'We either value African life, understand a black life as equal to a white life and the poor as equally deserving as the wealthy – or we do not. This reformulation of Frantz Fanon's "a given society is either racist or not" or better yet of Malcolm X's "If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress," is a reminder that there are no fractions when it comes to human dignities and freedoms.'
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---Ngugi...courtesy of the Dougal.
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The three richest people in the world own more than the poorest 48 nations. One billion people live in slums (UN-Habitat); Millions die in Rwanda, Congo, and Darfur and hardly anyone blinks an eye. Is this still a city, a city of Man, or bare forked existence?
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Today I was told by a white Rhodesian that she was "sure" that if she fell to the ground that I, before extending my hand to her, would start a religious debate instead of helping her. One depressing thing to ponder on is just how persistent our prejudices and hatreds are: Sunnis for Shias, the rich for the poor, white for black...On this crooked timber..?
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I think one thing is true though. The Allama was right: for all its idealism Europe has never really overcome its race consciousness. After the Trenches, the Bomb, the Gulags and Auschwitz one is surprised by any talk of civilisation and freedom (one excuses clowns like Bush and his 'Infinite Justice').
2 comments:
hey bill,
thx for the comment. yes, it is human, all too human. but so is acceptance of facts. equally. human beings are capable of both. what i protest is not the non-acceptance so much as the denial of facts.
anyway, here's a poem i translated recently, and i feel is related. thought you might enjoy it.
I play Haydn after a black day
and feel a clean warmth in the hands,
The keys obey. Mild hammers beat.
The tone is green, lively and serene.
The tone says that freedom exists
and that some don’t answer to the kaiser’s tax.
I dig my hands into my haydnpockets
and mimic one who calmly views the world.
I raise the haydnflag – that means:
“We won’t surrender. But will peace.”
The music is a glasshouse on the rise
where stones fly, stones roll.
And the stones roll right through
but all the panes remain whole.
– Tomas Tranströmer, Allegro, 1962
Jc, I hope you don't mind, but I've used some of your wonderful translations of some poetry on my blog.
Facts.
I hear what you're saying JC and I know that you don't mean it in a Gradgrind way. The same fact-that we are finite creatures-can inspire a wonder at all that passes away, a love for the world, and a longing for the wild blue yonder and yet, at the same time, it can lead to a nihilism: as the moderns would have it: we are *only* finite creatures, so let us forget.
for me, the greatest example of this is from the miraj, when the Prophet returns to the world. Or, as the Allama says, even if God reveals His face I'll still take 'perhaps' and 'maybe'.
Denial of reality/facts is okay as long as we can affirm as well, no?
Keep well,
b.
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