I am reminded that bad jokes still have a place in the world—they still tickle some funny bone. It may not be mine but someone else sure identifies with it. It is only when they are lacking in sensitivity and taste that we may find fault with it. I am not sure anymore what is happening to the world but I am beginning to lose my sense of humor. It seems that human beings have decided to make the place a hellecious place. I find no humor in all that is happening. So much of what happens today is based on someone’s jaundiced and twisted mind. A mind that has lost all sense of balance and cannot see things for what they are.
Zealotry has become fashionable and it does not matter that it may cause untold pain—still we seek it because it buttresses our own version of the “truth”. There is not a country in the world today that is not tethering on blowing herself up because some overblown ego has decided to hijack the principles that hold it together—again for their own version of the truth. There is no chance that we could consider that the truth may actually be in between what you and I may think and believe. If it is not our heritage, it is our ethnicity, tribal group or our religious inclinations. I have always believed that all religions have some version of the truth, even if my heart stands strong on my own convictions. I, like most people, have a love for my heritage but cannot say it is better than all others.
Can we say that our convictions are so strong that we can destroy the lives of others just because? We have people who are displaced for life and are killed as in the case of last night in Paris—not the only place in the world. No one issue is more important than the other but our obligation continues to grow because there are those of us who do not have enough vision to see that we have opted for self-destruction.
In Nigeria today we have Boko Haram in the North, Niger Delta in the South-South and added to the mix we now have Biafra stoking in the Southeast. Anyone who is looking for war has never experienced it. He or she has not seen enough of the damage yet, but may get to really taste it. Trust me; if you have seen war then violence would not be an option. In a society where fragmentation is the name of the game the “fights” are unending—all driven by bigotry of one kind or the other—yes BIGOTRY. Black folks seem to think that they are immune to the disease but we too have learnt well and practice it in our own tribal circles.
So tread softly my friends; otherwise we may really get what we do not want. Hell they say is reserved for those who have not lived well—at least that’s what the Bible says but trust me there are those who are already in it led by people who spout this horrible stuff. It is our world and we all must live in it. Help someone please.