|
Written by Dali Abel
|
|
Monday, 30 September 2002 |
As High As It Can Go
by
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
October/November 2002
Generally speaking, it takes between thirty to forty years for a human
being to reach maturity, the zenith of life. Long years must be spent
swallowing the bitter pills of life experience under the watchful eye
of Doctor Time. I cannot understand why someone could believe being
born into greatness by the mysterious virtue of his or her race,
ethnic background, religion,lineage or whatever.
Greatness can only be achieved by an individual, not inherited, and
what is great about a form of greatness that can be inherited like an
old piece of furniture anyway?
Greatness is the difference between the start and the arrival; the
difference between what life gives you and what you make out of it. No
one can be born into "greatness" because no one can arrive at the end
of the run without having even started. In this order of ideas, the
less life gives you at the start, the wider is your margin for
greatness. Lech Walesa accomplished a miracle. How else can we call
the achievement of a blue collar who ended up as head of State?
I have met people from different races and ethnic backgrounds but
failed to find human perfection. (Email me quickly if you ever see it
strolling down the street.)
As far as I am concerned, I really have no problem at
all conceding that someone is greater than I if he or she is good. I
support such people with whatever I have. At the GOLDEN MIND AWARD, we
are rewarding people for being great. Just show us how great you are
and you will get the award.
People I felt were superior to me, I found them in all
races but I never saw a race where its entire people could be
considered as superior beings. That doesn't exist, except in the mind
of some strange earthlings. Dumb & Co is in fact the world's largest
multinational corporation. I volunteer there sometimes. A nation that
doesn't stand on its feet is calling for trouble and ethnocentrism
finds in that a favorable ground to grow. The worst enemies of a nation are neither the whites
nor any color of the human rainbow but simply its own children, those
who bring shame on it.
I have personally been victim of some racial discrimination in
the West a few times and judging by the kind of people who treated me
as an "untermensch" I can say with certainty that those who feed their
pride with their own achievements seldom scavenge on discrimination.
People can be lazy and comfort driven. They love what is easy, cheap or
best of all, free. Whatever we do there will be individuals who will
feel or act as racially or ethnically superior to the others. It is so
easy for them let their minds slip into those soft satin sheets of
subjectivity and unduly enjoy that flattering feeling. Anyone, I mean
really anyone, can indulge in a racist feeling. It requires no special
qualifications.
Racists and ethnocentrists are here among us and they are not on the
"endangered species" list. What should the "inferior" people do? Show
the "superior beings" the Holy Books and the U.N Charter? Show them
history books? Go on their knees and beg for humane feelings with
teary eyes? Que Nenni!, as they used to say in old French. Victims and
potential victims of blind segregation must be at their best; be so
good that when the "superior" ones try to look down on them they won't
find them under the noose because they are up there. One cannot look
down on someone who is sky high. No one could have looked down on
Freud, L.S. Senghor or Kahlil Gibran. A Jew, an African and an Arab.
Being at their best is the best response the supposedly inferior people
can show to some inferior minds. It as eloquent as a Queen Hatchepsut's
obelisk in the Temple of Karnak. With its majestic silence and
impressive height, it leaves even the ethnocentrist of the worst breed
in complete awe.
Civilization is not the accidental result of the Gregorian calendar but
that of a responsible attitude based on our precious asset of human
values. Falling back into barbarianism is very easy but, with the
destructive power we have got, getting out of that barbarianism would
be nearly impossible. For the lost souls of blind discrimination and
intolerance, I say this: Nothing is more deplorable than aiming and
hitting right in the middle, the wrong target.
Dali Abel is a writer and artist. His website is available here.
Copyright © 2002 Dali Abel. and The Multiracial Activist. All rights reserved.
 Add as favourites (114) |  Quote this article on your site | Views: 3510
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6
AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com
All right reserved |
Be first to comment this article
