Lies make the world a better place, sometimes. Let me explain. We live in a world that is full of deceit, low on empathy and an abundance of selfishness, which is seen as a virtue rather than a vice, just to name but a few. That being the case, the world is still a better place. As humans, we are tasked with making it much better. Better than we found it. To make it morally sound and just. Make it work for us and the future generation. Upholding common decency and coming up with a treatise that holds up in theory and practically.
Back in high school, our principal used to tell us, 'You have to make your heaven here on earth.' A perspective that was shaped after his maiden trip to New Zealand. He saw firsthand how the country was flourishing. The streets were clean. The housing was orderly and well-executed. The systems were working and no miscreants were on the streets asking for alms. The picture painted was a society that is efficient and functioning as planned.
As a visitor, you are never shown the other side of the story. Rarely do you find an opportunity to exploit the places that give a different impression of the country? Instead, you are taken to areas with beautiful scenery to spend time and money and savour life's best. After all, even those who sell slum tourism do it because of the material gain.
Not much is documented about countries like New Zealand. Rarely do you find individuals visiting the island because they have yet to prioritise tourism and visibility. Instead, like the Inuit, they have kept their country closely knit. I am biased, to say the least, the much I know about New Zealand is limited. What comes to mind is the Māori All Blacks Rugby team. Other than rugby, I have no idea what the country excels in, though it is developed.
A cousin asked if Western European nations were rich because they used resources from different continents. New Zealand is a developed country because they decided to get their act right. So many factors can be attributable to the lack of development in African countries, but I would pinpoint one of it- lies. The kind of deception that we are entwined in is just amazing. The president lies to win a political seat. People lie to win deals and we have accepted it as part of our culture. Whoever can craft the best lie and convince the other party that he can deliver will win the deal.
The culture of dishonesty has become a gem. Anyone with the moniker 'fundi' is considered a liar. Yet they have accepted the tag because society has made them inclined to lie. You go to a cobbler to drop off a shoe for repair and the man will tell you to go back at a certain time to find it ready. When you return, that is when he remembers that your shoe needs to be fixed.
A certain chap once told me that if you find yourself repairing any item, be it clothes, a pair of shoes or a gadget, then it's high time to donate it to someone needy.
I asked him 'Now that my pair of jeans is slightly torn at the pocket and I have three pairs, should I donate it to charity?' He replied 'Absolutely. Once you donate it, you give yourself a chance to refresh your wardrobe. The same applies to shoes. Don't take them to the cobbler if you can buy a new pair. Repair then donate to charity.'
I saw the sense in his argument because it was valid to an extent. Most of us hold onto items we do not need. For instance, I have two wallets. The cousin who asked me about the issue of development wanted one. I told him to give me some money for it. Since he is a campus student, he could not afford a dollar, which we normally equate to 100 bob though it has since appreciated or inflated depending on your point of view to 130 or thereabouts. I still have the wallets though I only need one.
I rarely carry wallets because I rely on mobile money for payments. If one day I happen to go to an office that requires a physical identity card, I may be denied entry because of not bringing it along.
A couple of times, I pondered about the issue of worn-out and defaced items I no longer need. Once, a relative visited and I offered my unused monitor and its outdated processor. I asked if he needed them because they were gathering dust in the house. He quickly accepted them after confirming they could still work. I also gave him an old home theatre because lately, I don't love loud music. My ears feel clogged when I listen to loud music. At a certain age, it makes sense to listen to loud music. Solitude has made me prefer quiet environments.
The sound of silence fills me with utmost ease. That's the only way I process ideas that need to be acted on later is in silence. The concatenation of ideas can only be fine-tuned if they sound cogent. And you tailor the thoughts well in silence when weaved into a silken thread that results in something tangible. Not that I hate owning such devices. They are simply distracting. Once I start listening to music or watching a movie, I get absorbed to the extent I may lose track of what I had planned to undertake.
You may have told yourself that you are going to cover a certain online course, but you don't do so because you don't want to push yourself to do what would develop you. It is about the lies. Self-deception is with us. Times on end, I have told myself that I shall be accountable to myself. The whole idea is to ensure that I achieve what I had planned to do. Some are simple tasks when seen from a layman's lens flare. Like waking up and spreading the bed. Brushing the teeth, showering. And then there are other medium-intensive tasks like sitting down to pen an article.
I lack discipline when it comes to what I am doing. At some point, I told myself that I would be having my blog post ready by Thursday so that all I do before uploading it is edit and fine-tune it. Well, I have not managed to achieve that dream. The kind of entanglement I get absorbed in. I sometimes feel I need to have a personal assistant to help with prioritizing my schedule. And it comes with penalties for not undertaking certain tasks.
It's easier said than done. We rarely want to be controlled. But it is also through control that you can be able to achieve results. Like I had intimated in a previous post, I would want to avoid sipping alcohol because it robs me of a lot of important free and activity time. With a good assistant, a human one and not a digital one, I can be held responsible. I can be reminded that, by a given time, I need to have presented my blog post. I need to have covered a certain course and so on and so forth. So many to-do tasks are gathering dust and a layer of cobweb has formed over them because I normally say, 'Í will do it but I don't.'
Hasta La Vista, Baby.
