What if you had a few more hours to live?
A few days ago I was presented with an interesting question by one of my mentors. She asked me, “What would you write if you knew you had only a few days, maybe even hours of life left, just long enough to sum up what is most important to you about life? What would you write?”
After sleeping on it, I put down my thoughts and wish to share them with you. As you read, I invite you to reflect upon the same question; If you had a few more hours to live what would be your own last message to the world?
In my view, success can be defined as the measure of human legacy. All knowledge and achievement that can be marshaled in a lifetime is not of much significance if it does not educate or empower at least one fellow human being for the better.
If I had a few more hours to live, my final words would be summed up in a message about the importance of an immortal human legacy: mankind’s ability to leave behind, that which is greater than him.
I will illustrate why I hold this topic dear with two short stories that have inspired me: Stories that touched my heart and will hopefully continue to define my standpoints.
In 1722, a series of letters appeared in the New-England Courant written by a hitherto unknown middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood. She discussed various aspects of colonial life in America by criticizing societal ills like drunkenness, religious hypocrisy and sexism.
She wrote that she had been widowed after her husband, a minister, who had died leaving her with three children. She also demurely revealed that she could be easily persuaded to marry again.
She served as a consistent social commentator and her letters are today remembered as a mirror through which society saw itself in earnest.
Regrettably for her many admirers, Silence Dogood did not exist. She was a character and a pseudonym, for a sixteen year old boy who worked as an apprentice at his older brother’s printer in Boston.
This young boy would later become one of the founding fathers of the United States, the scientist, inventor, soldier and diplomat who formed the first public library and fire department in America. Silence Dogood was Benjamin Franklin.
To some this story may not mean much, but to me, Silence Dogood stands for values deeply respected. Through her name and actions, ‘Silence’ actually ‘Did good’. She revealed the selfless nature and relentless imagination that foments the immortal legacy of Benjamin Franklin.
My second short story is about a young man in his mid twenties who chose to start a career as an artist in the late 19th century. This man had little money, ate poorly and spent everything he had on materials.
In February 1886, he wrote to his brother saying that he could only remember eating six hot meals since May of the previous year.
His teeth became loose and caused him much pain as he suffered from anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness. Nevertheless, he produced more than 2,000 pieces of artwork. He later died as a sad and impoverished man from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the tender age of 37.
98 years after his death, his painting ”Irises” sold for $53.9 million at Sotheby’s in New York, making it the highest price ever paid for an artwork at an auction at the time. The man was Vincent Van Gogh.
One may argue that there have been far too many great artists and politicians and, therefore, there is no specific reason why these two personalities would be part of one’s last message to the world. Silence Dogood and Vincent Van Gogh never got to taste greatness in their lives.
While Silence chose to avoid the limelight that came with greatness, Vincent never achieved the wealth or fame that he so desired. And yet the works of these two ordinary human beings changed the world and the way we see it, albeit posthumously for Vincent.
For this reason, I believe that we all have it in us to think bigger than the present day, to create that which will outlive our stay and to make an impact that will not be measured by today’s power, fortune and fame.
If I had a few more hours to live, it would be sad because I have not had enough time to build this kind of lasting legacy.
This is why I would choose this as my final topic in the hope to inspire the reader to build their own legacy, to think big, be virtuous and work relentlessly at whatever they are good at. This note, in essence, would be my legacy.
What would say if you had a few more hours to live? Share your thoughts by posting a comment below.
Popularity: 18% [?]
The night we all read Babu’s letter
By Emile Babu
MICHIGAN. It is quiet Friday night in the lobby between the long walls of the administration block at Wayne State University. I sit between two students, Mtishi, a Zimbabwean, and Sentongo, a Ugandan as we intently listen to VOA’s African news broadcast.
‘…In Harare, Hester Theron a 79-year old white widow and farm owner has been handed a suspended sentence for refusing to vacate her farm,’ the sound of the radio broadcast tears through the silence. Our eyes shift to Mtishi with curiosity - he faces down in awe.
‘Hester is accused of violating the Gazetted Land Act’, the radio blares on irrespective of the eerie silence.
There is a significant increase in violence against the country’s remaining white commercial farmers as the country fast-tracks enforcement of farm takeovers. Farm invasions have been taking place since 2000, but the latest round is more vicious than ever before.
Not so long ago things were very different – real growth between 1980 and 1981 exceeded 20% and in 1983 the country experienced a 30% jump in agricultural production. The country had one of the most stable economies on the continent - hinged on solid agricultural and industrial fundamentals.
Today, news from Zimbabwe is surprisingly easy to disregard – not because the country is the poster child for human rights abuse or because it is home to a fragile political coalition — but because the global news audience has more than had enough tragic news from Zimbabwe.
At 94% unemployment cannot possibly get worse, as for hyperinflation, there can be no report more damning than the indefinite suspension of the national currency. It seems like Zimbabwe has no more surprises in store – for its people and for the global news audience. But then again it never runs out of surprises.
Meanwhile, President Mugabe is one of the most educated presidents in the world, with two postgraduate and a staggering five undergraduate degrees – one of them from the prestigious University of Oxford.
‘Did he have no advisors, fellow professors, friends, mentors or ministers to offer him counsel?’ I can’t help but ask Mtishi if no one foresaw this. He stares back at me seemingly distressed by my curiosity.
He asks both of us to follow him to his tiny room several blocks away where he draws out copies of an open letter to President Mugabe dated May 1980. The letter is authored by Professor Abdul Rahman Mohammed Babu, a former leader of the anti-colonial struggle in Zimbabwe.
I am surprised to find a manuscript by the author that I have not already perused. It was written around the eve of the celebration of the country’s independence after decades of colonial rule under the British.
‘In the last five years since you took over ZANU, you have shown magnificent leadership, resolute qualities without being dogmatic, daring without being adventurist and flexible without being lax.’ Mtishi reads the preface as I envision the professor turn in his grave in bemusement of his early analysis.
‘Experience elsewhere has taught us that the taking over viable farms has invariably led to almost total collapse of agricultural production and has forced the countries concerned to incur heavy foreign debt and import food,’ the letter reads.
‘To expropriate white farmers will amount to economic disaster [and yet] allowing them to continue as before will amount to perpetuating national injustice. This is a serious dilemma.’
I can sense frustration in Mtishi’s voice as he goes on to read out Babu’s proposal to diffuse the foreseen dilemma.
‘Surround white settler farms with producer agricultural cooperatives and make it obligatory for white settler farms to share their facilities like farm implements, expertise, marketing and dispensary services with the newly-established cooperatives. This will help to develop viable cooperative farms at a minimum cost and resolve the gross income inequality without creating a crisis.’
At the dawn of independence in 1980, when the world was wobbling with optimism for Zimbabwe, Babu shared his honest and clear description of a series of events that have come to unravel almost thirty years down the road.
Unfortunately Mugabe never heeded his advice — and the results? There for everyone to see. In 1996, the professor died in London at 72 just in time to catch a glimpse of the economic and political nosedive Zimbabwe was about to take.
As for the three of us that night, well, we decided to retire early.
Popularity: 70% [?]
The Nobel Prize affirms intriguing realities.
By Babu Emile
In 1936 a young man was born in Kanyadhiang village, Rachuonyo District on the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya. At age 23, he fathered a son with a beautiful young lady from Kansas named Ann Dunham. The two, now deceased, would have been very proud to know that their son, Barack Hussein Obama II was last week announced winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
It did not come as a surprise that seven of the 2009 Nobel prize winners are American. What many did not notice is that four of the seven are actually immigrants - born outside of the United States yet hold US citizenship. As newcomer in the country, I have experienced, first hand, the anti-immigration trend that is sometimes blamed on the recession. The rationale being - everyone who is born outside the United States is in the country to take away American jobs.
Among the realities that this year’s Nobel prizes brought to light is the fact that the United States is a nation made up of immigrants who drive its innovation economy. Statistics indicate that foreign-born science and engineering students earn one-third of all Ph.D.s awarded in the United States.
Perhaps no one acknowledges this better than Nobel laureate Barack Obama in his inaugural speech after being sworn in as president, ‘…For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth…’
It is this unifying tone that built on the momentum that led him to win this year’s Peace Prize. While naysayers will cry foul over the irreversible fact that he won the award – and that it was a well deserved win – President Obama is and will continue to be the greatest beacon of hope and the most important human symbol of charismatic leadership and positive change in this decade.
The prize also signals America’s return to global leadership after a Bush era that was defined by rigid adherence to blunders in foreign policy, atrocious human rights abuses, reckless disregard of the international community and a shoe – one that was thrown at the head of state during an official press conference.
As the Nobel prize comes of age, it is also important to note that the world is not the same since the time Alfred Nobel’s will was read in 1896. Being the ironic chemical engineer who invented the dynamite and ballistics only to later create a ‘peace prize’, he would have been cornered to overlook current global problems like greenhouse gases and climate change.
Many fundamental breakthroughs in technology and science do not receive recognition from the Nobel Foundation. In terms of sciences, the Nobel committee only rewards physics, chemistry and medicine: leaving out genetics, engineering, computer science, environment and public health.
It is important for the prize to evolve in a way that enhances the contribution of scientists that are struggling to meet the most important challenges of the 21st century like climate change.
It is equally important for the Oslo committee to wake up to the reality that, years back, Obama would have to wait for a telegraph or handwritten letter to receive notice of his award and world would wait several days for the news to circulate into the print media before knowing.
This year, he, like the rest of the us, caught the event in real time on high definition television while others caught it on cable and internet through new media channels like Facebook and Twitter. By the time the news got to print, it was history.
‘It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.’ W. Edward Deming
Popularity: 73% [?]
A new look at HIV/AIDS in Africa
According to a 1999 World Health Organization (WHO) report, the total number of actual diagnosed AIDS cases on the African continent is about equal to the total for AIDS in America and yet Africa today is cited as the worst example of HIV/AIDS in the world.
In order to successfully fight HIV, it is important to dispel the common myths and negative portrayal of the ‘developing world’ because gives the impression that Africa is world’s away from the west. According to a 1999 World Health Organization (WHO) report, the total number of diagnosed AIDS cases on the African continent is about equal to the total in America and yet Africa today is cited as the worst example of HIV/AIDS in the world.
Last week Rwanda’s National Aids Control Commission (CNLS) conducted a two-day workshop to determine appropriate ways to implement evidence-based HIV prevention measures during which they discussed results of innovative research and programs that have contributed to HIV prevention. As is the norm, the press were reminded by a release that read, ‘Rwanda has a 3 percent prevalence of the epidemic, which remains a major challenge to the entire world, especially sub-Saharan Africa.’
The highest HIV rate in the world can be found in Africa but closer scrutiny indicates, that every country in Africa has its own HIV statistics and some are not as damning as portrayed in the global media. For instance, Senegal has the same rate as the United States while Madagascar’s rate is as low as the rest of the world.
‘[There is] a terrible simplification that there is one Africa and things go one way in Africa. It is not respectful and it is not clever to think like that,’ commented Dr. Hans Rosling, a professor in global health at a May 2009 TED conference in California.
In order to successfully fight HIV, it is important to dispel the common myths and negative portrayal of Africa because gives the impression that Africa is world’s away from the rest of the world. Contrary statistics indicate that most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward better health and many countries in Africa are moving twice as fast as the west did.
This negative portrayal is promoted by corrupt African government officials with an aim to appeal to the sympathy and charity of foreign donors and thus prefer the continent to be defined by hopelessness. The international press has also contributed to this prejudiced perception through its persistently biased coverage of Africa that focuses on civil wars, hunger, famine and epidemics despite the reality that the there are many success stories on the continent.
‘Africa has immense opportunities that never navigate through the web of despair and helplessness that the western media presents to their audience,’ remarked Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan journalist who addressed the same conference.
Non profit organizations that provide treatments for HIV have reported a dire need for newer HIV/AIDS medications due to a shortfall in funding as a result of the current global economic crisis. HIV/AIDS funding is stagnating and the prospect of universal access to treatment may be withering – millions of people are in immediate need of treatment, but are not receiving it.
More resources are needed but throwing money at the HIV problem may appease the many in the developed world but will not be a solution. While it maybe offensive to the sensibilities of the developed world towards giving aid to “poor Africans”, donors should critically asses the individual nations and communities that are most affected and apportion funds in a way that empowers communities towards self reliance, gender balance and better HIV/AIDS education.
Progressive African leaders, donors and global health experts need to look more closely and track the progress of the epidemic at a micro level and thus apportion help where it is most needed. If this is not done, Africa’s bureaucracies will continue to expand, the prospect of free markets will continue to shrink and we shall continue to diagnose the HIV crisis incorrectly — at the expense of people who really need help.
Popularity: 93% [?]
The challenge for the burghers
Published in the NewTimes - September 24th 2009
I wish to welcome you all to the maiden ‘Letter to the motherland’. Every week I will share with readers the perspective of an African, born and raised, currently living in the Midwest of America - Detroit, Michigan.
When I first came to Rwanda, in May 1994 and by the time I left Rwanda, fourteen years later, I had traveled through every corner of the country.
Not once did I go a mile without seeing a human being. This was all in sharp contrast to what I experienced driving here. On the road from Knoxville, Tennessee to Detroit, Michigan – an eight hour drive - I drove past hundreds of miles of vast empty lands without seeing a single person.
Now, I am put off by shameful comparisons between the richest country in the world and Rwanda, but I still feel that Rwanda’s population statistics are untenable.
The Population Institute, an NGO that seeks to promote access to family planning information, estimates that by 2050, our population will have reached 21,800,000.
But are these just crunchy numbers or do they have a significant bearing on Rwanda’s future? Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace publish an annual ranking of failed states, all of which - without exception - have high population growth rates.
The top ten countries in the 2009 Failed States Index have total fertility rates substantially higher than the global average of 2.6.
High population growth rates make it more difficult for less developed countries to provide adequate schooling, nutrition and immunization. Population pressure if not addressed aggressively will pose a significant challenge to economic advancement and the attainment of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals in Rwanda.
Population pressure is a challenge that needs to be addressed by every citizen of the country. There is a need to weave crucial partnerships between the media, education, public sector and government to send a strong message that Rwanda’s prosperity may well depend on her ability to curb her population.
Providing universal access to family planning, empowering women and modifying school curricula to include information on population control are some suggestions put into consideration to avert this looming challenge.
The blueprint for Rwanda’s medium term prosperity, ‘Vision 2020’ predicts that the population is expected to double to around 16 million by 2020 – with a tiny annotation on the same page that anticipates a more reasonable 13 million projection, ‘[if] family planning improves’.
As we draw closer to 2020, it is important that the fourth estate plays the crucial role of sending a message to the country that population control is everyone’s business.
Rwanda as a country achieves everything it sets its eyes on, from scoring accolades as a leading African tourism destination to being the best performer in this year’s Doing Business Index.
If this is equally addressed as an important item of the nation’s agenda of reforms, there is no doubt that the country will mitigate the long term impact of an ever rising population pressure.
Popularity: 40% [?]