OUR WORLD OF SHAME

I have not frequently felt impressed by most countries in Europe.  It is not because I hold slavery and its impact against them, although I could.  It is not even because I fault them for colonizing and exploiting Africa. I could do that as well but I would never do so because I believe that African countries have generally had sufficient time since their respective independence to transform themselves into beacons of hope and respectability.  However, they haven't because Africans have mastered the art of embracing corrupt oppressors and massaging the egos of tyrants who kill them. 

Most European countries do not impress me because they continue to live true to their history as  ethnic and racial purists.  I have long been convinced that, if they could, many European countries would deny entry into, and residence in, their countries of people whose presence would reduce the homogeneity of those societies.  I suspect that they would even deny citizenship to people born in their countries who did not exactly come from the predominant stock. 

In the last few weeks, with Syrian and other migrants arriving on European shores as refugees, we have seen the worst of European sensibilities.  Except for the leaders of Germany and Austria, other European leaders have engaged in a race to the gutter.  Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Heinz Fischer of Austria have been the lone voices of reason in a wilderness riddled with hypocrites who talk well and pretend to mean well - until there is a crisis.  In the last few days, Prime Minister Cameron of Britain has begun to talk about acting with some compassion by offering to take in 4,000 migrants a year for the next five years.  Perhaps that should make up, or at least provide some cover for his previously expressed position on this matter.  It is often in times of crises that we get to see the true colors of those who try to present themselves as superior to others - as Europe has historically done. This is a time of crisis, and European leaders have not acquitted themselves well.  

Certainly, Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, took the cake when, in his effort to turn Europeans against the migrants, he wrote in a German newspaper during the week that preventing the current migrants from entering Europe was very essential in order to "keep Europe Christian".  The questions that one should probably ask are: Is Europe a Christian continent? Was it ever?  Were the crimes of slavery and colonialism perpetrated by Europe grand Christian acts or is anyone a sinner who considers those acts as evil?  What part of Christianity encourages believers to turn their backs on needy strangers and to deny them of water, shelter and food? 

This is not just about Europe, however.  Between 1967 and 1970, Ghana expelled Nigerians from Ghana, kicking them right into the the middle of a dangerous civil war that was at that time raging in Nigeria.  The Nigerians were forced to leave their property and other investments behind - which were then taken over by Ghanaians.  In 1985, Nigeria gave a week's ultimatum to 700,000 undocumented Ghanaian immigrants to leave the country.  In my mind's eye, I can still see that period and can still recall the pain that I felt and the uncertainty that I saw as I watched departing Ghanaians during that time.  This year, we have seen South African blacks kill black immigrants from other African countries and try to intimidate others into leaving South Africa. We have also seen the Dominican Republic kick fellow Dominicans of Haitian descent out of Haiti despite being born and raised in the Dominican Republic. We have seen conservatives in the United States demand that our country deny entry to children coming into the United States as migrants.  We have also seen U.S. and European politicians speak about certain segments of our immigrant populations in extremely derogatory terms while some in society commend those politicians for being "sincere", "courageous" and "politically incorrect".  That is the stuff of which xenophobia is made.

  

We must not stay silent when people give voice to darkness. Instead, we should be ashamed that such people live in our midst and, in that shame, we must rise to act before their voices further turn us and our world into a miasma of hopelessness and despair.  We must always demand sanity and kindness from ourselves and others, especially those in positions of power and responsibility.  By so doing we become capable of making ourselves responsible custodians of a world that was given for our care.  

A Lingering Cultural Shame: The Plight of Our Daughters

By Paul Inyang. Maryland. USA.

I watched a movie recently, that left me without any doubt—in pain and wondering very much about certain aspects of our culture. I would recommend the movie toeveryone—both women and especially men. It is a difficult but worthwhile watch. The title of the movie is “DRY”—written, acted and produced by Stephanie Linus. Its probably one of the best movies I have watched all year. Considering the subject matter, I would have expected the movie hall to be full but to my chagrin, they were probably seven (7) other people in the theatre with me. This story is riveting and it tore at my emotions and left me raw—considering, I have never met a movie I have not slept through. The story was about the origins of Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF) in our culture, utilizing a very familiar cultural frame of reference.These are stories we would rather not tell ourselves because some of us still subscribe to vestiges of a culture that support the process that brings this plague about. Imagine that a 12 year old girl, is married off to a man, clearly in his fifties-sixties, with three other wives. Her “mother” willingly gives her away, to this man who cannot understand the sin in marrying a child much-less understanding that raping her is one of the worst sins he could commit on this earth. As a result, the girl becomes pregnant and is forced to have a baby (which dies) and the condition leaves her estranged from her community and an unrepentant and unforgiving society that also ostracizes her. Additionally, the very man that is the source of the trouble “returns” her to her family—who in turn (her father) reject her.

I hope I am not ruining the movie for others but these are just nuggets which at minimum gives you a glimpse into the thinking behind the movie, which is a rich depiction of real life story, that goes more in-depth than this. Only a Nigerian could have told the story. Sadly, though the story is based on the culture of the people in Northern Nigeria the practice is not limited or unique to this geographical area—it happens all over the country. So-much-so that what would be considered and is pedophilia is common practice—even some of our legislators are known to engage in it. There is a cruel mix of ignorance and total disregard to the humanity of women folk and children, who are robbed of their childhood and damaged at a tender age. Women in this condition often cannot control their bladder discharges and most are susceptible to septicemia and without surgery live a totally woeful life. All kinds of myths are attached to the condition ranging from witchcraft to adultery—all bogus. Wow, could this still be tolerated with no significant response from the government? Many of us see these things and look the other way very sure that because we are educated it would never happen to us.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have heard about VVF before but have never seen it up-close. I was left literally in tears, when I consider the sheer magnitude of the problem in our culture. It is almost like feeding the beast—everything is hush, hush. There are a few organizations that are offering help, like Nka Uforo Iban, a socio-cultural group in the Washington DC metropolitan area, USA. Most of the work is on treatment, as should be the case but that of awareness and education appears to be missing. I have asked and am yet to see any legislative agenda on such a critical subject. In the mean time, little girls are loosing their lives because of the uncontained and unchecked avarice of men who would rather maintain their culture and “religious” practices as barbaric and inhumane as it is. When does a culture out-live its relevance? Must we be stuck in the dark ages, when the rest of the world is moving unto bigger and better things. Yes, there are things we should never emulate but what is the redeeming characteristic in this particular aspect of our culture??? We must find a way to act on behalf of our children and our mothers. Those who are responsible for carrying out these dastardly act must be educated about the full impact of their egregious actions. There should be a good deterrent for these practices through the law. People who defile young children in the name of culture should go to jail. Beyond treating these women there should be an effort to sensitize our people. Jeez….it must come to an end. God help us all.

FORGIVENESS AND RESTORATION

Golda Micah 

August 15, 2015 

 

 

This week, God granted me the opportunity to watch the widely acclaimed play, JOSEPH, at the famous Sight and Sound Theaters. This is the largest faith-based live theater in the United States and anyone who has been there would understand why it carries the nickname "Christian Broadway". Such a person would also understand why Sight and Sound is fondly referred to as "the place where the Bible comes to life".

The play Joseph is a greatly remarkable story of interest, intrigue and meaning. Packed with emotion, it is difficult to see this play and not think about our relationship with one another and with God.  After suffering many major hazards in a short life time that seemed like eternity, Joseph's otherwise forgettable dream not only maintained value and newness but came to life in his lifetime.  For that dream to become a reality, Joseph became Zaphnath-Paaneah (a name given to him by Pharaoh), meaning "man to whom mysteries are revealed".  Eventually, he moved from a very ordinary position in life and became the governor and the ruler of the land of Egypt. It is a story that should teach us all that our lives are planned out, not by man but by God who is our Maker and that our dreams are capable of coming true, no matter how long they may seem to linger.

 

Unfortunately, we now live in a world that is being ripped apart by our inability to forgive, our constant need to find fault in others and our remarkable ability to hold grudges even over matters of little importance.  As a result, families are shattering, communities are being torn apart, nations are at war and peacemakers are being condemned .  Yet, as difficult as it was for Joseph, he found the strength from God to forgive his brothers who sold him. Forgiveness is not easy and doesn't come naturally, However, the strength to forgive can be attained because it comes from God.  We owe ourselves and our world the responsibility to build relationships and not destroy them, and to build others up rather than tearing them down just because we choose to harbor grudges over peace and forgiveness from which restoration comes.

OUR DIFFERENCES SHOULD NOT DIVIDE US. HELP SOMEONE! - BY PAUL INYANG

Paul Inyang, Odenton, MD 

Just the other day my good friend Dr. Ohiro wrote about love and our differences. It was a timely piece and insightful especially because it is about real life events. Stories like that grab us and leaves us thinking about our humanity. Differences are not so new to us but the human story behind such issues are the ones that remain with people. It got me to thinking about a summer job I once had. I took my long vacation down south—Charlotte North Carolina.

In my financial desperation I took on selling Tupperware. You have never been used until you do a job like this one. Your salary it totally dependent on commission for selling every piece in a set of dishes or house ware. The worse part is that you have to drive around strange neighborhoods, trying to sell unattractive products to equally uninterested and financially strapped “customers”. Worse yet, you have to generate your own leads. I want you to imagine a black foreigner with a thick accent trying to sell dishes and knives in a blue collar white neighborhood. There are other names for such neighborhoods but I will stay away from such references.  I happened to knocked on the door of an old lady and in a flash was face to face with a shot gun and someone shouting—“n…..g…r get off my damn porch”. My life flashed before me and I thought I would be blown to smithereens. You can imagine the race of the person I am referring to and juxtapose that with the notion of the South, white robes, burning crosses and the confederate flag. I know that I am bombarding some of you with images that you may not be familiar with but they are all symbols of hate. Believe it or not it made no difference to me, because I was a hungry and a motivated young man. I ran for the day but subsequently went back—foolishly in my naiveté. I simply did not know better. Perhaps if I did, I would not have done so.

History is for the books but what I found out much later, is that people live them and if one is fortunate enough to live through it, they do have a story to share. But ultimately, I made some friends in that neighborhood who were able to guide me to safety—though most of them could not afford to buy from me except for a few and a very special lady—the same one who pointed a gun at me. I believe, I was just a lucky guy or just fell into the category of the fool who by all accounts, as they they say, is taken care of by God.

The story is a much longer one because it did not happen overnight. People are not always who they appear to be until you are able to understand that there is always a story behind what you see. Yes, we are different and I must have appeared to be “something” to my lady friend but somehow we got past it. Hate has no place in our world and we have actually more in common than we care to admit. The problem is that we rarely take the time to encounter each other in meaningful ways. We may also not have the patience or the intuitive persistence to find out about each other and hear our different stories. You really do not know anyone until you can stop the noise in your head and listen to them tell you their true story. It may expose your vulnerability but it will make you human. Most of all, it will help you learn to love despite our differences. So be kind to others—especially those you may not know or understand. Help someone.

IT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY

Vanity now reigns in a world where love, humane values and generosity ought.   All forms of 

hatred are increasingly becoming the building blocks of a cottage industry that is reshaping a world that could otherwise do without social injustice, more hate, more malice and unimaginable levels bigotry.  Therefore we leave ourselves and posterity in a situation where those who consider pride, mistrust, hate and cruelty as virtues are increasingly the ones with the closest access to the loudest megaphones.  It wasn't supposed to be this way.

We have left behind a time when a person's word was his/her bond and people were recognized and respected for their humanity. Now we celebrate people for the sizes of their bank accounts and amount of material possessions that they have acquired, regardless of the manner in which they acquired the possessions.  Society now frequently judges the quality and stature of a man by his wealth rather than by the quality of his character.  People and institutions are afraid to rein in a
rich man for bad behavior while those that we perceive as poor have just about lost their right to be considered human. Consequently, advocates for the poor must now work harder than they ever did to ensure that the poor are fed and housed, and that the poor can maintain a hope that somehow, our world can regain a conscience and become a just world that includes them.   Unfortunately, the task of caring advocates for equality and justice is made even harder because even the poor and oppressed
now have among them very large contingents of bigoted and ignorant individuals  that are cheerleaders for their oppressors.  As a result, hateful bigotry, pride and cruelty has become prevalent at all levels of society, even among those who virtually live in houses of worship.  Truly, it wasn't supposed to be this way.

Through history, wars have been fought against bigotry. That was the reason for World War II, the American Civil War and America's involvement in Kosovo as recently as 1999.  Today, the hateful rhetoric constantly directed at Nigeria's new president, Buhari, by members of the party that he vanquished, the cruelly racist venom spewed daily at President Obama of the United States, the
inhumanity that is perpetrated by racist and oppressive police officers, the Islamic State (ISIS), Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, the Klu Klux Klan (KKK), Latin American drug lords and other terrorist groups around the world are such that one is left wondering when the world went off the rails and what hope there is for future generations.  Today, we have people all over the globe who wish that slavery never ended, people who would have our world apologize for rising against ethnic cleaning and authority figures who would rather that a big part of our population did not exist because they possess the "wrong" skin color, bear the "wrong" names, live on the "wrong" side of the tracks, practice the "wrong" religion and belong to the "wrong" political parties.



President Buhari of Nigeria

In today's politics, it is no longer sufficient or even necessary to debate ideas; people must now shout and beat down their opponents who they believe they must present as inferior and terrible human beings unworthy of respect. Society now honors those who can shout the loudest and rewards them with adoration, money and promotion.  Therefore, talk media hosts and their guests must shout at
one another to maintain high ratings, evangelical pastors must shout at their congregations through microphones to build up their prestige and fill their pews.  Regardless of race, class or culture, many men in today's world continue to perpetuate the old faulty thinking that they must shout down their female partners if they are to be considered qualified to lay claim to manhood.

As I see it, this is an increasingly unjust world replete with failed institutions and organizations, failed leaders and failed followers. Our world has lost its way and must begin a journey back to basics.  Everyday, we are digging for ourselves holes from which we must begin to climb out because it could become too late.  Perhaps we should long and work for a day when love, justice and truth take their rightful places in the community of mortals. I write this knowing that I may be asking too much.  But it is perhaps also because there is a part of me that believes in the inherent goodness of man. This is not to say that I think that man is by nature good and imperfect but that I believe that it is possible for man to possess, attain and display some measure of goodness because man, after all, was made in the image of a good Creator.

AFRICA AND AFRICANS: A CONTINENT AND PEOPLE IN NEED OF A MIRROR

Across Africa, human life is being ravaged by poverty, disease, armed conflict and very bad leadership. How a continent so blessed in natural and human resources can also seem so cursed is inexplicable because it is unfathomable.  Yet, that is Africa's plight.  Immensely blessed by God, Africans have inflicted pain on their own Continent - and continue to do so.  By so doing, they (we) have made the Continent seem as though it is forsaken by its Creator. For several decades, the African mindset has been programmed to believe that Africans are not responsible for Africa's problems. Instead, non-Africans (mostly Westerners) are blamed for the conditions of life in Africa. In the circumstances, there is a consequent expectation that the responsibility for resolving Africa's perpetual state of crisis belongs to non-Africans. In my opinion, that reasoning smacks of a level of intellectual dishonesty that stinks to the utmost.

There is no denying the fact that Africa had its unfair share of oppression and exploitation at the hands of European colonialists who pillaged the Continent, tortured the African people, and battered them physically, psychologically, emotionally and economically. African history is replete with evidence of the destruction that those decades of thievery, trickery and violence by European colonialists represented. But it is also true that African nations have had a long time since their varying years of independence to stand on their feet and design their own fate. Unfortunately, most have not done so. Instead, people who claim to be African leaders have done nothing but run their countries to the ground. In my opinion, it is time for Africans to end the blame game and begin to hold themselves and their so-called leaders accountable for the plight of the Continent and its inhabitants.

I am conscious of the fact that this is a touchy position that I am expressing, but it is only because this position represents a fact that many of my fellow Africans would rather avoid.  I dare anyone to provide a convincing description of how white people are responsible for the genocide in Sudan's Dafur region in recent years; or for the ongoing violence in Somalia; or for the murderous plundering of Liberia by Samuel Doe and the likes of Charles Taylor; Mugabe's murderous dictatorship in Zimbabwe; the instability in the Congo, Chad, Niger and other African countries; or for the dictatorial rule in Guinea-Bissau, the murderous "Lord Resistance Army" in Uganda, Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan's band of thieves and Boko Haram, and the ultra corrupt leadership in Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, Burundi, the Republic of Benin and other African countries.


Honesty demands that we take a sincere look into our souls if we desire to see Africa's plight more clearly. When we do so, we can begin to understand our own roles in the saga that Africa has come to represent for several decades now.  When we are honest with ourselves, we will know exactly what we must do to restore the Continent to a level of glory that Africa once experienced.  We will also be able to see a glaring image of a Continent that, for centuries, has been victimized first by foreigners, and then by its own people. We will see a Continent in which people aspire to become corrupt bosses rather than honest leaders. We will see an African continent, indeed a Mother, that was once raped by strangers and is now being raped by its own children who posterity placed in positions to care for her. There is no greater form of abuse than this, and there is no greater sense of responsibility than for all Africans to look in the mirror and make the individual and collective change that is needed for Africa to be restored to respectability.

OUR LOVE VACUUM

Several months ago, I spent an evening with a 91 year-old man that I had just met for the first time.  He invited me to his very beautiful home and, as he walked me through and introduced his family to me in the pictures all over his wall and his cabinets and desks, I was drawn to a picture of one of his grandsons, an attorney based in the Midwest.  The young man was leaning and praying over a name stone somewhere in Poland.  I asked questions about that picture, and then we talked about a picture taken with all of his children, and another that had his wife, himself and two granddaughters.  He informed me that his wife died 2 years ago – 3 weeks after that photograph was taken.  After answering my questions about that and other pictures, including one taken just with his wife, my host said in his soft voice: “Let’s go back and sit at the table”. 

As we walked back to the table, I remarked that he was a really blessed man to have such a successful family. Then he said: “I was also a very successful business man who made payroll for hundreds of staff every week….but what’s the use? In the end, what does anything amount to?”  In an emotional state, he discussed the loss of his wife and his loneliness despite frequent contacts by his family.  He opened a window for me into his life and I realized that, unlike anyone that I knew, his childhood was cut very short by a vacuum in man’s refusal to apply the Golden Rule that we love others as much as we love ourselves.  When I asked him about his childhood in Poland, his response hit me like a pack of bricks: “I’ve got a number”, he said, “do you want to see it?”  Without waiting for my response, he undid his left sleeve and showed me a tattooed number that, as a child, he was given in the Holocaust camp at Auschwitz. I was dumbfounded.  When I gathered myself, I told him that my son had visited a Holocaust camp in Austria (Mathausen) as a teenager and still would not discuss the experience.  “I was there in that camp too at age 13, then I was returned to Germany when I was 15”, my guest told me.

Is there anyone reading this article who has “a number”?  Is there any reader of this article whose life was forcefully wasted in a Holocaust camp for no reason other than his/her heritage?  I often forget that I was born and raised with privilege – a reality that I was reminded of when I traveled with my son to a few African countries last summer, including the country of my birth.  We (I included) spend so much time discussing the privileged status of others and we neglect to see that we might also be privileged in ways that are different.  If I saw that man before I got to spend time with him, I would have focused on the obvious aspects of his life, not knowing the less glamorous aspects of the road that he traveled.  So it is difficult for us to love as we ought because between us is a vacuum of knowledge that we as humans remain unwilling to bridge.  I do not believe what some would have us believe: that we lack the capacity to bridge that gap or to love.  Instead, I believe that we choose not to, partly because it seems easier to capitalize on differences either for personal or group gain than it is to let ourselves become humble and vulnerable enough to love those that we consider more or less privileged, different, offensive or less in status than us.

It is time to pray and work hard for our neighbors, our communities and our world to fill that vacuum that seems to be getting even wider due to what appears to be our diminishing willingness to love others.  Sometimes I desire to imagine a situation in which humanity loves with genuine zest, knowing that the night is far spent and that we have a responsibility to put on the armor of light to brighten a world that has become increasingly darker in my lifetime.  I know that this is wishful thinking at best, but knowing that does not prevent me from praying that God should grant us the wisdom, strength, courage and guidance to love one another as He desires.