Equality is a Myth

I have committed a great atrocity upon myself. I noticed that in my writing I had started to lean towards being “politically correct”. I avoid using certain words or addressing certain things in the way I normally would. The reason I started to putting my thoughts down was so that I had a platform to be raw an uncensored. As such I will not apologize for the wording or topics of whatever it I will write about. And if you don’t like it well then you can simply not read. This is my blog anyway. Lol! Now down to business.

I recently posted a picture on Facebook that sparked an interesting discussion a few of my friends (and I actually mean friends) that also got me thinking of a few things that I had been discussing with other people. It made me reevaluate and take a step back and look at things with a bit more realism and practicality.

In the discussion on the picture I had posted, a female friend of mine mentioned that the aspect of “Equality” between men and women is a myth. And now that I think about it she is right. There can never and will never be “equality” of the genders not even in an ideal world. Just get that silly, stupid, irrational and idealistic thought out of your heads. It will NEVER happen.

Now if you are done huffing and puffing and cursing me out and all that (as some of you may be doing so) you can either continue reading or let yourself simply take what I just said and run with it and form some idea of me that isn’t all that pleasant. 

We cannot be equal because we are different. Our biological make up is not the same as such we cannot be treated equally or expect to be even then there are situational differences that can dictate who gets treated how. Small example, twins, a man and woman walk into a train/bus or whatever form of public transportation there is. Everything about them is identical except the woman in pregnant and its showing and the guy well he isn’t. The place is packed and they are standing next to you. Who do you give your seat to? I mean if we were to be equal then the woman should stand just as much as the guy.

Same scenario but this time the woman isn’t pregnant and the man has a disability with his leg or maybe it’s just broken. And maybe just maybe in another scenario where she is pregnant and the guy has a broken leg. Who then will the seat be given to? Ponder that a moment as we continue dismissing the concept of equality.

An altercation occurs between two guys. One guy says things that are mean, obscene, vulgar and derogatory this obviously leads the second guy to retaliate by throwing a punch or two. I mean even in court or by peer standards the first guy had it coming. But let us switch it up. What if the first guy was actually a woman and she is the one who instigated the fight and used such words and got slapped or hit because of it. If we were to be honest how many people would say she had it coming and how many would say that the guy was wrong in doing so? Again where is the equality there? It should be that guy number two shouldn’t have hit another person regardless of gender or situation and if a woman was to aggravate a man then she should be prepared for the repercussions and play or be seen as a victim.

I haven’t seen many female construction workers or like bus drivers, neither have I seen many men who are housekeepers (I have seen some and yes it was in Africa) and when other women are asked why they wouldn’t do so well they say that those aren’t women’s jobs or those aren’t jobs for men. So some women ask for equality and yet you won’t do certain jobs because you think they aren’t for you merely due to your gender and will look down on a man for doing a job that you deem to be unmanly? Yeah that makes a lot of sense (sarcasm). And funny enough I just saw a 77 year old woman deadlift 102.058 ( 225 pounds) so yeah the physical aspects really don’t stand and shouldn’t stand in the way.

So with that said no I don’t think equality is possible it is a lie. But and I mean but FAIRNESS well that is a real thing and closer to the truth. By this I mean give a job to a person according to the qualifications and capabilities regardless of gender, age, race and be kind to another person and treat them well simply because they are human and so are you. 

Equality is a myth because it is high time we admit (and some of you ladies need to own up to it) that what is really being asked for is fairness in jobs, school, opportunities and so on however there are situations and instances that a lady is to be treated like a lady. And this is the truth and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s just better to admit it opposed to sugar quoting and hiding behind things.

Jah Bless

A day to not be sad

8 years ago on this day something happen; someone I knew left this plane of existence. I am not sad. I wept, I cried, I locked myself in a room and wouldn’t come out, I hated school. But today is not a sad day. I won’t say every day I remembered or every year on this day was a sad day. I will say I healed because if He could see me I believe it’s what he’d want. I visited his resting place a few times. I even lit a cigarette when I was there (he didn’t much like it but he still kept my secret). I remember playing video games on the couch at his place and I do chew my tongue when I concentrate, he did too and we got teased about it. He would not like to see that I lost my ball skills and kind of deviated from some of the things he thought I could do. But he’d be happy to see me doing well. Last I talked to him we were boycotting his moving and trying to make him come home for the holidays and he told me I should not stop writing. He had the ability to make even the things you saw as the most mundane, be special. He could encourage and push you. He had a good heart and he’d have your back. I remember the trouble I got in to in first and second grade with him or rather the trouble I got into and the covering up he did for me. I don’t know if we would have been as close as we were today as when we were younger. Even though we did drift apart here and there cause of being countries apart for long periods but when we were together the time seemed to have melted away. I do know that he’d be teasing me about the way I am complaining about the cold and my beard, he’d still challenge me to a pick up game and whoop my ass. He wouldn’t go easy on me for shit. Be it on the court or on the telly but he’d always be my boy.

Today is not a sad day. Today on the 12.11.2014 I remember a friend and good things.

His light still shines.

Missed and loved my friend and brother, Hassan Maajar.

My Generation: Life verses Work

My Generation: Life verses Work

It’s interesting how our peers and folks say that we are lazy and don’t want to work or we don’t push ourselves. Funny thing is we have it harder. I mentioned earlier the aspect of getting work and a job. Unfortunately this generation has to work harder, longer and in most times without the hope of personal growth. People fear even going on leave or a sabbatical to study because they could easily be replaced. I am not saying that this is the norm however it is an aspect that occurs. Add on to the fact that it gets to a point and time all a person does is work and they sacrifice their own lives to do so. I don’t mean literally but their social lives deteriorate and their relationships stagnate or become non-existent. Too busy working to form any intimate relationships, no time for even ones family and they end up getting further and further. Unfortunately I have seen this happen with a few of my peers this isn’t to say that working hard or pushing yourself is a bad thing however in a situation where there is no balance between the two, a person can be stuck between working or having a life since to achieve one the other must suffer.

Jah Bless

If I could save the world

Have you ever thought what it would be like if you could had the power to change the world for the better? I don’t mean by making every nuclear warhead a dud or making all weapons on this planet utterly useless. I mean if you could nudge someone in the right direction maybe a whisper here and there that could help another person. A simple smile and a kind gesture that causes a ripple effect from one person to another which I think could heal many hearts. I wonder what would happen if I said hello to the new kid in class or at the office, help out the new boyfriend or girlfriend in my social and family circle feel more at home, what kind of effect that would have. If I didn’t ridicule the new neighbour about their accent, taste of music and general persona and instead actually spoke to them and found out about the interests they had. I wonder what life I would live if I actually tried learning a new language opposed to thinking it would be difficult or if I started thinking that certain practices, preferences and morals aren’t dictated by race but see the value of each. If only I could.

Wait I can and so can you. Sometimes changing the world doesn’t take a grand act all it takes are small gestures of kindness and understanding, forming bonds between individuals will inevitably form bonds with groups and nations. The aspect of “Them” and “Us” the separatism look on life is why conflict ensues and people fight and all hell breaks loose.

So do yourself a favour get out there and save the world.

Jah Bless

My Generation: Our peers and the older generations

My Generation: Our peers and the older generations.

A challenge we face also has to do with the views of our peers and older generations. This is usually in regards to the negative views and ideologies they have.

For instance they believed and think that certain things that people will/and have studied have no place in the society simply because they consider them to be a “white” people thing or only for the “first” word countries however in the world we live in today that is a very unintellectual way of reasoning. 

I know someone who was being hounded due to the fact that he wanted to study aeronautic engineering and by hounding I really do mean the whole nine yards where he was called words and being insulted for being stupid and a fool. Long story short he opted for something else as people usually do in such situations.

However I thought about it and thought about it this way, if he studied and graduated he could have easily gone back to his country (Tanzania) and taught others. There are military planes and other commercial and private airlines within the country that will need to be serviced and maintained. Let’s face it paying a foreign contractor to do the work will be very expensive. It is an untapped market that could easily flourish and bloom into something bigger and very profitable.

This is a story of one individual but in reality there are many youths who have all this discouragement around them which in turn will impede their personal growth but worse off this will be a deterrent to the progress of a society as a whole and it will cost us financially to outsource such these services.

A lot of African cultures if not all are of a collectivistic nature and although this has its merits when it comes to personal growth this is the worst system to have grown up in. Case and point I know people who have not gone to further their studies simply because they are older than their other cousins and the care of their siblings is left to them because the parents simply say they are old now and they did their part with the older siblings (not financial aspects). In truth a parent’s responsibilities to their own offspring is not supposed to end until that child is able to stand on their own two feet. People who won’t leave home because of they will be made to feel guilty about abandoning their family. Unfortunately this means that the person will never have self-growth. There comes a point and time in everyone’s life that your first priority is yourself, unluckily for us though, who have lived in our very collective family dynamics.

“An older person always knows best.” WRONG. This train of thought is why we can’t get hired or it ends up in us getting fired. It is note worth that a lot of the youth in Africa are starting up companies, own and manage companies but a majority of the companies and people you will deal with are a generation or more older and they think they know it all because they believe that they did something that worked or used a certain method then that will always work and be that way. The world is ever changing and something that worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today or tomorrow. Questioning someone older is considered rude and wrong but without doing so we will again never progress. There was a point and time people use to fish by throwing sticks of dynamite however why don’t we do that now? It’s outdated and we have found better ways to fish. People’s train of thought has to evolve and progress as well. Just because someone wants to do things differently or has ideas that are contrary to your own doesn’t make them less right or their methodology less accurate. Thinking that due to a person’s age and years of work under their belt they are always right is a mistake. If I was to ask one of my mother’s peers about the best way to advertise to my generation she will talk about billboards and things that worked in her generation. Tell them about social media and activations they will have a blank look on their face (tried and proved). Not saying that they are all like that but I’m sure we have all come acroos people like this.

 This kind of ideology “An older person always knows best.”  is another problem we have in our quest to better ourselves.

Jah Bless