The Ugly Side…

15957922066_bfec0d796c_o (2)

”The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man.” Erich Fromm

Recent events in the world are enough to sum up the fact that humanity’s ugly side appears to be dominant. We are very quick to tear apart than build, we hate anything that remotely differs from our way of thinking. We want to love but find that so difficult, rather it’s easy to be suspicious, have zero empathy and yes, we find a safe haven in hatred.

James Carroll got it right when he wrote, ”we cloak ourselves in cold indifference to the unnecessary suffering of others, even when we caused it.”

Hatred brings out our ugly side when we hide behind our knowledge of what’s right and wrong. We believe our lives are somehow a priority compared to others and when we’re not having things going our way, we’re quick to complain, bemoaning our fallen state.

We’re also beautiful creatures, that is when we want to be. Imagine doctors risking lives and limbs to save Ebola-stricken victims in a remote village in Africa or people pooling resources together to save Syrian refugees from the freezing sea. That, is the beauty of human nature just to mention a few.

However, we all have ugly sides, if not, why do we have laws trying to curtail our nastiness from spiralling out of control?

I penned this article shortly after the Nice truck massacre, somehow I couldn’t publish it but it’s still relevant today. Most of the time, it’s very difficult to comprehend when such tragedies occur, like the killings of African-Americans by rogue white police officers or the killings of thousands by the so called Isis’s mad soldiers or the time when Lord Gen Jeffery Amherst, British Commander-in-Chief of America wrote to Col. H. Bouquet to use Biological weapons (small pox laden blankets) in July 1763 against Native American Indians. He wrote, “You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race.” Hitler wanted to wipe out the Jews and subject the world to his madness. In the end, I think our lives shouldn’t be mapped out based on such events no matter how sad.

Humanity is renowned for fortitude in the face of extreme violence. Hitler was keen to turn the world into a huge wasteland, but he failed, even though, in the process, millions lost their lives. The incredible thing I’ve realised is this, our ugliness and monstrosity would not prevail over the beauty and love inherent in us (this is where free-will comes in). That’s contradictory but it’s the truth. As Daniel Goleman wrote, ”societies can be sunk by the weight of ugliness.”

There’s real hatred in the world, just check social media where some segment of humanity compares others as inferior to them. It’s heartbreaking but over the millennia, it’s been part of the history of mankind, the pervading hatred, the palpable feeling of helplessness experienced by slaves which brought the brutal book, ‘The Heart Of Darkness ,’ written by Joseph Conrad to mind. More than ten million people had died in the Congo in the 19th and early 20th century under the rule of the notorious Belgian King, Leopold II. The Congo had been plundered and its inhabitants killed with ruthless efficiency. It’s one of the greatest acts of mass murder in human history. That’s humanity’s ugliness at its height. According to a review on Amazon, ”Conrad makes it painfully clear that the heart of darkness can reside within us all,” how sad!

Unfortunately, the killings in Congo is still ongoing, according to an article written by Owen Jones in the Guardian Newspaper on 6 March 2015, he lamented, ” African lives did not matter enough: a death toll of up to 6 million would surely not have been tolerated elsewhere. For the West, it is a country of little strategic importance.”

Overall, I still believe that our ugly sides can be tamed, maybe I’m wrong?

This article is open to debate, let me know what you think.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend wherever you are in the world!

Much love, always. 🙂

The Sweeper!

Feb19

The grotesque sweeper ploughed down the street, I stopped on my tracks to be sure it was real before I fled to my room. I heard my mom arguing on the phone, she’s uptight today, I told my dad she worked too hard but nobody cared to listen.

But my problems were far from over, the looming sound seemed to burst through my ear drums as the sweeper made its way down the front of our house, when my parents made no attempt to calm my frayed nerves, I ran down the stairs and hid in the cloak room, though it was dark, I felt safe, then I heard my mom calling my name and I began to cry.

She hurried downstairs and brought me out of my darkness, her pretty face a beehive of worry. She loved me, I know but sometimes, I get the feeling, they don’t believe me when I tell everyone who cared to listen that I hate the sound of ‘The Sweeper.’

”It’s all right baby Lou,” she said and straddled me into her arms but there was no stopping my wailing, I hated when she calls me ‘baby Lou’ and I hated the sweeper. My dad came to meet us downstairs and I went straight to him. He cuddled me and called me ‘tiger,’ I kind of prefered tiger to ‘baby Lou.’ I love the sound of trains trudging down the tracks, I love the booming sound of aeroplanes but not the sweeper!

Ten minutes later, I felt better and slowly made my way to the living room, ‘Mickymouse’ was singing on the TV, life is good, my only fear in life is the sweeper! My name is Emmanuel David and I am twenty-five months old!

*******************

I just had to post this, my son hates the sound of the street sweeper and it beats me! I reckon trains and aeroplanes are scarier than the dingy engine sound of the street sweeper!

This is a classic example of what we fear, as adults, we are more afraid of the mundane things in everyday life, the snide comments of haters, or what people think… maybe, the house we live in or our jobs, our relationships with others might cause a great amount of scrutiny but I say, forget such people exist! There would always be haters, live your life as if you’re in paradise.

Just like the lady in the above picture, laugh your problems away! Life is good if we allow it to be so, it’s our reactions to problems that matter most, not the problems!!

Thanks friends for reading my post!

Love, always!! 🙂

The Supernatural…

Dec17

(Photo credit: Andreas Krappweis)

This is a true story, please read on…

Gross darkness blanket our street as ravenous fever raged through my body like an inferno. My mom mopped my body with towels trying to bring the rampaging fever down. I watched with trepidation, my lips parched and dry.

It dawned on me that if I survive the night, I would be in the clear, but morning was like light years away. My mom looked at me with a mournful expression in her brown expressive eyes.

”You should have given your consent.”

”No mom,” I whispered with a vigorous shake of my head. I refused surgery because I had premonitions it would only worsen my condition.

Let me rewind back, to a week earlier…

I was a boisterous nineteen year old university girl. I was popular, well liked and friendly. Hardly would you see me with a frown, I was always smiling, why not? Life was good. My boyfriend ( now my husband) was one of the nicest man on campus, my course work was excellent but everything changed one windy night when I had a sharp pain in my left ear.

I thought nothing of it until almost a week later when I couldn’t hear properly, my condition rapidly disintegrated overnight and my boyfriend brought me home. My dad bundled me into his car and off we go!

At the hospital, the doctor did all sorts of tests and the final verdict was I had a growth in my ear and surgery was the right course of treatment but I refused and he sent me home with some medications. My neck was immobile, I couldn’t turn my head, I couldn’t eat and my ear hurt like hell, it was as if my throat was on fire! I was now torn between the devil and the deep blue sea, I chose the sea and my dad brought me back home.

I strode to my room and laid on my bed wondering if I had made the right decision. An earlier explosion on a transformer had plunged the street into darkness, my mom had left a lantern in my room but it suddenly went off. I listened to my breathing as pain racked through my body. The pain killers and antibiotics were powerless against the ferocious attack and I slowly drifted off into a dreamless slumber.

I don’t know how long I slept for but I woke up to a strange feeling, I was no longer alone, I wanted to call out but my voice was gone and I prayed this simple prayer.

”God, if you are real, please heal me now,”