mydressmychoice

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In the perfect world with an utopia of freedom, people will be totally free to do and say whatsoever they please, however they choose and with whomsoever they pick. Unfortunately that world is a far cry from our extant reality and the practicalities of living in such are mind boggling and tortuously complex to say the least. We share the world with over 7 billion people, of differing and different births, influences, upbringing, religious affiliations, educational standing, social status, philosophies and beliefs. This almost overwhelming storm of such a rich variety and diversity makes the aforementioned free world impractical. However there is a kinder and more practical freedom which allows everybody to be free as long as their freedom robs no other person of their own right and ability to exercise the same. I argue that it is towards this latter form of freedom that the the evolution of man as a societal and communal being out to gravitate. Of course there are  and will be extreme outliers.

Even though history undenyingly attests to the fact that humanity in relative terms has disproportionately been discriminatory and unkind towards allowing the full and wholesome development of womankind, it is also an undeniable fact that despite the 7 billion strong differences, there are some values of intrinsic humanity which lace the majority of these differences and bring most to common ground. It is wrong for example steal or to engage in a random, senseless act of genocide. Recently in Kenya there are reports that mobs have stripped more than one woman for being inappropriately dressed, a move which has sparked the "mydressmychoice" campaign. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/18/kenya-mob-strips-woman_n_6177608.html
 I need to say here that this is not unique to Kenya. Naturally this begs the question... who has been vested with powers to determine and declare what 'appropriate dressing' is and means? How does further body exposure resulting from stripping resolve or make appropriate the dressing called to question?

Unfortunate incidences like this speak to a bigger problem which runs across the full gamut of the strata of the societies where they are perpetrated, from the hamlets in the village to the presidency. It is pointer to jungle tendencies where the rule of law is a paper tiger. Martin Luther King Jr. said “Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.” It was Aesop who said that "We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." In stead of stripping women maybe such an idle mob should be stripping bare those bandits who seem appropriately dressed yet are inappropriately ruling and plundering the wealth of their nations... There needs to be structures in place with punitive measures deterrent enough to eliminate or significantly reduce such chaotic and mindless behavior couched in hypocrisy, intolerance, spinelessness and lovelessness. In the case of Kenya I am certain that if one of those girls who was stripped for dressing inappropriately was the daughter of some military general or police chief, minister or president, the heads of the perpetrators will be rolling now. 

Personally I believe that there needs to be a certain manner of dressing when we are in shared public space. There are a lot of companies and jobs which require a dress code for both men and women and I am yet to see a protest about any - you either choose to comply or leave. This can be done right and respectfully, leaving people a choice to exercise freedom as long it doesn't usurp another's. This is a really tricky one. It looks okay for example to be in bikini at the swimming pool or beach which is shared public space but not in the office space.

In many cases agreed societal mores which is sometimes terribly flawed dictates that when we step out of the house into most shared public spaces some things are no longer okay, like running around naked, to use an egregiously dramatic example.... but hey, what do I know? What makes what okay at home or beyond that homely space is shaped by the cultural mores of the time, religious beliefs, upbringing, personal values, the number of scars and skeletons waiting to be hidden and levels of comfort with differing layers of cosmetic masks conjured to accomplish that public space persona or version of ourselves. The arc of the moral universe is still long and it still bends towards justice. 

Brussels © November 2014 afesehngwaHilary

Do not wash your hands with spittle!

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I can give you wings,

But I can't fly for you,
Give you an appetite,
And provide the food,
But can't eat for you,
Give you opportunity,
But you have to seize it,
Make grace and strength available,
But you have to tap into it,
Offer you love,
But you must accept it,
Give you life,
But you must live it,
Give you a vision,
But you must heed it,
Take you to the stream,
But you must drink,
Or else you live in all you ever need,
Yet direly be in want and need,
And that my child,
Is the greatest tragedy of our time.

Do not live by the seaside,
And wash your hands with spittle!

Brussels © November 2014 afesehngwaHilary

Socialized to be lost in masks of perfection!

Socialized to wear masks,

One, two, three multi-layered masks,

Many, varied, colored and bland,

Socialized to always look sanitized,

Prudish and prim and smooth and perfect,

Socialized to always make life seem and look cinch,

And the toughest challenges like an ever welcome breezes,

Who are you?

Who are you today?

Who stepped out of the closet today?

In trying so hard to hide,

Hide that little crazy part of you,

Hide chinks and mistakes and scars,

That imperfect side of you,

In trying so hard to  hide that which completes who you are,

You have hidden all of you,

All of who you really are,

You don’t exist,

The real you is gone, gone, forever hidden,

You are lost,

Lost, lost, lost,

In that ugly mask of  perfection you wear,

So blame nobody for misunderstanding you,
For not knowing you,
For being incapable of relating to you,

Seek perfection but be you!

Brussels © November 2014 afesehngwaHilary

Undeserved gift of now!

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To think you are too young,

Deluded to be too strong,

To syndicate tomorrow’s imagined miseries,

Into many avoidable sorrows of today,

To postpone to live that which could be lived today,

Hoping to live in a tomorrow,

Full of uncertainty and uncontrollable mysteries,

To be steeped and trapped in the drunken stupor,

Of the tragic illusion that the next moment certainly belongs to you,

When you have the undeserved gift of now,

Reality will inevitably sink in,

Either with the subtlety of insidious water currents,

Or with the bang of an overpowering tsunami,

Now is all we got - undeserved,

Let us live in it,

Fully, unapologetically!

Brussels © November 2014 afesehngwaHilary

Cuba - Unfairly caricatured and castigated by the west, but a truer friend of Africa

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Depending on whether you read history through a communist/ socialist or democratic lens from either side the cold war curtains, Cuba and its revolutionary leaders are either incorrigible villains or welcome pawns in diplomatic and non diplomatic offensives against sworn enemies of the other side of the curtain. The danger is that either extremist views of this latin American nation can suck out objectivity and blind reason during the historical writing of the Cuban story, caricaturing or deifying the imperfect country. Which country is perfect? None, even those who think they have earned a right to judge every other.

The fact that Cuba was the first non - African country which Nelson Mandela visited after his release from prison piqued my curiosity. As I searched and learned about Cuba it became clear to me that Cuba is the only country I know who had any interference or influence in the African continent and its liberation and liberation movements whether proactively or invited, which was unselfish in their mission to the countries on the continent, driven by only one thing, a compulsive desire to help. I am yet to find any evidence any where that Cuba helped in return for any of the treasures which virtually every country beyond the continent came for, oil, rubber,  cobalt, diamonds and countless treasures buried in the womb of mama Africa. When Mandela visited Cuba in 1991 he said: “We come here with a sense of the great debt that is owed the people of Cuba ... What other country can point to a record of greater selflessness than Cuba has displayed in its relations to Africa?”. Many cold war battles were removed far from the land of those who fought them to battlefields on African soil, driven by greed and fought with total disregard for the owners of the land. Cuba was a breath of fresh air and a welcome exception.

Around the 60's shortly after the successful Cuban revolution under the leadership of the Castros and Che Guevara, revolutionary drums and bells echoed across the globe, with Cuba in many ways  helping nurse  the independence revolutionary calls and actions which swept across the continent of Africa. Given the way America views Cuba today and the way it has viewed it for years, it is interesting to come across this account of the journalist Jean Daniel Bensaid who hints that President JF Kennedy was supportive of the Fidel Castro led revolution: "In an article in the New Republic, Daniel claims that Kennedy asked him to pass on a message to Castro: "I believe that there is no country in the world, including the African regions, including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I believe that we created, built and manufactured the Castro movement out of whole cloth and without realizing it. I believe that the accumulation of these mistakes has jeopardized all of Latin America. The great aim of the Alliance for Progress is to reverse this unfortunate policy. This is one of the most, if not the most, important problems in America foreign policy. I can assure you that I have understood the Cubans. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will go even further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries.”"

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKdanielJ.htm . This is however would not be the first case where a supported ally became and vilified villain - Go figure.

Cuba was invaluably instrumental in the wars of independence and African revolutions of the sixties. Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Agosthino Neto, iconic African revolutionaries caught between capitalism and communism, sought or received the help of Cuban comrades with Che Guevara on the ground in the Congo fighting alongside Pro-Lumumbists in the jungles of the Congo. To secure the independence of Guinea Bissau Amilcar Cabral secured and leveraged technical and tactical strategic support of Cuba to topple the Portuguese colonial war machine.Cuba also played a critical role in securing the independence of Angola and eventually Namibia’s,  paving the way for the end of the obnoxious practice of Apartheid in South Africa. This is just to name a few. You can watch both parts 1 and 2 of  "Cuba - An African Odyssey" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE8EBb4CW8A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZUptYb_BSE

Castro and over half a million Cubans took part in Africa's revolutionary wars which ended colonialism with no sight on or plundering of  African's wealth. Recently Cuba has sent hundreds of medical personnel including doctors and nurses to the battle against Ebola, fighting daily on the front lines to defeat this monster, again with no motive or hidden agenda related to Africa's wealth. Regardless of what anybody may say, Cuba has historically demonstrated time after time to be a truer and selfless friend of the continent of Africa. Even historians can only be entitled to their own opinions, not their own facts.

Oslo © November 2014 afesehngwaHilary

True learning!

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A true and thorough learning,
Within and beyond the narrow confines of classroom walls,
Will magnify your ignorance,
In one breath quench a thirst and satisfy a hunger,

In another breath deepen the profundity of intellectual thirst,

And broaden the scope and boundaries of truth,

Grow an unquenchable yearning and desire for learning  knowledge and wisdom

True learning will tame your pride and humble you,
It will amplify your humanity,
And grow your empathy,
For empathy is better than sympathy.

© Oslo 2014 afesehngwaHilary

Potent Lips

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Lips which unmistakably eventually chime in portentious tides,
Curled into a beautifully potent charm in one instant,
Lips which smile into a brilliantly blinding sun in another,
And with that quick flash while the subject is blinded still,
Lips which house a razor sharp tongue unleash words trenchant like a blade,
Lips with charm enough to deceptively soothe the most savage breasts,
Potent lips armed with ammunition to unsettle and topple the finest men.

Brussels © November 2014 afesehngwaHilary