Come that day

(ES)

Come that day.
The day that our actions transcend our existence;
and only be judged by our commitment to humanity.
Because no Law can accuse those who defend life,
nor are guilty those who resist the oppressor.

 

In remembrance of Ken Saro-Wiwa

My lord,

We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation, angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Neither imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory.

I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The Company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the Company has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the Company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.

On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and those who assist them. Any nation which can do to the weak and disadvantaged what the Nigerian nation has done to the Ogoni, loses a claim to independence and to freedom from outside influence. I am not one of those who shy away from protesting injustice and oppression, arguing that they are expected in a military regime. The military do not act alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers, judges, academics and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their pants of urine.

We all stand on trial, my lord, for by our actions we have denigrated our Country and jeopardized the future of our children. As we subscribe to the sub-normal and accept double standards, as we lie and cheat openly, as we protect injustice and oppression, we empty our classrooms, denigrate our hospitals, fill our stomachs with hunger and elect to make ourselves the slaves of those who ascribe to higher standards, pursue the truth, and honour justice, freedom, and hard work. I predict that the scene here will be played and replayed by generations yet unborn. Some have already cast themselves in the role of villains, some are tragic victims, some still have a chance to redeem themselves. The choice is for each individual.

I predict that the denoument of the riddle of the Niger delta will soon come. The agenda is being set at this trial. Whether the peaceful ways I have favoured will prevail depends on what the oppressor decides, what signals it sends out to the waiting public.

In my innocence of the false charges I face Here, in my utter conviction, I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their rights. History is on their side. God is on their side.

For the Holy Quran says in Sura 42, verse 41: "All those that fight when oppressed incur no guilt, but Allah shall punish the oppressor."

Come that day.

Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995)

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In the realm of possibility

(ES)

We do not choose when and where to be born. Nor when to die.

The beginning and the end joined by the impossibility to choose and the inability of repudiation.
Our existence is delimited by two gratuitous events.

However, life unfolds in the realm of possibility, and from birth, choices are made for us or by ourselves. Morality, civilization, customs... deal to ease the anguish of the decision, and as far as possible, such as following a path without deviation, show us the way forward, while allowing certain branches and evasions.
We read and interpret a map to not get lost in our solitude on a path that inevitably leads us to death.

If we can not reject the instant when life appears or disappears, since they are not a component of the world of the possible, at least, we can reject anything that reduces the path of the possible to the rest of mankind. Since the map we handle today leads us to self-destruction, and takes advantage of our loneliness to guide us as individuals who refuse to choose.

I can not quit choosing, and in my responsibility to choose I commit with mankind to proclaim that we need a new map: that of solidarity, justice, peace, education, culture and respect for life.

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The paradox of evil

(ES)

For in the presence of God there is less a problem of freedom than a problem of evil. You know the alternative: either we are not free and God the all-powerful is responsible for evil. Or we are free and responsible but God is not all powerful.

A. Camus - The myth of Sisyphus

Wars, global warming, famine... I can not think of an almighty God responsible for such calamities, since no creator would rebel so viciously against his work; unless he wanted to self-destroy himself. I can not think of an non-omnipotent God, because in that case, and in his weakness, would be his creation that would rebel against him.

If the human being were free and responsible, I should assume that there is a human nature and that evil is part of it, since in a totally free manner, he chooses to do evil and self-destruction, which seems to be incoherent with preservation of life itself and the existence of an almighty God who loves his creation.

Thus, I conclude that the human being is not free, because in today's society we hand over our freedom and put it in the hands of the rulers. We experience a false sense of choice, confusing it with freedom. And those governments, pierced by the power of capital, are the ones that lead us to self-destruction: those who decide wars, predators of Mother Earth, those who kill of hunger their own people...

A Somali government soldier outside the ruins of the Mogadishu Cathedral (March 2013)
© Ahmad Mahmoud/IRIN

If almighty God do not want to die, and the human being is not free but responsible for their actions and inactions, I can only think of a non-omniscient God, who is alien to hell on this Earth for Man's work.

When Man is fully aware of the actual and possible things of this world, when he regains his freedom handed over and his alienated power, then and only then we will  be gods on Earth.

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The paradox of fear

(ES)

© Juan Herrero/IRIN

Fear of disobeying. Fear of resisting. Fear of suffering. Fear of knowing. Fear of loving. Fear of loneliness. Fear of the unknown. Fear of being different. Fear of who is different. Fear of giving. Fear of receiving. Fear of failure. Fear of being.

A Brave New World by the force of fear. In what serve us the senses if fear prevents us from loving others? And even more, by dint of being afraid, we fear of ourselves, without getting to know or develop ourselves fully.

The worst tragedies, armed conflict, where death is perceived as something close, these are the moments when the human being sympathizes, expressing fearless all his being as an spontaneous reaction to the misfortune that surrounds him.

However, we do not perceive, or even worse omitted, the threat of a predator system with nature and with ourselves. The threat of a system that has put us at its service and not on the contrary. The threat of self-destruction by greed. Competition instead of solidarity and cooperation.

In this days when sickness and death seem so alien to us, solidarity is the exception and not the rule. This is the paradox of fear: in the absence of wars, natural disasters, accidents and other tragedies, fear blocks us and keeps us from being free, whereas facing the certainty and nearness of our own death, or the death of others, fear frees the best of ourselves.

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That we do not resemble the Man

(ES)

Can you beat the feeling of helplessness and isolation by combating the power that oppresses us? Or is this just a way to bring more pain to our existence?

If we can only expect distress or frustration from the power, why to yearn for a change of it?
In other words, the power, whoever that holds it, is a relationship of domination-submission increasingly abstruse for the benefit of a plutocracy. Are we expecting perhaps a benevolent power, incorruptible, under democratic control and under the sovereignty of the people?

It seems then that facing the dystopia of capitalism and corporate governance we find the utopia of the revolution which subverts the established power. An endless power struggle in which the oppressed become dominant and the dominant become oppressed. The necessary and eternal struggle for freedom.

"And remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices."
Animal Farm - George Orwell (1903 - 1950)

Under the insignia of freedom and democracy, there are only power relationships, while the chains of capitalism that surround the oppressed are becoming more and more subtle as well as intricate.

© QUINO

So before breaking the external chains, it is necessary for the individual revolution of human being to succeed , that which breaks the internal chains to free him from the distress, frustration, helplessness and loneliness, allowing him to expand through the culture, mutual understanding, empathy, solidarity, love and communion with nature.

When this happens, when no internal barriers, imposed by the system or self-imposed by the individual, there will be no external chains with the ability to subdue any human being. Then and only then we will talk about true freedom.

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