The end of the year and the start of another is usually a time for evaluations. Personally 2007 has the distinct honor of being the year I learnt so many valuable life lessons. However, maybe as a sign of how far I have to go in life, I was still left with a lot of questions when 2008 was ushered in. Some of these I have noted with the hope that someone may guide me through these issues that I struggle to comprehend.
On compromising for change
Having finally recognized the fact that we should be the change in the world, the awareness has come with the willingness to engage in all the means of propagating this change. With the older generation that we always blame and rightly so for the onset of all our problems resigned to not stopping the change but at the same time not doing anything to help bring about this change, what is the effect of this compromise?
On Relationships
With the continuing trend of divorces the striking scenario is the inevitability of the end of relationships. Never mind the fact that the one or two good and long-lasting relationships now prove the exception to the rule of long relationships, people still blindly seek, enter and stay in relationships for wrong reasons and seem to be shocked at the eventual outcome. Someone close to me expressed shock at the statistics of the number of married couples that get a divorce and then enter into same sex relationships. To me the reaction and not the statistics surprised me. With the capitalist mentality comes the idea of settling. Increasingly people enter into and stay in relationships not because they are in love but because they feel a sense of safety and security.
Is it too much to expect that people who do not love each other will quit settling and put themselves out to find love? Is it my youth that concentrates on love as the basis of a relationship instead of security? Is it too much to ask that when couples only reason for being together is because they feel comfortable with each other? When there is an absence of spark and excitement, when if they are having sex and one of them has never had an orgasm, they still settle for less? Eventually, someone gets hurt and then people start wondering, should we give second chances?
On Education and Media
This past weekend I had a conversation with a couple of college students. As conversations usually go when you’re meeting another college student for the first time, the conversation led to places of origin. It did not strike me until on the drive back to campus that when I said I’m from Sierra Leone, both the students told me they’ve heard about Sierra Leone. As refreshing as this seems, because it is such a huge change from past discussions were people never heard of Sierra Leone, it raises questions of whether Hollywood is the villain in exploiting the market of present day issues or is it the answer to the issue of people actively refusing to study. Whichever one it is anyway, the question remains, why is a history changing fact like the fact that Africans have as much a claim to the discovery of the Americas, been that they set foot on this continent long before Columbus did, not been the subject of a movie.
On friendship
Is there something that is too strong for a friendship to endure? In a world that is struggling to trust and has determined that no one and nothing can be trusted, friends were the buffers between us and the world. When friends do let us down as is in our humanity to do, when do we say enough is enough and this is too much weight on our friendship?
On change
I have lived through my share of changes and if there has been any certainty it is that this year has been the one with most changes for me. The United States which is ever changing is at a period of decision making it has in its power, the choice to for the first time elect a person of African origin or a woman as its president. Meanwhile, around the world, politicians are been assassinated, elections are been rigged, people are dying of starvation, and diseases and disguised genocide is still going on. Why then does change occur and what does it have in store for us.
INEVITABLY
In evaluating the past year, one has to ask oneself, what did I do to deserve all this love? For me my mother’s love has always been the greatest and the ever present, yet year after year it never ceases to amaze me how her love for me grows. The final question then is what will you do, for that person who loves you wholeheartedly, without regret, without bounds and without asking anything in return for it?
On compromising for change
Having finally recognized the fact that we should be the change in the world, the awareness has come with the willingness to engage in all the means of propagating this change. With the older generation that we always blame and rightly so for the onset of all our problems resigned to not stopping the change but at the same time not doing anything to help bring about this change, what is the effect of this compromise?
On Relationships
With the continuing trend of divorces the striking scenario is the inevitability of the end of relationships. Never mind the fact that the one or two good and long-lasting relationships now prove the exception to the rule of long relationships, people still blindly seek, enter and stay in relationships for wrong reasons and seem to be shocked at the eventual outcome. Someone close to me expressed shock at the statistics of the number of married couples that get a divorce and then enter into same sex relationships. To me the reaction and not the statistics surprised me. With the capitalist mentality comes the idea of settling. Increasingly people enter into and stay in relationships not because they are in love but because they feel a sense of safety and security.
Is it too much to expect that people who do not love each other will quit settling and put themselves out to find love? Is it my youth that concentrates on love as the basis of a relationship instead of security? Is it too much to ask that when couples only reason for being together is because they feel comfortable with each other? When there is an absence of spark and excitement, when if they are having sex and one of them has never had an orgasm, they still settle for less? Eventually, someone gets hurt and then people start wondering, should we give second chances?
On Education and Media
This past weekend I had a conversation with a couple of college students. As conversations usually go when you’re meeting another college student for the first time, the conversation led to places of origin. It did not strike me until on the drive back to campus that when I said I’m from Sierra Leone, both the students told me they’ve heard about Sierra Leone. As refreshing as this seems, because it is such a huge change from past discussions were people never heard of Sierra Leone, it raises questions of whether Hollywood is the villain in exploiting the market of present day issues or is it the answer to the issue of people actively refusing to study. Whichever one it is anyway, the question remains, why is a history changing fact like the fact that Africans have as much a claim to the discovery of the Americas, been that they set foot on this continent long before Columbus did, not been the subject of a movie.
On friendship
Is there something that is too strong for a friendship to endure? In a world that is struggling to trust and has determined that no one and nothing can be trusted, friends were the buffers between us and the world. When friends do let us down as is in our humanity to do, when do we say enough is enough and this is too much weight on our friendship?
On change
I have lived through my share of changes and if there has been any certainty it is that this year has been the one with most changes for me. The United States which is ever changing is at a period of decision making it has in its power, the choice to for the first time elect a person of African origin or a woman as its president. Meanwhile, around the world, politicians are been assassinated, elections are been rigged, people are dying of starvation, and diseases and disguised genocide is still going on. Why then does change occur and what does it have in store for us.
INEVITABLY
In evaluating the past year, one has to ask oneself, what did I do to deserve all this love? For me my mother’s love has always been the greatest and the ever present, yet year after year it never ceases to amaze me how her love for me grows. The final question then is what will you do, for that person who loves you wholeheartedly, without regret, without bounds and without asking anything in return for it?
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