CROSS YOUR BOUNDARIES:A PANACEA TO PEACE AND SECURITY(A part of address delivered at a Lions club event,26-11-11
by Bamidele Salam on Monday, November 28, 2011 at 9:09pm
A boundary is a barrier,a limit,a dividing line.Boundaries are barriers between one point and the other.Boundaries may be physical,social,cultural,psychological,technological or otherwise.A mans barrier may be found in his taste,fashion,attributes,education or convinctions.While some boundaries are inevitable and perharps desirable,most others areimpediments to the realisation of mans full potential and fulfillment of his purpose.
Boundaries are the reason why men go to war.They are the major causes of tension,hate,suspicion and confusion.Before 1994,it was an offence to be black in South Africa.By a law passed in 1948,it was an offence for Blacks to live in certain parts of the land,or take the same busses with whites or even contemplating sharing the same toilet with them.Inter racial marriages were punishable with fines or imprisonment.Blacks were required to carry passes to go beyond physical boundaries in a land where they constitute a vast majority.The Blacks were 19 million in population while the dominant whites were just 4 million.Countries like UK,USA,ISRAEL,CANADA etc who had their foundations on civil liberty were ardent supporters of the boundary called apartheid.Nelson Mandelas African National Congress was considered a terrorist organisation!Skin Colour was,and still is,one crude boundary which humanity fails to cross.Research indicates that 90 % of crime in the UK are race motivated while about 50 % of prison inmates in the United States are Blacks!
One form of racism which rules our own part of the world is tribalism.Recall how the tutsis were massacred in their hundreds of thousands by the Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. 25% of the Rwandan population was wiped off because some folks could not muster the strength to cross the hate boundary!Civil wars in Nigeria,Liberia,Cote d voire and other parts of Africa resulted out of the same lameness of the mind.Very recently in Nigeria,a governor of the South Eastern state of Abia sacked or forcefully transferred civil servants who though being Igbo were not indigenes on the state.The Urhobos and Itsekiri of Delta and the Ifes and Modakekes of Osun have refused to see that there is indeed no barrier between them.
And what do you say about the religious barrier?!Millions of lives are yearly lost to blood sucking gods in diffferent climes.Spiritual boundaries are set up to foist one line of thinking on others.From Nigeria to yugoslavia,somalia to Iran,India to egypt the same spirit of hate rules the heart of so called lovers of God,Allah and other deities.
It is regrettable that despite mans advancement in science and technology,there is a great slide into sectarianism in all forms among peoples of the world.Not even sports which is supposed to be a panacea has worked.Big riots have broken out after major tournaments while fans commit suicide when their teams lose.Embassies of nations have been attacked as a fallout of sporting events just as major diplomatic row ensue there from.In the words on Martin Luther King jnr"YOU CAN NOT BREED PEACE OUT OF NON PEACE".
Our assignment as individual member of the society is to identify those boundaries which constitue hinderance to goodwill among men and work towards crossing them while holding others along.One major way of doing this is to promote dialogue and productive engagement among all classes of people of diverse persuation.I am convinced that ignorance resulting from indoctrination is often the cause of all prejudice.Those who open their heart to feel how others feel,see what others see and know what they know not about others will hardly bacome fanatics of any sort.If ignorance dies,hate and its attendant violence will not survive!
Boundaries are the reason why men go to war.They are the major causes of tension,hate,suspicion and confusion.Before 1994,it was an offence to be black in South Africa.By a law passed in 1948,it was an offence for Blacks to live in certain parts of the land,or take the same busses with whites or even contemplating sharing the same toilet with them.Inter racial marriages were punishable with fines or imprisonment.Blacks were required to carry passes to go beyond physical boundaries in a land where they constitute a vast majority.The Blacks were 19 million in population while the dominant whites were just 4 million.Countries like UK,USA,ISRAEL,CANADA etc who had their foundations on civil liberty were ardent supporters of the boundary called apartheid.Nelson Mandelas African National Congress was considered a terrorist organisation!Skin Colour was,and still is,one crude boundary which humanity fails to cross.Research indicates that 90 % of crime in the UK are race motivated while about 50 % of prison inmates in the United States are Blacks!
One form of racism which rules our own part of the world is tribalism.Recall how the tutsis were massacred in their hundreds of thousands by the Hutus in Rwanda in 1994. 25% of the Rwandan population was wiped off because some folks could not muster the strength to cross the hate boundary!Civil wars in Nigeria,Liberia,Cote d voire and other parts of Africa resulted out of the same lameness of the mind.Very recently in Nigeria,a governor of the South Eastern state of Abia sacked or forcefully transferred civil servants who though being Igbo were not indigenes on the state.The Urhobos and Itsekiri of Delta and the Ifes and Modakekes of Osun have refused to see that there is indeed no barrier between them.
And what do you say about the religious barrier?!Millions of lives are yearly lost to blood sucking gods in diffferent climes.Spiritual boundaries are set up to foist one line of thinking on others.From Nigeria to yugoslavia,somalia to Iran,India to egypt the same spirit of hate rules the heart of so called lovers of God,Allah and other deities.
It is regrettable that despite mans advancement in science and technology,there is a great slide into sectarianism in all forms among peoples of the world.Not even sports which is supposed to be a panacea has worked.Big riots have broken out after major tournaments while fans commit suicide when their teams lose.Embassies of nations have been attacked as a fallout of sporting events just as major diplomatic row ensue there from.In the words on Martin Luther King jnr"YOU CAN NOT BREED PEACE OUT OF NON PEACE".
Our assignment as individual member of the society is to identify those boundaries which constitue hinderance to goodwill among men and work towards crossing them while holding others along.One major way of doing this is to promote dialogue and productive engagement among all classes of people of diverse persuation.I am convinced that ignorance resulting from indoctrination is often the cause of all prejudice.Those who open their heart to feel how others feel,see what others see and know what they know not about others will hardly bacome fanatics of any sort.If ignorance dies,hate and its attendant violence will not survive!
PROMOTING DIALOGUE WILL SURELY BRING PEACE,VINTAGE BAMIDELE SALAM
ReplyDeleteGod help us in the World, most especially in Nigeria with crisis up and down
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