Tuesday, June 8, 2010

The Lion of Ta Meri- What Independence?

WHAT INDEPENDENCE?

“We would all rather hear the truth, even if it hurts our feeling, rather than to live a lie at the expense of our feelings.”

One is either independent or dependent. There is no in between! We cannot live free dignified lives, with peace of mind, while being dependent. There can be no peace of mind if your source of food and shelter is not secure. Many of us who have degrees and jobs, think we are independent. Independence is defined as “the fact of not relying or depending on another; and exemption from external control or support” (oxford). To rely and depend on an individual to give us a job, and relying and depending on it for money; To rely and depend on the local market to be open, and to take your money and give you food, are all acts of dependency. A human being’s primary and essential needs for life support and for a dignified life with peace of mind are, air, water, food, shelter and clothing. Now that you have money generated by the job, you can now get water, food, shelter and clothing. You are now dependent on another entity to support you with funds at the end of the month for you to be able to acquire these essentials of life. What happens when the boss decides to fire you? Is another job guaranteed? This dependency cuts your tongue and is a form of self censorship as you are always afraid to speak your mind for fear of losing what you depend on for money, to acquire the essentials of life. You become a slave to your boss or career, as the job takes care of you and many times others too. Therefore, your boss is now in an exalted position, able to dictate your behavior and when you come and go. We comfort ourselves by saying, we can leave anytime we want, so therefore, we cannot be truly dependent. But as we said from the onset, there is no in-between. The reality of dependency becomes more evident the longer you stay in that job and the older you get. After so many years at that particular job and at a certain age range you become less ready to start afresh, so you start compromising more and more of your true hearts desire in order to stay comfortable (i.e. have peace of mind) by keeping the checks coming. Many of us hate the jobs or careers (plantations) we have, but because we are slaves, full of fear, we are afraid to leave the plantation and the slave master/boss who feeds us. Self employment is a way out of such predicaments that threaten your integrity, principles and peace of mind, but even this is a form of dependency as you are now completely dependent on customers to come and spend their money with you. The customer is now also exalted. What happens to feeding your family, when, like in America, the customer/consumer is broke and stops showing up because they are now trying to save every penny, for fear of losing their job, as they see lay offs going on all around them? Doctors today depend on patients in order to eat and have shelter. How can you trust such a situation? It is the self employed people and governments doing the laying off, which is a double edged sword, as the more people are laid off, the fewer customers there are to come and buy your product or service, spelling less tax revenue for the government. One laid off person removes, sometimes, up to four people from the customer/consumer base, as a laid off father might be supporting his wife and two children who are customers for someone. This laying off therefore exacerbates the problem and has a domino effect.

Leaving out the dependency on the boss and customer for a while, we are also dependent on the suppliers of food, water, clothes and shelter as we cannot eat, drink, wear or live in the money which we have received. During post election violence, people with money could not secure food for themselves or their families, as most, if not all markets were closed, and those that risked their lives to make money, took advantage of the situation to charge triple the normal price. Our dependency on others to supply us with the essentials of life, puts our lives at the whim and control of others. The main reason for this lack of supply and any future such predicament, is rooted in the foundation of our profit driven supply system. Once the possibility of loss outweighs the possibility of profit, the supply chain stops. The suppliers, of all markets, big or small, do not supply out of a sense of responsibility but instead, out of a selfish need (which has been bred into all of us through a capitalist education) to make money and profits. The largest threat to the supply chain today, before the 2012 elections, is the global economic crises. As people are laid off and cut back on many goods and services, the situation will continue to deteriorate and the supply chain for all goods and services will be in trouble. In Kenya, our main industries, tourism and horticulture, have been severely affected and have had substantial declines in revenue as a result, and the economic crises is only in the beginning stages and is about to intensify dramatically in 2010 and 2011, when the millions of lost jobs start posting their effects. When you are living through the events of your life on a day to day basis, it is sometimes hard to know whether you are witnessing a historic turning point in the life of the planet or just mistaking the noise of global politics as usual. The government/tax payer bailouts by the developed countries have artificially maintained the supply chains by taking the place of the customer, but this is the equivalent to putting a bandage on a cancer patient and saying you have done your best and that the patient should improve. This capitalist system must be completely and totally removed and replaced with a sustainable economic model that does not suck the blood out of our mother earth and the poor, as evidenced by corporations jumping from one poor nation to another to take advantage of the poverty to maximize their profits. These bailouts, however, do not address the root cause of the global recession, which is, stagnated and declining wages compared to the ever rising cost of living world wide. The cost of living in developed countries got so high that people could not keep buying luxury items and started cutting back, causing many shops to lay off or shut down. Soon after, paying their bills to the banks became impossible and finally stopped, and therefore banks started posting gigantic losses. The customers/consumers who are completely tapped out, with the wife working, kids working, credit cards maxed out, loans taken, refinanced homes to remove equity, have now been left completely naked. Peoples’ homes have been foreclosed, cars repossessed and jobs vanished, and they are now totally dependent on the government. Millions of people in America and Europe with degrees, are now unemployed and are looking to the government for food and shelter; This is the beginnings of tyranny (Hitler would love this model). These are grown men and women, now totally dependent on the government for life’s basics. What has all that education benefited them? Or did the education serve its true intended purpose, of making the elite corporate owners even richer? This seems to be the case as CEO and executive salaries have increased over 400% since the 1970’s, but labor wages have only increased 30-40% in the same period (if adjusted for inflation, labor wages would have declined). In this same period productivity has also increased by 300-400%. So, we can clearly see that the increase in revenue, generated by the increase in productivity, has only benefited the elite. The wealth horded and controlled by the elite of this current 300-400 year civilization have greatly surpassed those of all prior civilizations put together. This is evidenced by the highest levels of poverty and hopelessness ever experienced on the planet. 3 billion people struggle to survive on less than Ksh 140 a day, and over 1 billion of them trying to feed themselves with Ksh 70.

How did we, in Africa get to this point of dependency, especially for food!? Our ancestors must be turning in their graves and must think we have gone completely insane. How can it be, that Africans, who have been self sufficient for thousands of years, dealing with droughts and floods, are now starving on the richest soil on the planet? Well, this question is very easy to answer. What has changed from the time when our ancestors were on the planet? A new system of living has been imposed on Africans by Europeans, and today we find some of us (i.e. the few rich that are benefiting) embracing this new system. The European system (due to the climatic factors of its place of origin) is based on scarcity, while the African system is based on abundance (this is the reality in Africa with its abundant resources). When you enslave and colonize a people, you don’t just enslave them or colonize them physically and politically, you must also enslave and colonize them academically, socially, economically, mentally and spiritually. If you do not, then the enslavement and colonization will not be effective or long lasting. Anything and everything the European established in Africa and the rest of the world, has as its fundamental function the perpetuation of European rule over the darker people/nations of the world. An example; If an African in Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, etc, wants to reclaim ancestral land which was stolen and annexed by Europeans, they have to go through the legal system established by Europeans, while Europeans themselves did not bother to follow any legalities when they invaded Africa and took the land by force. Using the invader’s version and form of Christianity, has us spiritually enslaved and colonized. This is the eventuality when your enemy becomes your deity. In 1505, Pope Julius II commissioned Michael Angelo to paint all the characters of the bible from black to white. Trying to achieve freedom and independence by using the oppressor’s social, judicial and governmental systems will always prove to be an exercise in futility. Using the oppressor’s education and economic systems to try and attain that ever elusive good life, will always prove futile. The irrefutable proof that this is so, is the condition in which Africa is in after all these years of so called “independence”. We have gone in and out, up and down, and all around the oppressors education system, but look at us. I think it was more of an independence from European outright rule, but not independence from oppression and exploitation. But nations that rejected the oppressor and their ways, and went back to their native systems, as much as possible, as the foundation of independence, such as India and China, are now power houses to be respected. We in Africa expelled the invaders but kept all their systems intact, only for our own African kin to now oppress us. Today, an African born in Kenya must apply and pay for a passport and visa to travel to another African nation created by Europeans in 1885 in Berlin. We have no freedom of movement within our own continent. While a European/American has more freedom of movement within Africa as they get the visas on arrival. An African has to show bank records and all kinds of documents and many times go through a humiliating interview to just visit America or Europe. It almost looks like we are the ones who enslaved and colonized them. How can we call ourselves free!?

What was wrong with our systems? Africans had completely democratic social systems long before the Greeks, Romans and Karl Marx ever thought of democracy or socialism. Africans had a fair and open judicial system long before even a Europe was established. We Africans had an economic system that traded with Arabs, Indians and people in the far east, centuries before any European got involved. Africans had universities long before Europeans new what one was. Our academic systems produced scholars of which the Europeans, Asians and Semites came to learn from. Why can’t we enjoy the benefits of the technology of this civilization, without adopt with it, its values, principles and social systems? Children in Africa received their first education from the family and community. Teaching the child anything else, before teaching them how to directly feed, shelter and cloth themselves, they new was condemning your child to a life of dependency, and as we said before, money is just a means to an end and having it does not guarantee independence. An argument can also be made, that the more money one has, the more dependent they are likely to be, as, you now have others do everything for you. When such a person losses all their money, the level of dependency is made clear as they now have to cook, clean, drive, etc, for themselves and many times the transition is not easy. We, in Africa, had a system that ensured, when we passed on, that we left our children with food, shelter and clothing, which did not depend on having money. Leaving your child with money or a degree which qualifies them for a certain job or to create a certain business does not directly feed, shelter or cloth them. Degrees are also just another means to an end. We are supposed to go through the European “education” system to get a good degree, which is supposed to be for getting a good job, to get good money, to buy good food, shelter and clothing. Taking the long way of dependency only to get what we had all along. Having been taught the knowledge of how to independently feed, shelter and clothe themselves, they were then taught their true history and spirituality which carried within it the knowledge of God, values, principles, integrity and truthfulness essential in creating a truly free and independent person. Today, the schools are being entrusted with performing almost all of the functions of the parents, while the parents are busy trying to amass material wealth and luxury item, as this is the life the European system has sold to them, that is supposedly dignified for a “civilized” person. While the rural life and farming, fishing or herding is looked at as primitive. So here we are now in the cities, towns and developed countries, working from sunrise to sunset, stressed, depressed, sick, fatigued, indebt, poor, full of fear, never having enough and at the mercy of the ups and downs of the “free” market economy. Schools and universities should NOT be the ones entrusted to teach any child how to feed, shelter and clothe itself. This is the responsibility of the parents. Schools and universities should only be there to expand the mind and consciousness of the child, in order to help them discover their gifts. The gifts are used to increase wealth, but not as something one is dependent on to eat. So, I ask again, what was wrong with our systems? The answer is they were fair! This evidently could not work for a people (Europeans) who were hell bent on treating us unfairly. So, all our systems were systematically destroyed and ridiculed, in order to make room for and facilitate the establishment of the European exploitation system, which we are still using to this day. Their systems, which are based on inequity, are collapsing before our very eyes and the perceived problem with this, is that too many people today have become totally dependent on these European systems, so many will suffer in the inevitable collapse. Any system built on inequity will self destruct as it is completely unsustainable. One side gets too heavy and the system topples itself over. What benefits have the European systems brought us? Are we, today, producing better, freer and more independent African men and women than we used to? Is Africa in better shape? Why is it that all over sudden we now have jails and prisons all over the continent, when we did not even need one with our system. What creates the desperation, within men and women, needed to commit crime? Is it the absence of independence, freedom and therefore dignity and peace of mind? This is the root cause of almost all crime. We also now have, all over sudden, mass famine, AIDS, cancer, diabetes, inequality, injustice, rapes, orphans, prostitutes, drugs, high immorality, abortions, landlessness, etc. These and more all came with the European systems. We did not have any of this in Africa until invaders changed our original systems, thus changing our way of life. We now eat like the oppressor and are therefore catching many of their diseases along with those they brought from Europe. The Europeans and their systems have created such high inequity and imbalance, they are literally destroying the earth and everything above it, in it and on it, us Africans included. Every living system on earth is in decline; every life support system of the earth is in decline; these together constitute the biosphere. The same biosphere that supports and nurtures all of life on earth (over 30 million species). Who is responsible? Their own systems will end up destroying them. This is the nature of a parasite. We Africans are the original people of the earth, and we are a part of her and her a part of us. So if mother earth suffers, we suffer, and no other people on the face of this planet have suffered and continue to suffer more than black people. Whatever the country you find us in, we are at the bottom. Look at us, the creators of civilization i.e. Egypt (called kemet by the Africans that established it); what has happened to us? We now work all day, or all night, or both, and end up with nothing to show for all that time and energy spent. No time for yourself, your spouse or children any more. We are drunks and drug addicts now (illegal and legal drugs). What kind of world is this to live in? But, if you want to go to the countryside and live an independent dignified life you are looked down on, but, on the other hand , if you are rich, exploiting people one way or another, people look up to you. Land in the only place from which we can independently get food. Fruits and vegetables all come from land, and are what our Creator instructed us to eat for food. Even if you herd animals, they need grass which grows on land. Therefore, to deny a human being land is to deny them life and the European system (specifically the British system) is the first and only system to ever create a situation where individuals own land, and exported this mentality as they conquered. All other indigenous system, all over the earth, lived according to the belief that people belonged to the land and not the land belonging to people, as we are all born and find the land here and die and leave it here. The best rule of thumb to follow is and was, if you did not create it, you cannot own it. Every creature on earth has to labor, one way or another for its food, and this labor is what makes it independent. Therefore, no human being or creature can ever forfeit their right to land, for every living body belongs to the earth and needs her for life support, and when we die we all return back to the earth. Our souls belong to the Creator and return to the Source. He who feeds you is your master. That’s why the best thing to use to train any creature, to do what you want, is food. So those who think they are free because they have money; money has become your master. And since we cannot produce money (it is a monopoly controlled by the CBK), our bosses become our masters because they are our source of money, which we need to buy food when you do not have land.

In a system where you have your own land, and therefore your own source of food, shelter and clothing, and the people are spiritually driven rather than materially driven, which was the case in Africa before the invaders came, the people then don’t have to and don’t put up with a job or career which they do not love. They now have the freedom and independence to do what they love, which is the only way of expressing the gifts the Creator has put within. Imagine for a minute, how many Imhoteps, Miriam Makebas, Michael Jacksons, Davincis, Beethovens, etc, there are, stuck, not only in slums and ghettos, but also in schools and universities, jobs and careers. Why can’t we have both food and shelter independence and still be an architect, doctor, lawyer, or whatever you love and want to do? Why does food and shelter independence have to be sacrificed for a career or profession, that many times you hate or is stressful?

“Black people all over the planet must be willing to start over and replace Eurocentric and Western values. Our children for the moment have been effectively lost. They are caught up in the trappings of an immoral and aimless Western culture. We give them very little to look up to of essential value and consequently we are losing their respect. Our guidance and leadership have been replaced with misguided sex, violence, murder, alcohol, drugs and TV. We have abandoned the traditional morals, values and spiritual culture of our ancestors which made them so successful.” Kes Kesu

The older generation of revolutionaries cannot effectively bring change, as they too, have interests tied to the status quo. It is, therefore, left for the children to lead the world to the promised land.

The only true master is God Almighty. Never, ever, put yourself underneath another human being, no matter what race, class, tribe, etc. You were created to subdue everything, except another human being.

1 comment:

  1. nice pictures and the information was spot on.

    ReplyDelete