LIFE AND THE ETHEREAL

What is life? A question which has been pondered on over centuries by philosophers, astrologists, clergymen and aristocrats not only them mind you, even the lowest in the order of hierarchies of the latter. The insane trots of a hobo-man, pioneers, seeking for the answers of breath its self in the mid-night skies, gazing at the stars of mystery. Watching in the placid yet violent oceans, to the streets which are dominated by the callous in the mist of its walk, knowing petulantly of its canning dark price, death. What is life?

I shall attempt to quell this anonymity that rises with us as mankind’s innate conundrum and dangling adversary. It is a certainty that life is indebted through birth, though some perceive it as a penalty to end all sorrows, I beg to differ though. In my short but, expendable existence I have witnessed life as being merely a miracle, a privilege. It lays in the hands of the aesthetics of the world, defined only by the beholder in his persuasion to explain or rather paint it in the most explanatory canvas known to the human race. I see life as a pathway to greater things to come and death as merely a necessary accident to revolutionize the evolution of our human race. You may see this as madness and wonder about the bases of my thesis but, I assure you life is death and death is life. These are two amalgamated entities that compliment each other all-so-well.

Life evolves on what is expected on a particular soul or person. Every person is a visitor in this world, each imprinted with a data base on what is expected of them, which is their personalized mission. This imprint resides in the soul not the brain, the brain is meant for the mobility of the body and its veins and the soul drives the core of what you are, your authentic self. There are four types of visitors in this life: Those who are observers, those who are actors, those who believe and then the idlers.

The observers are people who chronicle the events that happen in a particular era or time in the evolution of man. These are people who fall under the canon of enlightenment, the scholars of wisdom, the philosophers. They watch and deduce from life in its most simplicity, drawing from social economical structures, politics, arts, religions and sports. They scrutinize every ounce of evidence recorded by ancient scholars, their predecessors, formulating new interpretations for the betterment of generations to come. People who fall under this group are very much introverts in their own right, they embrace life from within, from the chest area and abdomen. Where the soul or voice of wisdom emanates from.

The actors are those who create or act out their true self, These people live life to the full, their motto being, ‘Seize the day’. The actors take every opportunity they receive and turn it to gold. In life they play a pivotal role in revolutionizing technological advancement and the economical structures of our world. They speak out against cultural and social immorality, political issues, and the environmental carnage in contrast with its development. This group is ruled by the passion and wisdom they receive from interactions with varies personalities, together with enlightenment from the canon of observers. Actors are very much extroverts in their own inborn right. Which leads my thesis to the topic of “The believers”, who are also partially actors.

The motion of belief encompasses or derives its premise from faith, in-a-form of religion. The religious debates, as well as political ones are structures of hierarchy based in acquiring power. The soul thrives under the veneer of power, which is the whole purpose of living and permits humanity the honor to pursue the quest of life in achievement of power. The believers give hope to the humankind, in a form of motivational speaking and giving purpose were the is none, driving individuals to create choices that will influence their lives thus, planting roots which will affect the wheel of change, bringing about evolution in the human race. I am sure the question of death, still lingers in your mind, to where it fits in contrast to life. Well let me explain.

Death is related to faith, for it takes us to a place of mystery, an unknown Utopia. In which the believers are a representative entity of that existence. I state again, that: ‘Death is life and life is death’, which falls interlocked with the spiritual side of things. In life as well as in death the are two sides that we as individuals must choose from namely: “Darkness and Light”, or if you prefer, “Evil and Righteousness”. The path chosen by an individual paves the road for the evolution of humanity, in which one draws from a pacifist view and the other from a militant view. The pacifists are the ones who believe in progress and the glory of love in light and honesty, through the betterment of life; mentally, physical and spiritually. Which includes technological advancements to enrich our environment both in games and social dwellings. The militants seek to destroy the structures of progress and hinder all efforts pedestalled for peace. The dead are also divided into two spiritual orders which continuously contend against each other, creating a pendulum of water and fire. The dead communicates with the living trying to relay messages about the past, the present and future in a colourful spectrum of dreams. The pacifistic spirits bring life and health whilst, the militants offer madness and evil thoughts. Which explains the importance of the believers and their role in the game of life. The believers are in the least extroverts and at the most rate, introverts.

The idlers are people who are not interested in their own lives, they distance themselves from anything wealth-while and procrastinate day in, day out. Nothing gets done by the latter even devotion is at the least of their priorities, although they are not necessarily diabolic, they just do not see any point in it all, life. The idlers often indulge themselves in intoxicating substances, (e.g. drugs and alcohol).

The spiritual realm plays a major part in our existence. If a person commits murder, his psycho-analysis will most likely conclude that the person was influenced by an outside force or was not in his right mind, therefore in some cases, plead temporal insanity. In another instance if a person saves a life, then that person will be perceived as being a good spirited person. Fortune-tellers rely on the spirit to relay visions about the future, and sometimes bringing about change which offer atonement to better health. The are people who use the spirit to evoke evil in this world by entertaining the bad side of worship. And so degrade everything that is on the road of righteousness.

To exist we need a better understanding of death and its enriching qualities to life and if we are to reach a conclusion to, what life really is. Ultimately life is seen as a gift that needs to be nurtured, it is a miracle beyond all reason. I once wrote in one of my poesy called Miracle:

They say a miracle is past
For those who believe in God
No explanation is necessary
For those who do not believe
No explanation is possible
For it is to you, to make it
The best life you are living
If you fail
It will be you own fault
No one will have an answer to
For the successor, the victor, the winner
The hero, the best of you
Lays in you!
For life is a special gift
Only you can make it
A Perfect Life!
For life is undoubtedly a miracle

In conclusion: Live life to the full and experience every moment as your last, for all the answers come with death. Be an action person and motivate others in the processes and the key being, ‘purpose’. Seek out you purpose in life and love it and life will do the some to you.

WORD TO A NEW REVOLUTION!

BEING IN TOUCH

It never seize to amaze me to hear people chanting unsavoury names towards people who ‘seem’, through their behavioural manner to be homosexuals. Homophobic behaviour has grown to the point of weird obsession in our societal existence in South Africa, mainly due to a lack of knowledge to, what it means to be in touch.

In this life, a brother who is in touch with the aesthetics of the world will not see the light of day, unless he becomes two sides of a single coin and pretends to be something he is not, machismo and homosexual. It doesn’t matter whether this brother is attracted to the opposite sex or not. Meagre acts like admiring the stars at night, glancing up at the sunset or calling a flower ‘beautiful’, in front of his gangster brethren will render him ‘homo’.

If this brother happens to be on the hygienic side of things and is poised on keeping, his clothes clean, his shoes sparkling, face spotless and his body in shape; a metro-sexual male. Once or twice uses cologne and facial products. Well, that is equivalent to taking a rope and putting a noose around his neck. Moreover, being straight won’t save the day for the poor fellow from society’s well schooled eyes. After all, it was Somizi Mhlongo, the expert, who blurted a comment on the youth radio station YFM, by arguing: “If you are metro-sexual, you have to decide whether you’re bisexual, heterosexual or homosexual, there’s no such thing as metro-sexual.” Agree don’t agree?

Sensitivity and intelligence, which a metro-sexual has in abundance means nothing to the erudite eyes of society. Eyes that will reap him apart, lest he shows his affection for art, poetry and books; and pays attention towards, true loving educated women. However, educated women also, turn to shy-away from a brother that’s in touch. He’s either too uptight, serious and extremely spiritual for their predilection.

To society’s norms this brother, similar to Jesus in prehistoric Jerusalem is excessively taboo. He loves his fellow man, a pacifist (not coward), at heart and a true leader. His neighbours adore him and women admire him. However, like Jesus he is a gentle mannered man, especially at this present time where H.I.V/Aids reigns supreme in our lives. Where, women prefer brothers who have big pockets and flashy wheels no matter the condition of their sensitivity. Like Jesus, the brother is not wedged in the circumstances of the flesh but of a spiritual nature. He shies away from intoxicating braveries, not deliberately but by nature. As Jesus was persecuted, by his fellow man so is this brother, for being who he is. Like Jesus...oh, maybe that’s pushing the Jesus parody a bit too far, but you get the drift.

Now ladies; would you rather have a brother that is narcissistic and spiritually inclined or have a thug that leaves everything laying around for you to tend, immediately he hits the door - A brother that will understand your position as a nurturing woman and helps you to be at your super best. A man, who is in touch, through understanding what he wants from his woman and meets the needs of what his woman, wants. A man who shares intuitive virtues, which are personified through nature, by masculine and feminine powers. A man that gets it and is not preoccupied in what people think about his pink shirt and his cologne.

A person who is in love with the exquisiteness that life possesses and takes it in their stride to enrich their environment by celebrating its existence. With an extreme flamboyance should not be branded as homosexual, especially when their true interest lies in uplifting life, for others.

Mannerisms are not all that define homosexuality or the validity of being in touch with your inner self. In a book written by South African author and Noble Laureate for Literature, J.M. Coetzee, (Who has immigrated to Australia), Youth. The narrator, a young man who has turned a new lease in life by immigrating to England, from South Africa. Is a rigid character, that’s into poetry and has fantasies about venturing into history to rediscover his sexuality by sowing his yearning oaths, with as many women as time permits. At one point, he encounters a homosexual epiphany, he sighs: “Is that homosexuality? Is that the sum of it? Even if there is more to it than that, it seems a puny activity compared with sex with a woman…”

Spiritual attachment is seen as an epitome of homosexuality, mainly due to church brothers who hide what they are, behind the veil of religion. Therefore, promote clandestine sexual exploitation of young lads, in the name of religion. In addition, you find brothers who are gays and insist on courting brothers who are not. What’s up with that? These brothers are spiritually ignorant and so they perpetuate their persona as every ones. Such church brothers and their forceful counterparts are the ones who give a bad name to a brother that’s in touch with life.

Being in touch with both powers of masculine and feminine panache, and understanding the aesthetics that life has to offer, does not constitute one as a homosexual; however means only that one is ‘gay’ about life. Gay, as in being content about whom you are. A transvestite is not necessarily gay, and a gay person is not necessarily a transvestite. These two individual dichotomies compliment each other, however are not necessarily a norm in all male behavioural manner.

Why judge a book when you truly have no idea what the contents of that book entail? Do mannerisms define one’s personality or sexual preference?

To reach a new ground in human evolution, we must understand that our spiritual self is not bound only to our matter-physical appearance of masculine and feminine, however to an entwinement of all sexes. This makes us who and what we are. Individual development is the key to unlocking the shackles of sexual repression amongst people. Let’s not denigrate individual birth rights that we see as taboo. Let’s not permit the fear of the unknown rule our hearts. Whether their preference is immoral or moral, that’s for God to judge, not us.

Ladies and gentlemen, don’t judge a book by its cover, because there are some reasonably interesting books out there. Next time you come across a brother that seem to be a metro-sexual male, whether their homosexual or not, have a conversation with them and found out who they are and what their about. Let’s liberate ourselves from sexual stereotypes.

NO WOMAN, NO CRY

Bob Marley the prophet was on par when, in his rendition; ‘No Woman, No Cry’ intoned words that reflected an emotional and physical detachment, brought about by perpetrators of racial prejudice between women and men during our pre-democratic state. Everyone embraced this song during those days as it spoke volumes with the masses against the oppressor and its symbolic meaning for liberation and hope. Therefore compelled the government of the day to censor or ban such intones from this country. However, what people did not realize was that this rendition had a paradoxical intone embedded in it.

In today’s society, ‘No woman, No Cry’ depicts a somewhat different social revolutionary statement, that’s between matriarchal and patriarchal forces. The playing-grounds of this neo-revolutionary state have changed to a certain extent from pre-democratic racial South Africa. The rules of engagement have altered people’s perceptions in their societal existence and norms; evidently, endorsed by freedom.

Democracy: liberated black men and black women - conversely, democracy took away from society the moral stance that keeps the human torch burning in its core from its habitual norms. In Marley’s paradoxical rendition, he cries: “Good friends we had, good friends we’ve lost…No woman, No cry” Who are these friends that Marley is referring to? It is evident that Marley was pointing towards modern-day women, who not only look down on men, but are willing to cast them out from the societal responsibilities, as protector and provider.

Matriarchal domination in business has created a paradigm shift, which render masculine powers useless in relationships and corporate environments. These days women are given first preference when it comes to issues of employment as oppose to men and that is a fact. Fact: women want to dominate jobs that are preordained for masculine domination, in spite of their inadequate physical disposition. Fact: no woman will pay a man for sitting at home doing nothing, no matter how much they love each other; a man can do that. Fact: when a man has no money, there is no relationship. Fact: a woman can’t do it all on her own and bare children without male assistance; those who claim to be fine about it all, their liars. Fact: a man can look after five women with children on a single salary. Fact: no woman does that, if there are, there are few. Fact: a woman won’t pay Lobola, clear and precise.

We as a society are killing the very bases of our nation, by cutting the heads that are meant to be protectors and providers. Having grown-up without a father figure in my life, I wouldn’t want to get involved with a woman who sees me as inadequate as a man. I would want a woman who will appreciate me as my mother does regardless of money or no money.

However, the current status qua that aims at preventing men from reaching their most high in business acumen and family environment by favouring women only is not what every man signed up for in birth. Just as no woman signed up for sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse. No man in his right mind would want to have children and be unable to provide for them, emotionally and physical. Without a job or financial assistance, a man is no man. Therefore, many men abscond from their duties of fatherhood by either denial or escapism.

We speak about mentorship for young women and schools for girls. Tell me this; will these boys growing up in today’s society match the standards that are given to young women currently. When they reach manhood, will they be adequate providers and protectors? On the other hand, will they also find some kind of escapism or deny the whole shebang of having children and a family to look after?

Patriarchal domination was and still is in all facets of society a pale façade to comprehend and agree to. Mainly due to men that abuse the system; men who see women as tools of their sexual satisfaction and things that are designed to be dominated. Repression in any form is repression, whether it is emotional or physical and it needs to be expunged from all social spheres.

Every man should think of himself as a father of their nation - a man who views and reflect from every sector of life and societal vicissitudes, thus act accordingly to bring harmony to all societal problems that arise in the nation. In countries like Afghanistan, women are still seen as symbols of ridicule and inferior to their male counterparts. There are still to this day, tortured and killed without condemnation from that country’s lawmakers.

We as South Africans need to be very careful as to how we spread equality amongst men and women. This needs to be done in a way that benefits everyone and lives no capable man or capable woman from any element that brings a revolutionary change that is beneficiary to our society. Our statute; from the constitution to our lawmakers, in every bill and every act needs to cater for change that is gradual and unimposing.

Any man who loves women knows that it is tough to live without them. Women are nurturing and intuitive beings who makes men what they are. “No woman, no cry. No woman, no cry x2. I remember when we use to sit in the government yard in trench-town…..little daughter don’t shed no tears, little sister don’t shed no tears. Everything is gonna be already…” Bob Marley was certainly on par: “No Woman, No Cry” Without women, men are nothing and without men, women are jointly nothing.

As society, we must come together and rectify the sins of the past, not by being gender bias, however by bringing equality to all, utilizing the proper channels. Not by ousting or utilizing discriminatory tactics that will leave half the nation with hatred in their hearts. Let’s not dent this nation with an emotional detachment that will be hard to mend. A future stain, which will be hard to wash away; in future. Where our dear little daughter will shed tears, little sister will shed tears. Where everything ain’t gonna be already. Is that the future we want?

WORD TO A NEW REVOLUTION

GREAT WHITE TREPIDATION - FINDING UBUNTU

It’s been at least sixteen years since the dawn of our new democratic dispensation; thirteen years since we saw the sun rise into the birth of our so-called ‘Rainbow Nation’ in South Africa. When Nelson Mandela walked out of prison (after twenty seven years), on February 11th, 1990; black South Africans welcomed the newly formed Democratic State, after a long fought palpable battle of hatred in the struggle for emancipation from the dark hands of apartheid.

People started realizing what this freedom meant to them; both in the peripheries of the country, over mountainous borders and beyond the sea. In countries were numerous freedom-loving South Africans where imprisoned and exiled by the Whiteman’s intolerable heart for the indigenous people of this country. Those who went to exile during the traumatic, treacherous period in South Africa, suddenly realised that the great wizard had wiggle his magical wand and the call for the great trek back to our motherland was thus summoned to end white domination. And begin a new balanced, fair, unbiased path for our nation. Is our nation truly emancipated?

Taking a walk in the suburbs, one could sense the fear that still lingers in our country, in our streets, in our house-holds, and our hearts; particularly within the white community. In business and in pleasure white South Africans are still fearful of a black face. Thirteen years into our democracy the greater majority in our nation still has to reel in the unwilling minority into understanding the meaning of ‘togetherness’.

We live in a country that is divided by the notion of our pigmentation more than anything else in the world. There are those minority whites who are trapped in thinking that, their skin colour is superior to that of a black man; white people who will never patronize black businesses, other than those of their fellow whites. A white person that will never hire an equally qualified black person into his company and that will never pay an equally deserving salary to a black person, thus creating what I call an ‘Economic Segregation’. It seems to me; black people are needed more to create wealth for the white race and keeping the white global investment mechanisms functioning properly. It’s a give the crams and keep the pie, game. We blacks know all-so-well through the hardships of our past. This is mainly through ignorance of the white race.

In many of my conversations with my college peers, I find my self dumb-founded by the knowledge my white peers have about black culture and living standards in the townships. Black teens in contrast know so much about their white counter part’s westernized living standards, culture and dialect through going an extra mile of tutelage in white created indoctrinating disciplines and by burning the midnight oil to understand their world.

Every time we have these ‘enlightening’ conversations about my white peers’ ignorance, the more I come to a realization that white people are not willing to compromise their position or stance in life to understanding the servitude and suffering of blacks in this country. That job is only left to the black race. Beat them or join them.

How many white people do you see walking around the township on a daily basis? How many black people do you see walking around the suburbs on a daily basis? For white people to understand their country as much as black people do, they’ll have to be willing to merge with blacks on an equal footing without trepidation. It is human nature to fear that which you do not know, however knowledge breathes understanding and understanding breathes contentment, thus killing fear. If blacks leave the townships (black settlements created by apartheid), everyday of their lives to patronize white businesses in the big cities and little suburbs, why can’t whites leave the suburbs to see how life is like in the townships? Whites must feel the agony of standing in long, unbearable queues every morning, hoping to make it in time to your destination.

White people in this country need to comprehend the danger of self isolation from their own country and the danger of the inability to know your fellow countryman’s dialect and culture.

Black people in South Africa must seize promoting ‘black inferiority’ within the white community. The spirit that united black people during the struggle is needed to expunge the deep sited fears that envelopes the Whiteman’s mentality in this country. We must reach out to our communities and rebuild what is lost with pride. We must rebuild the essence of ‘Ubuntu’ and open our townships to all and sundry.

Whites need to acknowledge that the problems that transpire in this country are not all to be blamed on blacks, only. They need to take responsibility for the role they play in their own trepidation.

To bridge the great divide in our country, we as South Africans, need to overlook the colour of our pigmentations and work together towards the betterment of our nation and future. We need to create a country that supports South Africans from every level and sphere. Patriotism means loving your country and your follow citizens. Acting towards that love to alleviate poverty in your follow citizen’s livelihood and making sure that everyman has the basic needs in his country before dusk summons darkness. This must be done not mainly through curiosity, but through love for our fellow human beings.

WORD TO THE NEW REVOLUTION!