![]() Devil’s Advocate: Random Thoughts
In homage: "From Where I Sit"
I come from a country that has been shattered by violence and war, much of that I have witnessed and participated in. I was not a combatant but a refugee. I was displaced, threatened, been shot at, been friends with combatants, and even supported a faction or two during the process; in other words a typical victim and participant in a war. I’ve seen firsthand that we are all just human beings, put in impossible situations.
Hello is anybody out there? Oh My God I’m the only one left! Oh no they’re all deaaaadddd! Deaaadd! Why? God! Why? Somebody pleeeeeease…… Blah blah blah…… Music interlude – dehn dehn dehn dehn – eerie offscreen humming concluding with wild cackling offscreen. Narrator in a God like voice intones, “Welcome to the Devill’s Advocate with Different Devill, a look into the strange, otherworldy mosaic that pretends to be a somewhat sane mind.” Screeeeeeeeech! – sorry about that, forgot to take my meds, Rod gets out sometimes when I do that. Ever had one of those days? That’s how I’m feeling right now. I’ve been working up the energy since last night to meet my personal deadline for this, and guess what? Zip, zero, nada, rien, nothing or in Liberianese nathin’! I haven’t been able to string together one coherent thought. Of course my playing Rise of Nations for 18 hours might be another factor, but hey to each his own right? Working for yourself can be a drag. Nobody to tell you what to do; how am I supposed to know what to do? I prefer to drink scotch, eat pizza, surf the web and play video games with my daughter. All the things any respectable slacker does. Working is so 20th century; oh, for the good old days of Communism when the lovely motherland or our equally beloved democratic brotherhood kept all of us, the African intelligentsia, fervently occupied working in those homegrown African gulags and resorts of nefarious intent. What is a self respecting African member of the intelligentsia to do? We all can’t work for the UN, found an NGO, run for President or otherwise show how much better we are than others, right? Hence my thanks to the retro members of the African Diaspora who have put the Intelligent back in Intelligentsia, with Afrik-news.com. I now have a platform through which I can actually prove that:
I spend half the time dreaming up these great ideas, and then find myself too exhausted to implement these grandiose visions. Case in point, this journal, blog, forum, column, window on the world, whatever it’s called. Here I am week infinitisum and I’m getting behind in the stuff already – I have a rather unique work schedule. I have this long list of other subjects I might check out (re my unique work schedule), check out below:
I add to this list every day and have no idea how I’ll cover these, but hey no guts, no glory, right? Now if that doesn’t sound like something straight out of marine boot camp or something the former resident bonehead in chief of our great democratic fatherland would say (extrapolate people, think, you’ll get it). But this just shows the problems I’m having with creativity and my writing. The reason I started this online adventure was to be able to express my views online. Tell the world how I see it, its injustices, the good things or the bad things, politics, economics, filmmaking, social justice – my passion – cover everything that I can muster the energy to talk about. I want to see if I can make a substantial difference in the world, even if it’s just in my little piece of the world. I come from a country that has been shattered by violence and war, much of that I have witnessed and participated in. I was not a combatant but a refugee. I was displaced, threatened, been shot at, been friends with combatants, and even supported a faction or two during the process; in other words a typical victim and participant in a war. I’ve seen firsthand that we are all just human beings, put in impossible situations. I’ve witnessed the darkest sides of the human character and the brightest. I won’t talk about the bad stuff, but what can you tell the family with 10 children and little or no food at all offering shelter to another family of the same size in the middle of a pitched battle? How can you classify the man who carries another man he doesn’t know on his back for a week as they flee fighting? The woman who goes hungry so her neighbor’s children can eat? These are the difference-makers in this life, that’s why I’m writing on Afrik-news.com. I hope through it to touch someone, to get my ideas across, in short to make a difference. I’m a Griot, btw who took my Kora? Cue soundtrack – Femi Kuti’s Beng Beng ringing out in my own private hell/heaven- my mind. l8r! DD Unauthorized republication of this article without the express permission of Afrik-news.com is prohibited. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Afrik-news.com. |
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