On the fringes of the anniversary of our nation’s fiftieth year after our independence from colonial rule, the optimism which drove a euphoric vision of an economically prosperous and politically stable future for our nation is now somewhat precarious. Our trajectory to date has been devoid of many of the core elements of economic prosperity and political stability. Today we are at the crossroads.
And yes, there is room for all of us. That we might truly have a reason to celebrate our Golden Jubilee in 2010
Wednesday 16 September 2009
The Art of Dancing to the Rhythm of Life
And so it would appear that there is an art of living. An art to dancing to the rhythm of life.
For Michael Franks there’s meaning in the Art of Tea.
And some I know profess to the Art of Coffeeing
Others yet to the Art of Love
But today I want to rant about the Art of War…! Macciavelli? Sun Tzu.? Well, I never felt the urge nor the need to invest in either The Prince or The Art of War. These most celebrated books of strategy...
Alas, “dit moi,” I thought, “is there really need to study the details of making your enemy’s enemy your best friend?” Better not to have enemies at all, I thought. Better still to subscribe to the notion of Christ Jesus to love your enemies. So if you love your enemy, you also love your enemy’s enemy. So we are equals. And isn’t that what Macciavelli and Sun Tzu are saying? Confused? Well, it makes two of us.
Aha, but the same Christ Jesus preaches on the necessity of loving oneself first and foremost – love your neighbor as yourself – and that in of itself being the enabler to allow you to respond to others in understanding. And it was this notion – loving and knowing thyself first, studying people, studying life - that led me to purchase The Art of War for Executives.
The day I realized that I needed to invest in that book was the day that I matured…
Appreciating the politics at play in your sphere of influence @work and @ play
For the art of loving oneself requires a level of understanding and an appreciation of the world around you. Yes, with all the gamesmanship, one-upmanship and all.
One of my mentors reminds me day in day out of the need to seek to understand the politics in the world around me even if I don’t want to play it – for therein I gain insight to the motives which give rise to the utterances and actions which come forth day in and day out.
For we war at play even as we war at work. We war in the boardroom and we war in the bedroom. Indeed there are ecclesiastical battles and wars in the heavenly realms. Hmmm. I am grateful for the promise we have in Him, Christ Jesus, that we have the victory over those battles.
But Sun Tzu’s lesson to me is this: In any situation, seek to respond and not react. Same difference? Never!
Respond to and act on the motive which led to the action. And that might mean a positive or a negative response, but usually it is a positive response. Why so? Because in responding one has paused to be aware of and identify with the motive behind the negative or positive action. It’s the art of calculating victory. Hmm, oh yes - the art of calculating victory.
Never react to the action or utterance – respond to it. And that takes work. Rise to the challenge!
Take this from Chapter 3:
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a thousand battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself
Whetted your appetite? Go get the books.
For Michael Franks there’s meaning in the Art of Tea.
And some I know profess to the Art of Coffeeing
Others yet to the Art of Love
But today I want to rant about the Art of War…! Macciavelli? Sun Tzu.? Well, I never felt the urge nor the need to invest in either The Prince or The Art of War. These most celebrated books of strategy...
Alas, “dit moi,” I thought, “is there really need to study the details of making your enemy’s enemy your best friend?” Better not to have enemies at all, I thought. Better still to subscribe to the notion of Christ Jesus to love your enemies. So if you love your enemy, you also love your enemy’s enemy. So we are equals. And isn’t that what Macciavelli and Sun Tzu are saying? Confused? Well, it makes two of us.
Aha, but the same Christ Jesus preaches on the necessity of loving oneself first and foremost – love your neighbor as yourself – and that in of itself being the enabler to allow you to respond to others in understanding. And it was this notion – loving and knowing thyself first, studying people, studying life - that led me to purchase The Art of War for Executives.
The day I realized that I needed to invest in that book was the day that I matured…
Appreciating the politics at play in your sphere of influence @work and @ play
For the art of loving oneself requires a level of understanding and an appreciation of the world around you. Yes, with all the gamesmanship, one-upmanship and all.
One of my mentors reminds me day in day out of the need to seek to understand the politics in the world around me even if I don’t want to play it – for therein I gain insight to the motives which give rise to the utterances and actions which come forth day in and day out.
For we war at play even as we war at work. We war in the boardroom and we war in the bedroom. Indeed there are ecclesiastical battles and wars in the heavenly realms. Hmmm. I am grateful for the promise we have in Him, Christ Jesus, that we have the victory over those battles.
But Sun Tzu’s lesson to me is this: In any situation, seek to respond and not react. Same difference? Never!
Respond to and act on the motive which led to the action. And that might mean a positive or a negative response, but usually it is a positive response. Why so? Because in responding one has paused to be aware of and identify with the motive behind the negative or positive action. It’s the art of calculating victory. Hmm, oh yes - the art of calculating victory.
Never react to the action or utterance – respond to it. And that takes work. Rise to the challenge!
Take this from Chapter 3:
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a thousand battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself
Whetted your appetite? Go get the books.
Tuesday 15 September 2009
And we went to a book reading...
The first book reading I went to was such a heart-warming experience that I glowed. I grinned ear to ear and was incredibly proud. Nothing could contain my elation.
That was the book reading of Kemi’s Journal by Miss Abidemi Sanusi – one of my many, many sisters. But Bidemi is also one of my favorite sisters because she is just so cheeky! Nobody in the world dares to persistently tease and cajole me as she does – and with such zeal.
That was in Accra some three-odd years ago and so wonderful was the experience that I have since attended a number of book readings. The most recent was that of Sefi Atta at the British Council here in Lagos, where she read from Swallow, her latest book.
Book reading a la Lagos
So I am in Abuja some weeks back and a dear, dear friend calls from Lagos to say that they are organizing a book reading for one of our most celebrated contemporary writers at the weekend. ‘Wonderful’ was my response. Absolutely perfect, in fact. I was planning to be in Lagos that weekend anyway, so why not?
Twenty four hours to the event I inquire where the event is holding - British Council? Terra Kulture? And what time. The event was to hold in a private residence, and would be in the evening. Hmm, very unusual, I thought. But I kind of liked the idea of a private, more intimate book reading in someone’s garden. This is Nigeria, what am I saying, this is Lagos, after all.
So we arrive. 8pm. Valet parking service, hor d’oeuvres, champagne and we hear the book reading. No juice, no water, no wine, just champagne. Quintessentially Lagos.
I marveled. But I understood. And I smiled. A knowing smile.
In a city where day in, day out you give a lot. In a city where day in, day out you are at your wits end. In a city where day in, day out your patience is tried and tested. In a city where day in, day out your average daily spend is your average weekly spend in any European city. In a city where …..
So I understood the need to spruce up the daily grind. To indulge a little, and to live a little. To forget that you had to leave the premises before a certain hour of the night less armed robbers are at your trail. To forget that the daily bumpy and traffic ridden ride on our roads makes your bone creak and your neck stiff. To forget…
A few days later a couple of us teased our host over lunch and hailed the light indulgence, the departure from the norm of the café style format of books readings ‘It’s good to unwind every so often’ was the quite, deliberate response.
And, yes, I said, ‘it is good’
That was the book reading of Kemi’s Journal by Miss Abidemi Sanusi – one of my many, many sisters. But Bidemi is also one of my favorite sisters because she is just so cheeky! Nobody in the world dares to persistently tease and cajole me as she does – and with such zeal.
That was in Accra some three-odd years ago and so wonderful was the experience that I have since attended a number of book readings. The most recent was that of Sefi Atta at the British Council here in Lagos, where she read from Swallow, her latest book.
Book reading a la Lagos
So I am in Abuja some weeks back and a dear, dear friend calls from Lagos to say that they are organizing a book reading for one of our most celebrated contemporary writers at the weekend. ‘Wonderful’ was my response. Absolutely perfect, in fact. I was planning to be in Lagos that weekend anyway, so why not?
Twenty four hours to the event I inquire where the event is holding - British Council? Terra Kulture? And what time. The event was to hold in a private residence, and would be in the evening. Hmm, very unusual, I thought. But I kind of liked the idea of a private, more intimate book reading in someone’s garden. This is Nigeria, what am I saying, this is Lagos, after all.
So we arrive. 8pm. Valet parking service, hor d’oeuvres, champagne and we hear the book reading. No juice, no water, no wine, just champagne. Quintessentially Lagos.
I marveled. But I understood. And I smiled. A knowing smile.
In a city where day in, day out you give a lot. In a city where day in, day out you are at your wits end. In a city where day in, day out your patience is tried and tested. In a city where day in, day out your average daily spend is your average weekly spend in any European city. In a city where …..
So I understood the need to spruce up the daily grind. To indulge a little, and to live a little. To forget that you had to leave the premises before a certain hour of the night less armed robbers are at your trail. To forget that the daily bumpy and traffic ridden ride on our roads makes your bone creak and your neck stiff. To forget…
A few days later a couple of us teased our host over lunch and hailed the light indulgence, the departure from the norm of the café style format of books readings ‘It’s good to unwind every so often’ was the quite, deliberate response.
And, yes, I said, ‘it is good’
Wednesday 2 September 2009
The Return
Okay, Okay, Okaaaay!
I know it’s been like forever since I last blogged. So many people have BB’ed, sent sms and called to chastise. Well, you know, every once in a while one needs to take time out, right? Well, this has been my time-out. Forgive.
OK. Sorry. Abeg, as we would say in Nigeria. It’s been an eventful couple of months. If for nothing else a reminder that life is a marathon and not a 100 meters sprint. After the zeal of starting new projects and initiatives early on in the year, some time or the other one needs to take stock and slooooow down – if only for a short while.
So I am back on line!
My nephew brought me this book from the UK – The Personal Shopper. I thought nothing of it when he gave it to me – said it came with the shoes I had asked him to purchase. OK. Then I read the back of the book to get a gist of what it was all about. It reads like this:
Meet Annie Valentine: stylish, savvy, multi-tasker extraordinaire. As a personal shopper in a swanky London fashion emporium, Annie can re-style and re-invent her clients from head to toe. In fact, this super-skilled dresser can be relied on to solve everyone's problems...except her own. Although she's busy being a single mum to stroppy teen Lana and painfully shy Owen, there's a gap in Annie's wardrobe, sorry, life, for a new man. But finding the perfect partner is turning out to be so much trickier than finding the perfect pair of shoes. Can she source a genuine classic? A life long investment? Will she end up with someone from the sale rail, who'll have to be returned? Or maybe, just maybe, there'll be someone new in this season who could be the one...
Cheeky so and so.
Never read a book so quickly before. It really made me laugh. But there is this notion in the book, and at large really, that people who are well-off have miserable lives/are boring people, and those who do not have so much money are a lot happier. The ‘money doesn’t make you happy’ notion.
Well you know, I want to refute that. I am sure we all know a bus load of people who have bus loads of money and live lives just as fulfilling or unfulfilling as those that don’t. I rather go for the notion that it’s your relationship with money that might determine your level of fulfillment.
I don’t know if Jesus had cash-in-hand when He was on planet Earth but He sure had access to wealth and He was definitely happy and fulfilled. I guess because His wealth was not His focus but His faith and hope in God was. I think what I am saying is that the pursuit of happiness through the primary and relentless pursuit of money may lead us to a Judas experience. The end result being the loss of being.
Anyway, enough deep thought for today.
Ciao everyone!
I know it’s been like forever since I last blogged. So many people have BB’ed, sent sms and called to chastise. Well, you know, every once in a while one needs to take time out, right? Well, this has been my time-out. Forgive.
OK. Sorry. Abeg, as we would say in Nigeria. It’s been an eventful couple of months. If for nothing else a reminder that life is a marathon and not a 100 meters sprint. After the zeal of starting new projects and initiatives early on in the year, some time or the other one needs to take stock and slooooow down – if only for a short while.
So I am back on line!
My nephew brought me this book from the UK – The Personal Shopper. I thought nothing of it when he gave it to me – said it came with the shoes I had asked him to purchase. OK. Then I read the back of the book to get a gist of what it was all about. It reads like this:
Meet Annie Valentine: stylish, savvy, multi-tasker extraordinaire. As a personal shopper in a swanky London fashion emporium, Annie can re-style and re-invent her clients from head to toe. In fact, this super-skilled dresser can be relied on to solve everyone's problems...except her own. Although she's busy being a single mum to stroppy teen Lana and painfully shy Owen, there's a gap in Annie's wardrobe, sorry, life, for a new man. But finding the perfect partner is turning out to be so much trickier than finding the perfect pair of shoes. Can she source a genuine classic? A life long investment? Will she end up with someone from the sale rail, who'll have to be returned? Or maybe, just maybe, there'll be someone new in this season who could be the one...
Cheeky so and so.
Never read a book so quickly before. It really made me laugh. But there is this notion in the book, and at large really, that people who are well-off have miserable lives/are boring people, and those who do not have so much money are a lot happier. The ‘money doesn’t make you happy’ notion.
Well you know, I want to refute that. I am sure we all know a bus load of people who have bus loads of money and live lives just as fulfilling or unfulfilling as those that don’t. I rather go for the notion that it’s your relationship with money that might determine your level of fulfillment.
I don’t know if Jesus had cash-in-hand when He was on planet Earth but He sure had access to wealth and He was definitely happy and fulfilled. I guess because His wealth was not His focus but His faith and hope in God was. I think what I am saying is that the pursuit of happiness through the primary and relentless pursuit of money may lead us to a Judas experience. The end result being the loss of being.
Anyway, enough deep thought for today.
Ciao everyone!
Saturday 30 May 2009
Canoe
Every so often life throws something so surprisingly comforting and so delightfully glorious your way. And it is normally in simple pleasures.
I have found one such comfort in my quarterly readings of Canoe magazine. Published by Ghanaians, with an increasing number of West African contributors and writers, Canoe is a celebration of all that is relevant, apt and timely in Africa. A spectacle of how far we have come, and a trailer of what our tomorrows may be. Afro-centric to the core, afropolitian in content, resurgent Africa in attitude and afrochic in style, Canoe makes me so unreservedly proud to be African.
Whilst the majority of our governments and leaders have spectacularly frustrated and disappointed us, what a publication such as Canoe inspires in me is that in rising above the challenges we face day in day out in the underdevelopment of our nation, social and economic infrastructures, we choose to experience that abundant life our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus promised.
And this is our hope: that Africans can discover, exhibit and manifest the fullness of the creativity and intellect surrounding their God-given skills, abilities and talents in their generation.
On the eve of my nation’s golden jubilee celebrations I remain astonished at our limited progress. That I have not posted a note on the blog for over a month is testament to the daily and constant challenges one faces in day to day living in ‘this our great nation’. Few hours of electricity a day, five hours in traffic a day, over-priced goods and services (for most goods in Nigeria are over-priced not expensive – diamonds are expensive), reduced productivity, and the list goes on. But yet, we do and yet we do go on. We do go on demonstrating resilience, exhibiting hope and demonstrating ambition. This is what makes Africa so great – the attitude of her people.
Canoe’s creative director, Kweku Ansah, put it this way in the February 09 edition, naming that attitude ‘The Obamian Complex’:
An inspirited state of existence that propels a person to optimize their potential and utlise their opportunities in pursuit of higher goals, based mainly on merit and braced with courteous audacity, but free from stereotypical expectations and other self restraining inhibitions.
Welcome, the African Renaissance.
So, The Art of Living subscribers, I may not have been blogging, but I have been reading – marveling at all that is afrochic, afropolitican, afrocentric and Obamian around me; and praying that I will be partaker of the brilliance and splendor of Africa. Won’t you sign on?
I have found one such comfort in my quarterly readings of Canoe magazine. Published by Ghanaians, with an increasing number of West African contributors and writers, Canoe is a celebration of all that is relevant, apt and timely in Africa. A spectacle of how far we have come, and a trailer of what our tomorrows may be. Afro-centric to the core, afropolitian in content, resurgent Africa in attitude and afrochic in style, Canoe makes me so unreservedly proud to be African.
Whilst the majority of our governments and leaders have spectacularly frustrated and disappointed us, what a publication such as Canoe inspires in me is that in rising above the challenges we face day in day out in the underdevelopment of our nation, social and economic infrastructures, we choose to experience that abundant life our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus promised.
And this is our hope: that Africans can discover, exhibit and manifest the fullness of the creativity and intellect surrounding their God-given skills, abilities and talents in their generation.
On the eve of my nation’s golden jubilee celebrations I remain astonished at our limited progress. That I have not posted a note on the blog for over a month is testament to the daily and constant challenges one faces in day to day living in ‘this our great nation’. Few hours of electricity a day, five hours in traffic a day, over-priced goods and services (for most goods in Nigeria are over-priced not expensive – diamonds are expensive), reduced productivity, and the list goes on. But yet, we do and yet we do go on. We do go on demonstrating resilience, exhibiting hope and demonstrating ambition. This is what makes Africa so great – the attitude of her people.
Canoe’s creative director, Kweku Ansah, put it this way in the February 09 edition, naming that attitude ‘The Obamian Complex’:
An inspirited state of existence that propels a person to optimize their potential and utlise their opportunities in pursuit of higher goals, based mainly on merit and braced with courteous audacity, but free from stereotypical expectations and other self restraining inhibitions.
Welcome, the African Renaissance.
So, The Art of Living subscribers, I may not have been blogging, but I have been reading – marveling at all that is afrochic, afropolitican, afrocentric and Obamian around me; and praying that I will be partaker of the brilliance and splendor of Africa. Won’t you sign on?
Monday 27 April 2009
Sixty Second Interview
I’m in Brighton this week. And, what, with 24hr electricity, TV and enough cafés and restaurants with a view of the seafront, I’ve had time to relax my mind.
Well, since some have said that my blog is a bit on the heavy side, and because I’ve been reading proper, I mean, proper newspapers and broadsheets all week, I once again came across the Sixty Second Interview and so I thought I’d try one on Ms TheArtofLivingRuka:
What do you know for sure? That God is.
Favorite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Nobody should live and die without reading that book.
On a desert island who or what would you want with you: The Holy Spirit and my BlackBerry
Where and when you recently knew complete happiness: Lagos, November 2008 – an old friend, now based in Dubai and who I had not seen for a decade, visited. We had lunch with two other mutual friends at Piccolo Mondo – hugging, crying, chatting, laughing, and reminiscing. It was delightful. Those were three hours of my life that I would repeat over and over and over again.
Favorite place: Honestly? I’d have to say Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, both in Tanzania. Dar is for me the location of bliss, delight and pure comfort. The seafront eating places, the quaint buildings in town, the easy going generally quiet pace, and of course my ‘family’ in Dar (friends from University days). And Zanzibar? My goodness. What words? Un-spoilt, beautiful and traditional almost to a fault, and yes, very quaint.
The peculiarity you most dislike in yourself? Gosh, so many! The most? What about being excessively guarded and deliberative?
The trait you most dislike in others? Arrogance and self-importance
What do you most guard? My peace and joy
If wishes were horses, next leisure destination? The Mount Nelson, Cape Town, South Africa – preferably during the next Cape Town Jazz festival
Favorite restaurant: Sky Bar and Restaurant, Lagos; La Taverna Tropicana, Accra on a Friday or Saturday night; La Chaumiere, Accra; and the New Federal Palace Hotel, on the terrace, on a lazy Sunday afternoon
What gets up your skin? Social injustice
What draws you to a person? Sincerity, warmth, kindness, honesty and intellectual depth.
Motto: fight the good fight of faith
Who would you pay to spend an hour with: but you know I spend every second of every hour with my Father, right? So long as that's understood! Besides Him, at this moment, only Jimmy Dludlu comes to mind. He doing his stuff on the guitar, me listening and thanking God for the moment. But then of course there’s Bishop Desmond Tutu, Oprah Winfrey, Bishop T D Jakes……
What is your latest trivial worry: I am exercising harder than I've ever done (well, to my mind I am) and yet it takes like forever to lose one kilo...
Well, since some have said that my blog is a bit on the heavy side, and because I’ve been reading proper, I mean, proper newspapers and broadsheets all week, I once again came across the Sixty Second Interview and so I thought I’d try one on Ms TheArtofLivingRuka:
What do you know for sure? That God is.
Favorite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Nobody should live and die without reading that book.
On a desert island who or what would you want with you: The Holy Spirit and my BlackBerry
Where and when you recently knew complete happiness: Lagos, November 2008 – an old friend, now based in Dubai and who I had not seen for a decade, visited. We had lunch with two other mutual friends at Piccolo Mondo – hugging, crying, chatting, laughing, and reminiscing. It was delightful. Those were three hours of my life that I would repeat over and over and over again.
Favorite place: Honestly? I’d have to say Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, both in Tanzania. Dar is for me the location of bliss, delight and pure comfort. The seafront eating places, the quaint buildings in town, the easy going generally quiet pace, and of course my ‘family’ in Dar (friends from University days). And Zanzibar? My goodness. What words? Un-spoilt, beautiful and traditional almost to a fault, and yes, very quaint.
The peculiarity you most dislike in yourself? Gosh, so many! The most? What about being excessively guarded and deliberative?
The trait you most dislike in others? Arrogance and self-importance
What do you most guard? My peace and joy
If wishes were horses, next leisure destination? The Mount Nelson, Cape Town, South Africa – preferably during the next Cape Town Jazz festival
Favorite restaurant: Sky Bar and Restaurant, Lagos; La Taverna Tropicana, Accra on a Friday or Saturday night; La Chaumiere, Accra; and the New Federal Palace Hotel, on the terrace, on a lazy Sunday afternoon
What gets up your skin? Social injustice
What draws you to a person? Sincerity, warmth, kindness, honesty and intellectual depth.
Motto: fight the good fight of faith
Who would you pay to spend an hour with: but you know I spend every second of every hour with my Father, right? So long as that's understood! Besides Him, at this moment, only Jimmy Dludlu comes to mind. He doing his stuff on the guitar, me listening and thanking God for the moment. But then of course there’s Bishop Desmond Tutu, Oprah Winfrey, Bishop T D Jakes……
What is your latest trivial worry: I am exercising harder than I've ever done (well, to my mind I am) and yet it takes like forever to lose one kilo...
Friday 17 April 2009
The Legal Dissolution of a Marriage
Maybe it’s something to do with me being on the eve of my fortieth year but everywhere I look and everywhere I turn too many friends and loved ones of the same age world over are on the edge. Marriage-edge. Joyless and troubling unions leaning onto separation and divorce.
Disquieting. Really disquieting.
What is more disturbing is the emotional trauma that is attendant with this edge: for some are literally battling with the decision to separate and divorce even in the midst of their Christian faith and desire to honour The Word that says “God hates divorce”.
Divorce and Our Easter Reflection
Over Easter I discussed this same issue with a dear, dear, dear sister. Divorced herself, she takes that stand that what God hates is the process of divorce. The physical, emotional, psychological and of course spiritual angst that precedes divorce – and for some that may mean decades.
My sister and I could not fathom the thought that Love Himself would want His child to remain in an emotionally or physically tormenting marriage union. Surely this could not be one’s appointed end? This pain-filled, soul wrenching union? Joy sapped day in day out; hope and dreams suspended year in, year out? Surely His intentions for us and good and not evil? Surely He does not want us to suffer unrest day in, day out in a so-called marriage union where spouses are not even on speaking terms, let alone sharing the same bedroom and yet, they are supposedly bringing up children together ‘in the way of The Lord’? Surely that is a sure, sure guarantee of producing generations of dysfunctional adults and marriages?
Jaws, the divorce lawyer
It was just the other day that I heard a renowned divorce lawyer (aka Jaws) interviewed on the BBC World Service. A hitherto pre-global financial crisis young NY city resident with a well-paid professional job and an affluent, materialistic lifestyle had gone to court to re-negotiate the terms of his divorce. The terms and conditions of his income had taken a deep slide and he needed the terms of his divorce settlement with his wife to reflect this new, declined income.
What was Jaws’ take on this? The next couple of years are going to see more pre-nups and post-nups. We are going to be seeing ‘marriage’ in a very different format. ‘To have and to hold; for richer, for poorer’ has gone out of the window. Selah. His take was that over the years he had seen clients who married for a whole lot of reasons outside of affection and companionship. Money counted for one of these reasons, as did status. But many, he said, just simply got it wrong when it came to choosing a life partner.
And the Christian Church?
Where does that leave us in The Christian Church? What should we be doing to support our members, our body, crying out for help before and after marriage?
I certainly don’t have the answers but what I do know is that we must do better than we are doing here and now. How so?
Well, there’s the one of Priest X or Pastor Y, suggesting that a spouse should just learn to accept that their other half will have mistresses, for that is just the way things are. Yes, and I should risk AIDS and all other STDs?
And the one of Priest X or Pastor Y retorting that society would render one an outcast one divorced – for divorced women are simply irresponsible. Note, no mention of the God-factor in all of this, just the issues of what society will think? Yes, so I should rest in this fallow land of a life-sapping union all the same till death do us part?
And the one where Priest X and Pastor Y reminds us that The Bible records that is better to marry than to burn with passion and sin. As such better marry and legitimately fan the flames of your passions, less you sin. Yes. We’ll see you in post-marital counseling in six months time when flames momentarily fanned you realize that, well, you and this spouse ain’t got not one thing in common.
Accepting that these are quite sensitive issues to discuss let alone resolve, it’s been so excruciatingly distressing witnessing the pain of loved ones who have gone through or are going through this whole process. Believe me, I have sobbed one too many times with and for friends over the past few years on this very matter.
Personally, I am more inclined to resolve that what my God and Father hates is the process of divorce –the season pain and sorrow that His children go through before and after the act divorce – and not necessarily the act of divorce itself. No, not the legal and radical severance of closely related people, though that in itself may be tortuous.
I may be wrong, but as for today, that is my personal conviction.
Disquieting. Really disquieting.
What is more disturbing is the emotional trauma that is attendant with this edge: for some are literally battling with the decision to separate and divorce even in the midst of their Christian faith and desire to honour The Word that says “God hates divorce”.
Divorce and Our Easter Reflection
Over Easter I discussed this same issue with a dear, dear, dear sister. Divorced herself, she takes that stand that what God hates is the process of divorce. The physical, emotional, psychological and of course spiritual angst that precedes divorce – and for some that may mean decades.
My sister and I could not fathom the thought that Love Himself would want His child to remain in an emotionally or physically tormenting marriage union. Surely this could not be one’s appointed end? This pain-filled, soul wrenching union? Joy sapped day in day out; hope and dreams suspended year in, year out? Surely His intentions for us and good and not evil? Surely He does not want us to suffer unrest day in, day out in a so-called marriage union where spouses are not even on speaking terms, let alone sharing the same bedroom and yet, they are supposedly bringing up children together ‘in the way of The Lord’? Surely that is a sure, sure guarantee of producing generations of dysfunctional adults and marriages?
Jaws, the divorce lawyer
It was just the other day that I heard a renowned divorce lawyer (aka Jaws) interviewed on the BBC World Service. A hitherto pre-global financial crisis young NY city resident with a well-paid professional job and an affluent, materialistic lifestyle had gone to court to re-negotiate the terms of his divorce. The terms and conditions of his income had taken a deep slide and he needed the terms of his divorce settlement with his wife to reflect this new, declined income.
What was Jaws’ take on this? The next couple of years are going to see more pre-nups and post-nups. We are going to be seeing ‘marriage’ in a very different format. ‘To have and to hold; for richer, for poorer’ has gone out of the window. Selah. His take was that over the years he had seen clients who married for a whole lot of reasons outside of affection and companionship. Money counted for one of these reasons, as did status. But many, he said, just simply got it wrong when it came to choosing a life partner.
And the Christian Church?
Where does that leave us in The Christian Church? What should we be doing to support our members, our body, crying out for help before and after marriage?
I certainly don’t have the answers but what I do know is that we must do better than we are doing here and now. How so?
Well, there’s the one of Priest X or Pastor Y, suggesting that a spouse should just learn to accept that their other half will have mistresses, for that is just the way things are. Yes, and I should risk AIDS and all other STDs?
And the one of Priest X or Pastor Y retorting that society would render one an outcast one divorced – for divorced women are simply irresponsible. Note, no mention of the God-factor in all of this, just the issues of what society will think? Yes, so I should rest in this fallow land of a life-sapping union all the same till death do us part?
And the one where Priest X and Pastor Y reminds us that The Bible records that is better to marry than to burn with passion and sin. As such better marry and legitimately fan the flames of your passions, less you sin. Yes. We’ll see you in post-marital counseling in six months time when flames momentarily fanned you realize that, well, you and this spouse ain’t got not one thing in common.
Accepting that these are quite sensitive issues to discuss let alone resolve, it’s been so excruciatingly distressing witnessing the pain of loved ones who have gone through or are going through this whole process. Believe me, I have sobbed one too many times with and for friends over the past few years on this very matter.
Personally, I am more inclined to resolve that what my God and Father hates is the process of divorce –the season pain and sorrow that His children go through before and after the act divorce – and not necessarily the act of divorce itself. No, not the legal and radical severance of closely related people, though that in itself may be tortuous.
I may be wrong, but as for today, that is my personal conviction.
Monday 23 March 2009
Preez's Kite Runner
And at 12.50am, as I read the last sentence in the pages that opened before me, I wept. I had just finished reading The Kite Runner.
I wept for those I had known and those I would never know who had suffered at the hand of injustice. The injustice that prowls like a lion seeking who it might overwhelm and or overcome in every life, every family, every city, every town, and every nation. I wept for the very apparent lack of simple humanity in the hearts and mind of many who wage deceit and war in the name of God and or ‘Me-ism’.
What had happened to our world? What had happened, I pondered again? What had happened to me?
Cancer
Raw on the emotions side, I was distressed and disturbed. A few days before I had heard news that a dear friend, with who I had looked forward to sharing decades with in friendship, had passed. Cancer.
There’s a word for you. Malignancy, growth, tumor, malignant cells. All words used to explain the evil. I wept for my friend. Wept for the solitude with which she had come and gone; and I thanked The Lord nevertheless that she was at last in a place where there is no more sorrow. I thanked God that she had died in Him.
In my numbness at the weekend I picked up The Kite Runner. An acclaimed piece of writing. I had bought a copy of the book over a year or two ago but was yet to read it. Once I read the first paragraph, I found it difficult to put the book down.
The Kite Runner
I deliberated at the apparent ease at which life could sometimes deal you a deep blow; a deep injustice.
As I read through The Kite Runner, I guessed that I may just as well have been reading about a family in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Zimbabwe or Angola. For although the setting of the pages that lay in my hands was Afghanistan, I knew that a similar injustice, a similar cancer, had permeated through individual lives, families, towns and nations all around the world.
The injustice in the decisions made by national and international leaders to claim and or reclaim a nation; to attain and or remain in power illegitimately; to overthrow a legitimate government; to deny a people asylum in a safe country because their ‘papers’ are not intact even though the very apparent reason someone might want to receive asylum was precisely because their very perpetrators were those in authority and who they could never approach for legitimate papers.
I thought of families broken and separated. I thought of family generations thereafter suffering deep mental and emotional trauma as a result of the very negative and very deep externality of physical war and conflict on a parent. The broken relationship that such a parent might then have with their spouse and or their children – for which man or woman would not be broken having suffered rape, having suffered the violent and sudden loss of all the things that gave you surety and comfort, having witnessed the murder of members of your family, and having lost hope in amidst of all of the above?
Visiting cancers of the fathers to the third and fourth generation
The children who then grow up not knowing the love of a parent, nor the comfort of a ‘normal’ family home where mother or father is not suffering from schizophrenia or any other mental or emotional illness which means he/she cannot hold down a wage and thus a living. Children then traumatized by the world around them as a result. Looking to comfort and acceptance in the awkward places of the bottle, the brothel; pot or needle.
The broken children that they themselves might then bring up within and without marriage....
A friend who is a psychiatrist once told me, having just returned home from a prison visit where he was assessing mental health of inmates, the world might be a better place if all those who had serious mental illnesses were denied the right to reproduce.
And all the human rights lawyers cried out: ‘foul play.’
Foul Play
Foul play it is. But foul play it also is when such offsprings, perhaps following years and years of counseling which has given them some respite, then seek to make a better life for themselves in a second country and all they get in response from the officials at the other side is a firm: ‘I am sorry.”
Worse still, they get thrown in a detention center. Worst still they are fortunate enough get out of the detention centre and secure employment as a menial labourer and all the people of that nation cry that foreigners are taking our jobs. We don't want foreigners.
Cancer confronts the abused and confused immigrant yet again. Better to, I say, for those who don't want foreigners to confront their political leaders and demand that their foreign policies and international relations promote peace, not war. Peace has many synonyms: justice, responsiveness, transparency, accountability, democracy.
Yes I cried for the injustice all around us. The cancer all around us and the cancer that had taken away my friend. The cancer all around us that, if not detected early can spread to other vital organs of the body – particularly the mind and soul, rendering the body to succumb to a life lived in iniquity, misdemeanor and malignancy, for indeed sometimes the cancer we fight, the war we wage is not in battles fought with all forms of missiles, bullets, shells and AK47s.
Deliverance and thanksgiving
And I pondered yet more. I had a deep need to appreciate God for all the misfortune He had ensured that I escaped. For all the misfortune He had protected me from; and for all the misfortune He will pull me from. I thanked Him that in every situation I have always known peace and hope in Him, and yes: I always knew mercy.
I was reminded that there could always be a meeting place, a respite and a rest even in amidst cancer of all forms. For me that respite has been Him, Christ Jesus. He was also my late friend Priscilla’s respite.
Many times in the midst of her pain whenever Priscilla called me or I called her on the phone she always, always, always comforted and encouraged me. Forgetting all of herself, all of her pain and all of her needs, she always focused on and enquired about me, my wellbeing and the well-being of my family. She joked once when I had called her that she couldn’t really talk right now and that I should call some hours later - so many people were with her in the hospital room, but she knew that I was driving home from work in the Lagos traffic and she would have loved to have kept my mind off the Lagos traffic in conversation.
Christ Jesus: Priscilla's Kite Runner - He can also keep and numb your mind and pain off the traffic of the world that threatens to envelope you with all sorts of cancer.
I wept for those I had known and those I would never know who had suffered at the hand of injustice. The injustice that prowls like a lion seeking who it might overwhelm and or overcome in every life, every family, every city, every town, and every nation. I wept for the very apparent lack of simple humanity in the hearts and mind of many who wage deceit and war in the name of God and or ‘Me-ism’.
What had happened to our world? What had happened, I pondered again? What had happened to me?
Cancer
Raw on the emotions side, I was distressed and disturbed. A few days before I had heard news that a dear friend, with who I had looked forward to sharing decades with in friendship, had passed. Cancer.
There’s a word for you. Malignancy, growth, tumor, malignant cells. All words used to explain the evil. I wept for my friend. Wept for the solitude with which she had come and gone; and I thanked The Lord nevertheless that she was at last in a place where there is no more sorrow. I thanked God that she had died in Him.
In my numbness at the weekend I picked up The Kite Runner. An acclaimed piece of writing. I had bought a copy of the book over a year or two ago but was yet to read it. Once I read the first paragraph, I found it difficult to put the book down.
The Kite Runner
I deliberated at the apparent ease at which life could sometimes deal you a deep blow; a deep injustice.
As I read through The Kite Runner, I guessed that I may just as well have been reading about a family in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Zimbabwe or Angola. For although the setting of the pages that lay in my hands was Afghanistan, I knew that a similar injustice, a similar cancer, had permeated through individual lives, families, towns and nations all around the world.
The injustice in the decisions made by national and international leaders to claim and or reclaim a nation; to attain and or remain in power illegitimately; to overthrow a legitimate government; to deny a people asylum in a safe country because their ‘papers’ are not intact even though the very apparent reason someone might want to receive asylum was precisely because their very perpetrators were those in authority and who they could never approach for legitimate papers.
I thought of families broken and separated. I thought of family generations thereafter suffering deep mental and emotional trauma as a result of the very negative and very deep externality of physical war and conflict on a parent. The broken relationship that such a parent might then have with their spouse and or their children – for which man or woman would not be broken having suffered rape, having suffered the violent and sudden loss of all the things that gave you surety and comfort, having witnessed the murder of members of your family, and having lost hope in amidst of all of the above?
Visiting cancers of the fathers to the third and fourth generation
The children who then grow up not knowing the love of a parent, nor the comfort of a ‘normal’ family home where mother or father is not suffering from schizophrenia or any other mental or emotional illness which means he/she cannot hold down a wage and thus a living. Children then traumatized by the world around them as a result. Looking to comfort and acceptance in the awkward places of the bottle, the brothel; pot or needle.
The broken children that they themselves might then bring up within and without marriage....
A friend who is a psychiatrist once told me, having just returned home from a prison visit where he was assessing mental health of inmates, the world might be a better place if all those who had serious mental illnesses were denied the right to reproduce.
And all the human rights lawyers cried out: ‘foul play.’
Foul Play
Foul play it is. But foul play it also is when such offsprings, perhaps following years and years of counseling which has given them some respite, then seek to make a better life for themselves in a second country and all they get in response from the officials at the other side is a firm: ‘I am sorry.”
Worse still, they get thrown in a detention center. Worst still they are fortunate enough get out of the detention centre and secure employment as a menial labourer and all the people of that nation cry that foreigners are taking our jobs. We don't want foreigners.
Cancer confronts the abused and confused immigrant yet again. Better to, I say, for those who don't want foreigners to confront their political leaders and demand that their foreign policies and international relations promote peace, not war. Peace has many synonyms: justice, responsiveness, transparency, accountability, democracy.
Yes I cried for the injustice all around us. The cancer all around us and the cancer that had taken away my friend. The cancer all around us that, if not detected early can spread to other vital organs of the body – particularly the mind and soul, rendering the body to succumb to a life lived in iniquity, misdemeanor and malignancy, for indeed sometimes the cancer we fight, the war we wage is not in battles fought with all forms of missiles, bullets, shells and AK47s.
Deliverance and thanksgiving
And I pondered yet more. I had a deep need to appreciate God for all the misfortune He had ensured that I escaped. For all the misfortune He had protected me from; and for all the misfortune He will pull me from. I thanked Him that in every situation I have always known peace and hope in Him, and yes: I always knew mercy.
I was reminded that there could always be a meeting place, a respite and a rest even in amidst cancer of all forms. For me that respite has been Him, Christ Jesus. He was also my late friend Priscilla’s respite.
Many times in the midst of her pain whenever Priscilla called me or I called her on the phone she always, always, always comforted and encouraged me. Forgetting all of herself, all of her pain and all of her needs, she always focused on and enquired about me, my wellbeing and the well-being of my family. She joked once when I had called her that she couldn’t really talk right now and that I should call some hours later - so many people were with her in the hospital room, but she knew that I was driving home from work in the Lagos traffic and she would have loved to have kept my mind off the Lagos traffic in conversation.
Christ Jesus: Priscilla's Kite Runner - He can also keep and numb your mind and pain off the traffic of the world that threatens to envelope you with all sorts of cancer.
Friday 6 March 2009
Resilience
I’ve been particularly upbeat this week, but for no apparent reason – actually perhaps it was because someone I liken to the young Omar Sharif unexpectedly popped into town this week.
I see you smile!
But honestly, it’s been a week full of joy.
My Christian Scriptures had laid unread for a while and I remembered that this ought not to be the case. So I began my read of it, I believe, on Sunday evening. Jonah 2 verses 8-9: they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving….salvation is of the LORD.
I smiled. Faith leapt up. Hope stirred within, and yes the love of The Almighty God encompassed all around me.
Better not to observe, better not to dwell on, the lying vanities that surround. The lying vanities and false gods that say to you day in, day out that you life is without purpose and fulfillment; that you and your spouse are ill-matched; that your marriage is failed; that your life is a failure because your bank account cannot even smell let alone purchase a Birkin bag and yet your contemporaries and friends carry them like you carry your beloved, what is it now, DKNYs. Your life is a failure because you can only afford a holiday abroad every three years.
Hmm. The list goes on.
I have concluded that I cannot, quite literally, emotionally afford to observe the lying vanities all around me for indeed I would be forsaking the mercies of God to date on each and every area of my life.
Is it the vanity that says that at this time I ought to have had at least 3.2 children? Or the one that screams: if only my income afforded me the extra finances to have liposuction on my thighs, butt, stomach – erm, you name it. Or the vanity that yells, what now, erm, that I should be my own boss by now? If you care to observe them, there are scores of lying vanities that threaten your sanity day in, day out.
But you know what? Forget that, I say. What I have I am grateful for and what I will have and I will become, by the grace of Almighty God, I look forward to with exuberant expectance. Oh yes.
Then this afternoon in doing some work related research on Leadership I stumble upon this wonderful piece:
Learning from Jonah's in the Belly of the Fish Experience
Aha! That’s what Jonah was talking about. Resilience. In these tough times? Better be resilient.
Don’t go off the wagon, I say. Weeping may endure for a night, but but but but but - joy comes in the morning.
In the above piece, Jim Murray puts it like this:
resilience is the capacity to "bounce back” after disappointment, setbacks or even disasters. It is a leadership attribute that is crucial in unpredictable times or in the face of tough circumstances. It is rightfully acknowledged to be a critical component in one’s emotional health.
He goes on to say:
Resilient people can detect the seeds of opportunity and the enormous potential for learning in difficult and trying situations. They can resist being swept up in the anxiety or panic of the moment and are more willing to adapt as creatively as possible to seemingly daunting challenges.
And when this adversity is conscientiously dealt with and subsequently overcome, resilience is strengthened
Aha – I say again. Rejoice.
I see you smile!
But honestly, it’s been a week full of joy.
My Christian Scriptures had laid unread for a while and I remembered that this ought not to be the case. So I began my read of it, I believe, on Sunday evening. Jonah 2 verses 8-9: they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving….salvation is of the LORD.
I smiled. Faith leapt up. Hope stirred within, and yes the love of The Almighty God encompassed all around me.
Better not to observe, better not to dwell on, the lying vanities that surround. The lying vanities and false gods that say to you day in, day out that you life is without purpose and fulfillment; that you and your spouse are ill-matched; that your marriage is failed; that your life is a failure because your bank account cannot even smell let alone purchase a Birkin bag and yet your contemporaries and friends carry them like you carry your beloved, what is it now, DKNYs. Your life is a failure because you can only afford a holiday abroad every three years.
Hmm. The list goes on.
I have concluded that I cannot, quite literally, emotionally afford to observe the lying vanities all around me for indeed I would be forsaking the mercies of God to date on each and every area of my life.
Is it the vanity that says that at this time I ought to have had at least 3.2 children? Or the one that screams: if only my income afforded me the extra finances to have liposuction on my thighs, butt, stomach – erm, you name it. Or the vanity that yells, what now, erm, that I should be my own boss by now? If you care to observe them, there are scores of lying vanities that threaten your sanity day in, day out.
But you know what? Forget that, I say. What I have I am grateful for and what I will have and I will become, by the grace of Almighty God, I look forward to with exuberant expectance. Oh yes.
Then this afternoon in doing some work related research on Leadership I stumble upon this wonderful piece:
Learning from Jonah's in the Belly of the Fish Experience
Aha! That’s what Jonah was talking about. Resilience. In these tough times? Better be resilient.
Don’t go off the wagon, I say. Weeping may endure for a night, but but but but but - joy comes in the morning.
In the above piece, Jim Murray puts it like this:
resilience is the capacity to "bounce back” after disappointment, setbacks or even disasters. It is a leadership attribute that is crucial in unpredictable times or in the face of tough circumstances. It is rightfully acknowledged to be a critical component in one’s emotional health.
He goes on to say:
Resilient people can detect the seeds of opportunity and the enormous potential for learning in difficult and trying situations. They can resist being swept up in the anxiety or panic of the moment and are more willing to adapt as creatively as possible to seemingly daunting challenges.
And when this adversity is conscientiously dealt with and subsequently overcome, resilience is strengthened
Aha – I say again. Rejoice.
Monday 23 February 2009
Car Bumper Stickers - Lagos Style
The ones from here are absolutely and definitively out of this world. Full of religious insinuation, but many are mostly religious claptrap. Harsh? Well, try this.
GOD PUNISH THE DEVIL.
All words written in bold capitals, the second word is in bold red.
Now tell me, what is God punishing the devil is got to do with anyone? Indeed, does God punish the devil? I don’t know. Anyone who does, let me know the answer to that question. Please.
Why would anyone put such a sticker on their car bumper anyway? Well, it beats me also but I think I can guestimate. I figure it’s something to do with this. Hmm: our religious belief that the devil is our greatest enemy. So far so good. Then, the further belief that this devil is the cause of most if not all of your woes. Then the further, further belief that this devil has colluded with other human beings to frustrate your life. So, God should punish the devil for imposing on your territory.
So you go round announcing to everyone you meet that God should punish the devil.
Never mind that God is omniscient, omnipotent, kind, gracious, loving. The God asking all those who are weary come to Him so that He can give them rest. His mercy is everlasting, as is His love.
Why not focus on worshiping Him in obedience to His Word? Why not focus on the greatness of the love of this God as opposed to asking Him to punish the devil? Why not?
GOD PASS THEM.
The other bumper sticker that caught my attention.
Okay – I actually think everyone of west African descent would understand this statement. Never mind the grammer.
But, for all others, what the sticker is saying is this: God is omniscient and omnipotent. Amen to that.
And, the bumper goes on in implication, that being the case, God is greater than all those pursuing me for evil. Amen to that also.
Come to think of it, that bumper sticker is actually apt, deep and extra.
Selah.
GOD PUNISH THE DEVIL.
All words written in bold capitals, the second word is in bold red.
Now tell me, what is God punishing the devil is got to do with anyone? Indeed, does God punish the devil? I don’t know. Anyone who does, let me know the answer to that question. Please.
Why would anyone put such a sticker on their car bumper anyway? Well, it beats me also but I think I can guestimate. I figure it’s something to do with this. Hmm: our religious belief that the devil is our greatest enemy. So far so good. Then, the further belief that this devil is the cause of most if not all of your woes. Then the further, further belief that this devil has colluded with other human beings to frustrate your life. So, God should punish the devil for imposing on your territory.
So you go round announcing to everyone you meet that God should punish the devil.
Never mind that God is omniscient, omnipotent, kind, gracious, loving. The God asking all those who are weary come to Him so that He can give them rest. His mercy is everlasting, as is His love.
Why not focus on worshiping Him in obedience to His Word? Why not focus on the greatness of the love of this God as opposed to asking Him to punish the devil? Why not?
GOD PASS THEM.
The other bumper sticker that caught my attention.
Okay – I actually think everyone of west African descent would understand this statement. Never mind the grammer.
But, for all others, what the sticker is saying is this: God is omniscient and omnipotent. Amen to that.
And, the bumper goes on in implication, that being the case, God is greater than all those pursuing me for evil. Amen to that also.
Come to think of it, that bumper sticker is actually apt, deep and extra.
Selah.
Tuesday 10 February 2009
Quest
On his neighbour being irresponsible
For some odd reason over the past few days my thoughts have been towards a statement our driver in Sierra Leone made some years ago. Bless him. I can’t quite recall what started the conversation – it was probably the usual case of the driver cutting into the private conversation of his passengers and giving his own, though unwarranted, insights to whatever topic we were discussing.
On this particular occasion though, I must say I was engaged by what he had to say. His penny’s worth on this occasion was that one of his neighbours was being irresponsible and above all was seriously committing a sin against God. Why so?
He explained that the man was unemployed, had been so for a long while and was actually not actively looking for work. Yet the man had over ten young children and one of his wives had just given birth yet again. How would he look after the new baby, let alone the baby’s siblings?
Well, you many think that was not a profound statement but in a country and indeed a continent where to have children and plenty of them, regardless of your ability (financial, emotional, physical and otherwise) to look after and take care of them, is regarded as a raison etre of existence, it was a profound statement – particularly coming from a barely literate individual.
I stopped in my tracks
Here was a man, probably not much older than me, in his 30s but looking at least twice that age because of the effects of war and abject poverty, demonstrating agility of thought, mind and purpose. He himself had lost his two children at the hands of RUF rebels during the war. Post-conflict, he adopted a little girl orphaned by the war, and, by the grace of God, birthed his own biological daughter some years after. He considered his two children truly the apple of his eye.
There was not a day that would go by that he would not buy something on the road for his children – be it a loaf of bread, sweets or a toy. Those kids were his delight.
On bricks and mortar and the corrugated iron roofing sheets
I pondered the difference between this barely literate driver and his neighbour whose story he had told me. Why was one so apparently different from the other even though their background in economic status and social class were apparently almost exactly the same? I recalled that the driver had told us that he had not really gone to school. He learnt to drive and had worked as a driver all his life. And work hard and consistently he did. Gathered enough money to ‘hire’ a banged up 1970s Mercedes from someone and used that as his private taxi hire, paying a monthly fee to the owner of the car. From his earnings he was building a home and a roof over the head of his family. Three rooms. He had literally built that home with his own hands and the support of a few others. He took one of my colleagues to see the home once. Bricks and mortar with corrugated iron roofing sheets covering the bricks.
But it was a home. Our driver was also paying for the school fees of his children – at a Government assisted school – and was looking forward to their future, despite the precariousness of the nation state that he resided in.
Are all born equal?
Then I wondered how he could be so responsible and his neighbour apparently not. I wondered if all indeed are born equal. I wondered whether really we could say that his neighbour is just plain lazy and irresponsible, or might it just be the case that life had dealt him a blow and he did not know how to recover? I really wondered.
I must say that a constant thought that passes through my mind when I come into contact with people who are so apparently poor and living below the poverty line is to wonder ‘what if that were me?’ In the same breath I thank God that by His grace and mercy I am who and where I find myself – on the other side. I thank God. Really I do, for when you have travelled around and within countries ravaged by poverty, in fact, extreme poverty, you must but thank God that your path is positively different and more pleasurable. Thanksgiving.
So I thought of this neighbour of our driver. I sympathised with his plight. Perhaps he deserved no sympathy – I don’t know. All I could imagine was that life must have thrown him a thousand and one blows and he just could not rise again.
Request for Lipton Tea
Then I thought of someone else I had had the privilege of meeting in 1999. Another driver. A hotel driver. He was driving me to our office in Accra from the hotel I was residing at and began to ask the usual questions of which country I had come from etc. He then of course proceeded to tell me his own story. Poor, helpless, the lot.
He then asked me to purchase a box of Lipton Tea for him on my next trip to Ghana.
When I arrived at our office I relayed the conversation to one of my colleagues. “Don’t mind him," my colleagues said. “For all you know that man refused to go to school as a child and was rebellious. That’s why he finds himself where he is.” I chose not to believe my colleague. For how could anyone choose to be unproductive?
Decisions and choices we make
But several years later I realise that some of us do actually choose to be unproductive – myself being no exception. But I think the difference might be that most of us choose to have few moments of unproductiveness (or indeed may be thrown into unproductiveness by a situation - positive or negative) and many moments of productiveness, for that is the path of progress. Sometimes it is about choice. But also a lot of the time it is about His grace and mercy.
At fellowship the other evening, our leader reminded us that whether 2009 is a year of possibilities for any one of us will depend on the decisions we make or choose to make.
Sobering.
May we all choose paths that will lead to progress and fulfilment during this and coming years, even whilst weathering the storms of the path to the day after tomorrow.
For some odd reason over the past few days my thoughts have been towards a statement our driver in Sierra Leone made some years ago. Bless him. I can’t quite recall what started the conversation – it was probably the usual case of the driver cutting into the private conversation of his passengers and giving his own, though unwarranted, insights to whatever topic we were discussing.
On this particular occasion though, I must say I was engaged by what he had to say. His penny’s worth on this occasion was that one of his neighbours was being irresponsible and above all was seriously committing a sin against God. Why so?
He explained that the man was unemployed, had been so for a long while and was actually not actively looking for work. Yet the man had over ten young children and one of his wives had just given birth yet again. How would he look after the new baby, let alone the baby’s siblings?
Well, you many think that was not a profound statement but in a country and indeed a continent where to have children and plenty of them, regardless of your ability (financial, emotional, physical and otherwise) to look after and take care of them, is regarded as a raison etre of existence, it was a profound statement – particularly coming from a barely literate individual.
I stopped in my tracks
Here was a man, probably not much older than me, in his 30s but looking at least twice that age because of the effects of war and abject poverty, demonstrating agility of thought, mind and purpose. He himself had lost his two children at the hands of RUF rebels during the war. Post-conflict, he adopted a little girl orphaned by the war, and, by the grace of God, birthed his own biological daughter some years after. He considered his two children truly the apple of his eye.
There was not a day that would go by that he would not buy something on the road for his children – be it a loaf of bread, sweets or a toy. Those kids were his delight.
On bricks and mortar and the corrugated iron roofing sheets
I pondered the difference between this barely literate driver and his neighbour whose story he had told me. Why was one so apparently different from the other even though their background in economic status and social class were apparently almost exactly the same? I recalled that the driver had told us that he had not really gone to school. He learnt to drive and had worked as a driver all his life. And work hard and consistently he did. Gathered enough money to ‘hire’ a banged up 1970s Mercedes from someone and used that as his private taxi hire, paying a monthly fee to the owner of the car. From his earnings he was building a home and a roof over the head of his family. Three rooms. He had literally built that home with his own hands and the support of a few others. He took one of my colleagues to see the home once. Bricks and mortar with corrugated iron roofing sheets covering the bricks.
But it was a home. Our driver was also paying for the school fees of his children – at a Government assisted school – and was looking forward to their future, despite the precariousness of the nation state that he resided in.
Are all born equal?
Then I wondered how he could be so responsible and his neighbour apparently not. I wondered if all indeed are born equal. I wondered whether really we could say that his neighbour is just plain lazy and irresponsible, or might it just be the case that life had dealt him a blow and he did not know how to recover? I really wondered.
I must say that a constant thought that passes through my mind when I come into contact with people who are so apparently poor and living below the poverty line is to wonder ‘what if that were me?’ In the same breath I thank God that by His grace and mercy I am who and where I find myself – on the other side. I thank God. Really I do, for when you have travelled around and within countries ravaged by poverty, in fact, extreme poverty, you must but thank God that your path is positively different and more pleasurable. Thanksgiving.
So I thought of this neighbour of our driver. I sympathised with his plight. Perhaps he deserved no sympathy – I don’t know. All I could imagine was that life must have thrown him a thousand and one blows and he just could not rise again.
Request for Lipton Tea
Then I thought of someone else I had had the privilege of meeting in 1999. Another driver. A hotel driver. He was driving me to our office in Accra from the hotel I was residing at and began to ask the usual questions of which country I had come from etc. He then of course proceeded to tell me his own story. Poor, helpless, the lot.
He then asked me to purchase a box of Lipton Tea for him on my next trip to Ghana.
When I arrived at our office I relayed the conversation to one of my colleagues. “Don’t mind him," my colleagues said. “For all you know that man refused to go to school as a child and was rebellious. That’s why he finds himself where he is.” I chose not to believe my colleague. For how could anyone choose to be unproductive?
Decisions and choices we make
But several years later I realise that some of us do actually choose to be unproductive – myself being no exception. But I think the difference might be that most of us choose to have few moments of unproductiveness (or indeed may be thrown into unproductiveness by a situation - positive or negative) and many moments of productiveness, for that is the path of progress. Sometimes it is about choice. But also a lot of the time it is about His grace and mercy.
At fellowship the other evening, our leader reminded us that whether 2009 is a year of possibilities for any one of us will depend on the decisions we make or choose to make.
Sobering.
May we all choose paths that will lead to progress and fulfilment during this and coming years, even whilst weathering the storms of the path to the day after tomorrow.
Thursday 22 January 2009
Coelho and Madiba
It’s always a good idea to have any one of Paulo Coelho’s book within easy reach. It’s an even better idea to start the year reading one of them.
Quite by chance Paulo Coelho’s writings came up in a conversation I was having with an old friend in Dubai via BlackBerry messenger. Wisdom at last – we had learnt to use the free service of instant messaging from our BlackBerry as opposed to making those unfairly priced voice calls.
We marvelled at how our circle of friendships from two decades or so ago, had quite suddenly remerged and we were literally finding each other again. No, not on Facebook, but via the traditional phone call, the unexpected email, the longing and nostalgia to reconnect – “the universe is working its magic,” my friend told me. Hmm, that sounded like a Coelho phrase. So I asked my friend if she was a fan.
Of course, was the reply. We discussed our favourite book from the Coelho collection and my friend recommended The Fifth Mountain and Eleven Minutes as the next Coelho books to read. So, a dash to the bookshop ensued. Well, it was actually a dash to an Accra bookshop because good bookshops are few and far between here, but that is another story for another day.
The Fifth Mountain
So I am reading The Fifth Mountain. As I am reading the Fifth Mountain, I am constantly reminded of Nelson Mandela’s great speech: “Our Deepest Fear.” Why so? Well, here it is – all credits et al, of course, to Madiba:
'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.'
Nelson Mandela
I don’t want to ruin your enjoyment of the book by giving the plot away – I just want to whet your appetite for the core of the book’s message.
Elijah, the prophet. You, the prophet. Me, the prophet
So, the main character, a ‘prophet’ called Elijah, is called by God. God uses him to perform significant miracles and to commune with His people. God also wants to use him to draw His people towards Himself. As a young prophet, Elijah does this with great zeal but as time goes by he realises that this destiny of his also puts him in ever present danger and he wonders if he is a prophet at all, if indeed he has been delirious when he thought he communed with angels, and wonders also what this path, filled with disappointments and challenges, was really worth the trade off he chose, i.e. leaving his work as a successful carpenter to answer to God’s call.
Frustrated and at the end of his tether, Elijah wrestles with God. He pours out his frustrations, reminds God that he has lost love and suffered tremendously as a result of following Him, and although perhaps he admitted that he had sinned one too many times, he challenges God that God Himself has sinned against him by making him go through such difficult times even as a prophet. He would confess and repent of his sin to God, if the Almighty God did the same to him. Quid quo pro. We call it equals and move on
Blasphemy. Abomination.
No. Coelho demonstrates to his readers that it is exactly at this point of wrestling with God that we win. For if you don’t ever question your quest and your faith you in fact claim to be God for it is only Him, the All Knowing, All Seeing God Who knows today, yesterday and tomorrow at the same time can have the confidence and surety that ‘everything is going to be alright’ ALL the time.
Coelho’s call is to yet still pursue dreams and destiny, accepting the joy and the pain of the journey.
Then I thought of Madiba’s speech – our deepest fear is that we are inadequate.
The trials and the tribulations, the seemingly fleeting joy and the seemingly ever present pain and challenges.
Our deepest fear is that we are inadequate.
Better to just give up on your dream. Better to just forget that hope. Better to lose the thought that there is a potentially a glorious destiny for each individual .
Madiba’s cry, and I guess Coelho’s cry, is this:
Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Quite by chance Paulo Coelho’s writings came up in a conversation I was having with an old friend in Dubai via BlackBerry messenger. Wisdom at last – we had learnt to use the free service of instant messaging from our BlackBerry as opposed to making those unfairly priced voice calls.
We marvelled at how our circle of friendships from two decades or so ago, had quite suddenly remerged and we were literally finding each other again. No, not on Facebook, but via the traditional phone call, the unexpected email, the longing and nostalgia to reconnect – “the universe is working its magic,” my friend told me. Hmm, that sounded like a Coelho phrase. So I asked my friend if she was a fan.
Of course, was the reply. We discussed our favourite book from the Coelho collection and my friend recommended The Fifth Mountain and Eleven Minutes as the next Coelho books to read. So, a dash to the bookshop ensued. Well, it was actually a dash to an Accra bookshop because good bookshops are few and far between here, but that is another story for another day.
The Fifth Mountain
So I am reading The Fifth Mountain. As I am reading the Fifth Mountain, I am constantly reminded of Nelson Mandela’s great speech: “Our Deepest Fear.” Why so? Well, here it is – all credits et al, of course, to Madiba:
'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.'
Nelson Mandela
I don’t want to ruin your enjoyment of the book by giving the plot away – I just want to whet your appetite for the core of the book’s message.
Elijah, the prophet. You, the prophet. Me, the prophet
So, the main character, a ‘prophet’ called Elijah, is called by God. God uses him to perform significant miracles and to commune with His people. God also wants to use him to draw His people towards Himself. As a young prophet, Elijah does this with great zeal but as time goes by he realises that this destiny of his also puts him in ever present danger and he wonders if he is a prophet at all, if indeed he has been delirious when he thought he communed with angels, and wonders also what this path, filled with disappointments and challenges, was really worth the trade off he chose, i.e. leaving his work as a successful carpenter to answer to God’s call.
Frustrated and at the end of his tether, Elijah wrestles with God. He pours out his frustrations, reminds God that he has lost love and suffered tremendously as a result of following Him, and although perhaps he admitted that he had sinned one too many times, he challenges God that God Himself has sinned against him by making him go through such difficult times even as a prophet. He would confess and repent of his sin to God, if the Almighty God did the same to him. Quid quo pro. We call it equals and move on
Blasphemy. Abomination.
No. Coelho demonstrates to his readers that it is exactly at this point of wrestling with God that we win. For if you don’t ever question your quest and your faith you in fact claim to be God for it is only Him, the All Knowing, All Seeing God Who knows today, yesterday and tomorrow at the same time can have the confidence and surety that ‘everything is going to be alright’ ALL the time.
Coelho’s call is to yet still pursue dreams and destiny, accepting the joy and the pain of the journey.
Then I thought of Madiba’s speech – our deepest fear is that we are inadequate.
The trials and the tribulations, the seemingly fleeting joy and the seemingly ever present pain and challenges.
Our deepest fear is that we are inadequate.
Better to just give up on your dream. Better to just forget that hope. Better to lose the thought that there is a potentially a glorious destiny for each individual .
Madiba’s cry, and I guess Coelho’s cry, is this:
Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Tuesday 20 January 2009
Lessons in living... and loving
This popped up in my inbox this morning - I am blessed!
As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love.
So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.
Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love.
So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.
Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
Thursday 8 January 2009
2009
2009 – the year of possibilities
Possibilities in amidst the downturn.
Possibilities in amidst the price of oil coming tumbling down
Possibilities in amidst our currency losing value
Possibilities in amidst securities losing value
Possibilities in amidst Obama’s imminent inauguration
Possibilities in amidst Ghana showing the world that an African nation is serious about governance and democracy
Possibilities in amidst billionaires committing suicide and the world crying out for help.
These are interesting times, but remember ye that He that keepeth Israel never slumbers nor sleeps. God is still on the throne.
It was only this morning that someone reminded me that it was during The Great Depression when billionaires then were also committing suicide that some millionaires and billionaires were created – like the man in Idaho who ‘invented’ French fries. Oh yes. We’ll need to pray to The Creator of The Universe to open our eyes to see and take hold of the opportunities around us in this New Year.
Business Unusual
It’s not business as usual in 2009, but business unusual.
That business idea must not wait for another moment in your head. Forget sending out your CV to that corporation because you think they’ll see through your experience that you are the man for the job. Write them a business proposal bespoke to them with your idea and then attach your CV.
That business idea that needs funding and the banks are saying ‘sorry’. Look, forget the fact your securities have lost value. Pick one from your portfolio. Liquidate it and use that as capital. The returns, with careful business planning and management, will probably be greater in that investment as opposed to the stock remaining on the market and losing value.
That piece of land that you want to buy. Yes, right now is the time. Even if you bought it now and left it for one year unturned the investment will yield you bountiful reward in a year’s time.
2009: the year of opportunities.
Like David I am encouraging myself in The Lord even as I write. It’s going to be a great year. Alas, it’s got to be: I’ll be 39 on 09/09/09.
Here's to Him through Whom what is impossible with man becomes possible. Selah.
And to Him again through Whom ALL things are possible. Selah
My city, My Lagos
The Art of Living – Ruka readers, sincere apologies.,
Several people have reminded me that I haven’t web logged since November. Hmm. As if I needed reminding!
Well, the thing is…I’ve been zapped by Lagos living. I am not even sure that the word ‘zap’ is in the world’s lexicon, but zap is the only way that I think could describe how I began to feel physically after nine months of being in Lagos.
The thing is, I have carried on as if I was in Accra, London, or any other ‘normal’ city of this Planet Earth. The timetable and activity list remained much the same: work (including international travel), church stewardship, MBA, gym, family time and me-time. No change management plan, here.
All well and good, but this is Lagos.
The 5am latest rise. The jump into the car to the gym. The sighing on the way to the gym as a 30 min journey becomes a journey of one and half hours. The rush to thump on the treadmill for 40 minutes. The mad rush to get into the showers and freshen up for work in amidst 20/30 odd other women. The determination to get to work on time. And the determination to have 10 minutes of downtime and me-time riding to the office.
Then the office...
The demands of the deliverables. What is outstanding? Hmm. Ok, must resolve that today. The demands of the boss and bosses. The demands of the client. The demands of office business management and adminstration. The demands of….
The ride of the client site. On a good day 40 minutes. On a bad day two hours. Upon arrival at the client site the meeting that was scheduled for 2pm has now been cancelled. No one thought to call to notify. I drive back to base – praying that there won’t be traffic on the way.
Today’s a great day and there’s no traffic. Back at base. I remember that I haven’t eaten breakfast, let alone lunch. I send the driver out – literally down the road – 10 minutes at most – to buy lunch. He gets caught up in traffic. He returns at 4pm. I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at one meal.
I continue work. At 7.30pm I figure I should probably go home now. Traffic would have died down. It has – somewhat. Catch up with emails in the car. Make a few calls to friends. Read a bit in the car. I get home at 9.25pm.
There’s a power outage. There’s no fuel for the generator. Driver has to go and buy fuel. I wait for 30 minutes in candlelight (hmm, sounds romantic, no? Not when you are in your suit, sweating. Sorry, perspiring).
Driver returns. Generator fuelled and there’s power. I undress and put on my slacks and the TV. Half an hour of peace. Call my Mum (who thinks, by the way, that I am still in Accra and never came to Lagos because she probably saw more of me per annum whilst I was in Accra).
Laptop comes out. Reading for MBA comes out. Work reading comes out. The generator is pounding in my head. Never mind, this is Lagos. Grin and bear it.
It is a quarter past midnight. I must sleep. The generator is pounding in my head
Then church…
The weekly reporting. The membership database management. The people management. The meetings.
Then the MBA
“Ruka, is there anything I can help you with? You haven’t logged on for a couple of weeks now.” Need I say more. I am reading, for goodness sakes! Reading to catch up on what I am supposed to be doing so that when I do log on I can sound somehow comprehensible....!
Dearly beloved readers: do you empathise a bit?
Pretty please, do. Handsome please, do!
Here’s to the New Year 2009! A year of possibilities and great, uncommon testimonies!
Several people have reminded me that I haven’t web logged since November. Hmm. As if I needed reminding!
Well, the thing is…I’ve been zapped by Lagos living. I am not even sure that the word ‘zap’ is in the world’s lexicon, but zap is the only way that I think could describe how I began to feel physically after nine months of being in Lagos.
The thing is, I have carried on as if I was in Accra, London, or any other ‘normal’ city of this Planet Earth. The timetable and activity list remained much the same: work (including international travel), church stewardship, MBA, gym, family time and me-time. No change management plan, here.
All well and good, but this is Lagos.
The 5am latest rise. The jump into the car to the gym. The sighing on the way to the gym as a 30 min journey becomes a journey of one and half hours. The rush to thump on the treadmill for 40 minutes. The mad rush to get into the showers and freshen up for work in amidst 20/30 odd other women. The determination to get to work on time. And the determination to have 10 minutes of downtime and me-time riding to the office.
Then the office...
The demands of the deliverables. What is outstanding? Hmm. Ok, must resolve that today. The demands of the boss and bosses. The demands of the client. The demands of office business management and adminstration. The demands of….
The ride of the client site. On a good day 40 minutes. On a bad day two hours. Upon arrival at the client site the meeting that was scheduled for 2pm has now been cancelled. No one thought to call to notify. I drive back to base – praying that there won’t be traffic on the way.
Today’s a great day and there’s no traffic. Back at base. I remember that I haven’t eaten breakfast, let alone lunch. I send the driver out – literally down the road – 10 minutes at most – to buy lunch. He gets caught up in traffic. He returns at 4pm. I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at one meal.
I continue work. At 7.30pm I figure I should probably go home now. Traffic would have died down. It has – somewhat. Catch up with emails in the car. Make a few calls to friends. Read a bit in the car. I get home at 9.25pm.
There’s a power outage. There’s no fuel for the generator. Driver has to go and buy fuel. I wait for 30 minutes in candlelight (hmm, sounds romantic, no? Not when you are in your suit, sweating. Sorry, perspiring).
Driver returns. Generator fuelled and there’s power. I undress and put on my slacks and the TV. Half an hour of peace. Call my Mum (who thinks, by the way, that I am still in Accra and never came to Lagos because she probably saw more of me per annum whilst I was in Accra).
Laptop comes out. Reading for MBA comes out. Work reading comes out. The generator is pounding in my head. Never mind, this is Lagos. Grin and bear it.
It is a quarter past midnight. I must sleep. The generator is pounding in my head
Then church…
The weekly reporting. The membership database management. The people management. The meetings.
Then the MBA
“Ruka, is there anything I can help you with? You haven’t logged on for a couple of weeks now.” Need I say more. I am reading, for goodness sakes! Reading to catch up on what I am supposed to be doing so that when I do log on I can sound somehow comprehensible....!
Dearly beloved readers: do you empathise a bit?
Pretty please, do. Handsome please, do!
Here’s to the New Year 2009! A year of possibilities and great, uncommon testimonies!
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