Thursday, February 1, 2007

Strength

I look around everyday and I see people, sometimes thousands, sometimes hundreds, all doing their thing. Some work in shops, some are beggars, some are artists, doing what they need to do in order to survive, because ultimately in this world, that what we're programmed to do, survive.
Very often this adherence, this day to day grind is described as being a slave, bowing to the system, and in many ways i agree, many people are content (actually relieved may be a better word) to do their job and be able to pay the bills, being conned into believing the adverts on TV that proclaim that the path to happiness is through consumerism.
But consider this, no matter what people do in order to make money, be it menial, illegal, honourable or mundane, the amount of strength it takes to do this day after day, year after year. It speaks volumes about human strength, human endurance, we are after all much more powerful than most of us realise.
Take mothers for example, what the average mother goes through for her family, the washing, the cleaning, the shoulder to cry on, some mothers have killed for their children, lied, cheated, stolen and many more things, things people should not have to do. There is an insane amount of strength that goes into that. There is a man who works in my office, he's a cleaner, he used to work behind the bank teller, he's an educated guy, but he's fallen on hard times. Not once have I heard him complain, not once has he been in a foul mood because of his circumstances, he does his job, with a smile on his face. His strength is an inspiration to me.
Now this brings me to the point of this post, the inherent strength we all have within us. We are infinitely more powerful than we realise, think of the strength that gets you through the day, the strength that carries people their whole lives long. Imagine we start to harness that power in a more postive, constructive way. Imagine we had no interference from outside sources, imagine what an amazing world we could create.
I know that this is the stuff of pipe dreams, but we as people, think we have no power, but exactly the opposite is true, we have all the power, we just choose to give it away, to hand it over to other people. If we marched up to a major corporation and told them to cease a certain action, if we marched on parliment and told them to change a certain law, nothing could stop us.
The problem is just this, most people do not care, if one thousand people march, it can be stopped, but if we marched in our hundreds of thousands, in our millions, we are unstoppable. Apathy is the biggest killer, it is this apathy, born of sit-coms, gameshows and what passes for news, it is this attitude of 'we can't do anything' that we must aim to destroy, we can't do anything because we've been told all our lives we can't do anything, and we have swallowed that lie, hook, line and sinker.
The time has come, now more than ever, to start realising what we are truly capable of, i don't condone violence, but the time has come to fight back, there is a war on, one for our hearts and our souls, and if we don't at the very least become aware of these things, we will be unable to do the most basic of things, to protect ourselves.
They can silence one of us, a hundred of us, a thousand of us, maybe even a million, but they will never be able to silence all of us.
The power is in your hands, use it wisely.

6 comments:

Confused Naija Girl said...

Came here from one afrika forum.Very thought provoking write up

Anonymous said...

GREETINGS, I TOO AM A WHITE AFRICAN,
I believe the two of us may have a great deal in common.
I share your deep inner frustration.......too.

just when I was about to turn the rest of my 90% brain space into a goldfish bowl........

please contact me @ unicorno@telkomsa.net
or tel: 044-272 8074
interests:ancient history and languages, curative education(eurythmist) comp religion etc...

paper :"the sun/son mysteries, the search for our humanity"

Unknown said...

wow very profound and inspirational words.

Melody Scott Zindell said...

So true and so beautifully written. I like to remind people that "the system" actually has to work very had and continuously to "keep the sheep herded" and it wouldn't take much to change things....

Anonymous said...

Nice writeup lumukanda...very lovely


Mark5
www.oneafrika.net

Unknown said...

Shooooweee, that was very well writen dudel, wow... im taken aback! x