Who did you say I am?

Here is what. I think I have started to realise who I am. Note my reflections seeking me or myself. Really, if psychologists want to make a meal of analysing and profiling, I am concerned with how I feel within my environment. Do you realise that where you were born (an accident of history) really helps in determining who you are and who people think you are? The other day I was a visitor at Professor An-Na'im's site and waited through a webcast(?)! Wow! I saw this man speak of himself as a Sudanese on account of his being dressed 'peculiarly' within the environment of his presentation. You see, he was speaking to an 'all American audience' . He had a wide flowing dress with a large headgear, particular to the Sudanese male dressing. He was indeed typically Sudanese. Yet, did he have say he needed that identity? Maybe, he did not want to be mistaken for a 'libralised fundamentalist!

The idea is this: The Lord created us and dispersed us all round the surface of the earth. He made us different. Black, 'white', hispanic (?), indian (...) and what have you (or you know what). All so we may know and identify one another. How should we relate to this? Why should I bother seeking to signify my identity? A muslim is (should be) a muslim anywhere on the surface of the earth. An-Na'im only needed to make the point that he is a muslim, peeriod. Is a Sudanese muslim different from an American muslim?

I have found my identity. Thanks.

Funmi Iyanda: Discarding a Course!

Somehow I felt deflated reading Iyanda's blog this afternoon. Here is a woman who has shown some promise and will not allow some percieved pressures to defeat her. I hate to think it is a love thing - or maybe the obasence of it. But, whatever it is, Funmi has put so much into making her personality that allowing something small called fatigue to set in now is quite discomforting. I know she will reconsider and not yeild to the 'fucking fabulous' feeling of dispondence to change her prolific orientgation. Come on girl, there are people waiting on you to shine.

Here is hoping the Iyanda we all know will come up 'running' even if our packaged water will be missing.

Look up. There is someone there.

Me or Myself: Searching for My Identity

I am a Nigerian. I am a northerner, which means I am a person indigenous to a community in northern Nigeria. I speak the hausa language very fluently. In fact I studied hausa langauge in college, so I write the hausa langauge using the english alphabets well. I do not write hausa smoothly in ajami script. Ajami script uses the arabic alphabets. In my country, I have acquired a name which is not my own. I am generally called 'a hausa man.'

The tag 'hausa man' is because I am a muslim. I practice the Islamic religion. I am trying very hard to live my life according to the dictates of the Qur'an and the Sunna, which means I hold tenaciously to Shari'a. Yet, I belong to a family of dialects within a tribal affinity known as Kilba in the Hong local government area of Adamawa State in North Eastern Nigeria. How am I a 'hausa man?'

I'm I myself or not? Should I be me, whose identity is a convinience for historians? I am looking for my identity. I am not a hausa man. I live in northern Nigeria and speak the language well. Who should I be? Me or Myself?

Obama's vanity or America's hypocricy?

So I read this piece in the Washington Post on the vanities of Democratic hopeful Barack Obama and I wondered: Is that not the hallmark of American psychology? Is that not what America represents for all the rest of the world. Why should a columnist list the 'oddities' in the raising profile of a 'good' political personality like BArack Obama and conclude that the lawyer politician should tell the people who he thinks he is? I am confused.

My confusion does not come from not actually knowing Obama for the short space of his ascention to prominence; it does come from my continued apprehension of the tools employed by the American press to deal with their subjects. This is a man seemingly in tune with the aspirations of the people, whose image as a Muslim lover is daily cristicised because America is a christain country with good christain values; here is a man who places himself as a change agent, yet would quickly distance himself from anybody whose opinions differ from the main stream American psychology as the 'best of the best' of God's own people; Obama is arctypical America, yet his desire to show himself as such is now being criticised. Maybe, the man should have waited to be president.

In the event he is elected (certainly, the majority would have indicated they love him), the likes of Charles K would reshape their attitute. They may be forced to appreciate the fact that America is ably portrayed by Obama. If his actions amount to vanity, print USA in all the spaces that Obama appear and read the story to yourself. You have the picture. That is the image that comes across every day.

Nine to one, Obama will not be elected the next President of the United States of Americ. It will not be because he is not qualified; it will be because he represents the type of single mindedness which the illusive American establishment resents and which the media extols daily, but would readily throw away as soon as the economic lifeline(s) appear to be strained. The media are all America; America grows and swells upon establishment doctrines.

Obama may be vain. But so is the United States of America. Two of a kind. May the romance live long. Howeve ... !

The Virtue of Selfishness (1)

Next to something you love is something you like. Is it possible then that you may not like what you love? Is it possible, maybe probable that you may dislike (i.e. not like) what you love? I think very few of us think to make the distinction between those things or those persons we love and those things or those persons that we think we like and those that we ascribe the emotion of loving love. We are often forced to assume that the two words, love and like, mean the same thing. They may have and in some people convey the same or similar meanings, or convy the same or similar emotions, but they are cetainly not the one and the same. You may like and not love. You may love and not like. Only discerning people hold this as the truth and nothing but the truth.

Consider this: Your spouse likes you. How often does he say he loves you? Don't bother to count. His love is limited to the thing he likes about you. You know this is the truth. You know he probably likes your face; your backside; your hair or the way your face looks. He likes your company because he enjoys the time you have together (and those you spend together). He has to make you feel special so that you make him feel comfortable. Yes, his selfishness is the reason you have him where you want him. Believe me, you do not want to change him into a selfless being. Encourage his selfishness, because in so doing you comfortably and conviniently disguise your own selfishness.

I love to be selfish. You should. Otherwise, how would you bring yourself to do those menial jobs you call homekeeping? You know there is a reward in it. From whom? Your loving husband of course. Is he not to show kindness and compassion towards you? Does he not say he loves you even though he means that he likes how you look after him (and the house and kids)?

Think selfish. Act selfish. We need more of it in the world. America needs to protect its selfish interests (including compelling compliance with its own notion of democracy) to maintain its status as the only superpower in the world.

There is virtue in selfishness!

The Virtue of Selfishness

It is because I need this read that I wrote. It is because you need reading material that you came. You and I have our reasons for doing what we do. We are selfish. We are not selfless, because selflessness means you are without self. How could you be without self?

Think about it: Unless you were really selfish, you would not have had a direction. You may allow yourself wait on providence to lift and drag you along. Providence does not condone indulence even if it was gracious. Yes, I mean your idleness and waiting on destiny's child to lead the way is not productive; it defeats ingenuity, driving to the pits any semblance of productivity. Should you then, perchance consider productivity, think selfishly; be selfish. That is what made the likes of Bill Gates of this world.

Think about it.

Obama: The African in Him

Tomorrow, it is speculated, the erstwhile rival of Barack Obama, presumptive Democratic Party Nominee for the 2008 presidential election in the United States, former first lady Hilary Clinton will end her campaign. Whatever that means, I don't know. I want to believe she will be putting a stop to further spending and rethorical speech making. I think it is time. I think it is time for everyone, especially those of us in Africa, to begin searching our souls to understand the implications of an Obama candidacy and maybe, an Obama presidency of the 'greatest country' on earth. We already have enough material to ponder on.

We must recall that Obama is the son of a Kenyan father. He has been to Africa, but has said categorically that he is NOT A MUSLIM. He needed to say that. What with the trouble his Pastor caused him along the way and his soft spot for Hamaz et al. This son of an African father has really learnt the spicing up of the American dream. Those of us who refuse to dream may just have to ask of what benefit is an Obama candidacy and or presidency of America to us.

They say it is going to be historic. The first AFRICAN AMERICAN to be the candidate of a leading political party in America. The first. Yes. But what is leading about the Democratic Party. The number of supporters or amount of money they play with? Obama may be black, but he certainly is not African and no African nation, including Kenya, should expect Obama to win and be in office 'for the 2016 olympics?' Now, America would not be America. How many of you have read THE MAN by Leon Uris? Or was it ....!

There is Africa about Obama. Africa is not in him. Africa will never be with him. Africans must realise that whatever Bankole says on Africa World Tonight, that radio/tv show, is only Havard wishful thinking. The indoctrination of the American 'we are the world' machine lives on.