PALESTINE IS STILL AN ISSUE:13 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT

PALESTINE IS STILL AN ISSUE

13 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT THE PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

 As the periodic bloodshed continues in the Middle East, the search for an equitable solution must come to grips with the root cause of the conflict. The conventional wisdom is that, even if both sides are at fault, the Palestinians are irrational “terrorists” who have no point of view worth listening to. Our position, however, is that the Palestinians have a real grievance: their homeland for over a thousand years was taken, without their consent and mostly by force, during the creation of the state of Israel. And all subsequent crimes—on both sides—inevitably follow from this original injustice. (Introduction to the book “The origin of the Palestine-Israel conflict published by Jews for justice in the Middle-east).

1.     The current turbulence in the Middle-East between Israel and Palestine is as a result of the illegal occupation of Palestine by Jews from across the length and breadth of the world claiming that it is “the Jews historical homeland”.

2.     This call for massive occupation was not coming from any religious edict. Rather it was as a result of a movement known as Zionism. As a matter of fact, Zionism was an idea brought about by an Austro-Hungarian Journalist known as Theodor Herzl. He together with Max Simon Nordau (born Simon Maximilian Sudfeld) and Prof. Mandelstamm formed a triumvirate that massively represented the “Zionist dream”.

3.     Zionism is a form of secular Nationalism that stems from secular philosophers and not religion. However, as in the case of other versions of nationalism, Zionism also attempted to use religion for its own ends. It is at best, a racial ideology that sees Jews as ultra-superior to all other races and that those races are unfit to live closer to Jews.

4.     The above-mentioned three men formed the World Zionist Organization which started the massive call for Jews to move so that they live separately because they are a separate “race”.  Initially, most Jewish communities in the world rejected the call and saw it as a betrayal of the edicts and teachings of Judaism.

5.     In the year 1900, in their quest to find a place of settlement, the   Jews tried Uganda in a design known as “Ugandan Scheme” or “Ugandan Plan”. This offer was made to them by the British Colonial Secretary called Joseph Chamberlain. This plan foiled because the land was occupied by Maasai  people who were emerging from their conquer over the Sirikwa tribe and also the land was filled with lions and other wild creatures.

6.     They later regarded Palestine because according to them “it was their historical land.” So the Propaganda began. They canalized the propaganda because they had the largest imperialist then, Britain solidly behind them. The slogan they used to make their message appealing was “a people without a land for a land without a people.” In actual fact, the Jews had land because they were settled in various parts of the world and the land in question was inhabited by Palestinians.

7.     The British Foreign Secretary during the First World War (1914-1918) then was Arthur James Balfour. He wrote a letter to Baron de Rothschild. This letter became known as the ‘Balfour Declaration.”  As a result of this, England, the world’s super-power by then ruled that “His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people… in Palestine.”

8.     Having received the official support of the Balfour Declaration, the Zionists found themselves in a difficult position when many fellow Jews refused to emigrate. Thus the Zionists began to engage in "special activities" to "encourage" Jewish migration to Palestine, even force when necessary, such as harassing Jews in their home countries and cooperating with anti-Semites to ensure that governments would expel their Jews. Thus Zionism developed as a movement that harassed and terrorized its own people.

With the Nazi Party's rise to power, Jews in Germany were subjected to ever-increasing pressure, a development that further accelerated their migration to Palestine. The fact that the Zionists supported the Nazi suppression of Jews is a fact, and yet remains one of history's best-kept secrets.

9.     Approximately 100,000 Jews emigrated from wherever they were to Palestine between 1920-29. If one considers that there were about 750,000 Palestinians at that time, then 100,000 is certainly no small number. The Zionist organizations had complete control over this migration. Jews who set foot in Palestine were met by Zionist groups, who determined where they would stay and what type of work they would do. This migration was encouraged by Zionist executives with various incentives.

10.                        From the day Zionism entered Palestine, its adherents have sought to destroy the Palestinians. To make room for the migrating Jews, whether influenced by Zionist ideals or afraid of anti-Semitism, the Palestinians were constantly pressured, exiled, and kicked out of their homes and lands. This movement to occupy and exile, accelerated by the founding of Israel in 1948, destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. To this day, about 3.5 million Palestinians still struggle for their lives as refugees under the most difficult conditions.

11.                         According to official records, the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine increased from 100,000 in the 1920s to 232,000 in the 1930s. As of 1939, the Palestinian population of 1.5 million included 445,000 Jews. Their numbers, which had represented just 10% of the population 20 years earlier, now accounted for 30% of the population. Jewish settlements also expanded rapidly, and by 1939 the Jews owned twice the amount of land that they had owned in the 1920s. As of 1947, there were 630,000 Jews in Palestine and 1.3 million Palestinians. Between November 29, 1947, when Palestine was partitioned by the United Nations, and May 15, 1948, Zionist terrorist organizations captured three-fourths of Palestine. During this time, the number of Palestinians living in 500 cities, towns, and villages dropped from 950,000 to 138,000 as a result of attacks and massacres. Some were killed; others were exiled. In this way, 400 Palestinian villages were wiped off the map during 1948-49. The property left behind by the Palestinians was seized by the Jews, by virtue of the “Absentee Property Law”. Until 1947, Jewish land ownership in Palestine was some 6%. By the time the state was formally established, it had sequestered 90% of the land.

12.                        “The Balfour Declaration, made in November 1917 by the British Government… was made a) by a European power, b) about a non-European territory, c) in a flat disregard of both the presence and the wishes of the native majority resident in that territory.

13.                         Gandhi on the Palestine conflict – 1938 

“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French…What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct…If they [the Jews] must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs… As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.” Mahatma Gandhi, quoted in “A Land of Two Peoples” ed. Mendes-Flohr.

Sources:

1.     “Palestine” by Harun Yahya

2.     “The origin of the Palestine-Israel conflict” by Jews for Justice in the Middle-east.

3.       “Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice” by John Quigley, professor of law at Ohio State University. Duke University Press, 1990.

4.      “The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel & the Palestinians” by Noam Chomsky, professor at MIT and “arguably the most important intellectual alive” (NY Times). South End Press, 1983.

5.      “Original Sins: Reflections on the History of Zionism and Israel” by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi. An honest history of Zionism by a noted Israeli scholar who teaches at Haifa University. Olive Branch Press, 1993

6.      “Bitter Harvest” by Sami Hadawi. A very complete look at the documentary evidence of the creation of the state of Israel, by a Palestinian Christian who lived through that period. Caravan Books, 1979.

More to come……….  In sha Allah!   Free Palestine!

Inusah Mohammed.

okoromaazi@gmail.com

The writer is a student of Tafsiliyya School for Training and Education.

THOUGHTS OF A NIMA BOY: HOW TO SHINE LIKE A GUIDING STAR AND INSPIRE ACTS ...

THOUGHTS OF A NIMA BOY: HOW TO SHINE LIKE A GUIDING STAR AND INSPIRE ACTS ...: HOW TO SHINE LIKE A GUIDING STAR AND INSPIRE ACTS OF COURAGE, TOLERANCE AND UNSELFISHNESS IN THE WORLD THE WORLD NEEDS A RAOUL WALLENBERG...

HOW TO SHINE LIKE A GUIDING STAR AND INSPIRE ACTS OF COURAGE, TOLERANCE AND UNSELFISHNESS IN THE WORLD


THE WORLD NEEDS A RAOUL WALLENBERG

On the 17th of December 2013, under the theme “100th Birthday Dinner Commemoration of Raoul Wallenberg: A Hero for All Time”, the world gathered to celebrate a sun that never sets. It was heartwarming when Vera Koppel, 76, told her story. And that she is alive today due to the efforts of Raoul Wallenberg,   the man who brought sunshine into the lives of others.
Through the actions of our hero, Raoul Wallenberg, the power of one man can never be underestimated.  Contrary to the statement that one man alone is insufficient for the full deliberation of an undertaken; Wallenberg has taught the world that it takes a courageous one man to cure the malaise of disinterest in the participation of people in matters that will lead to fairness and a beneficial and prosperous future in the world.
It was Mother Theresa who said “It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness”. And this great man the world is celebrating unabatedly realized this that is why he never sat lamenting and wailing over the inhuman treatments meted out to Jews by Adolf Hitler and his hordes, rather decided to save over 100,000 Jews in the Budapest ghetto from the death camps in  1944. The youth must take it upon themselves to make even one life breathe easier because of their existence.
Today in the world, the sheer dip in courage has rendered the youth inactive in the conscious effort to uplift others. Most are apathetic towards the cause of sacrificing for humanity and this is the opportune time for we to get that necessary inspiration from Raoul Wallenberg. Perhaps this should be reflected in the whole world.
Dr. Joseph Frager has said it more succinctly. “The fact (was) that he was a real hero, who brought (the) light of goodness, of kindness, of generosity to the world and the Jewish people. What we need now is a Raoul Wallenberg to save us from this incredible nightmare.”  This statement signifies how intensive the world needs courage and acts of heroism in the youth.

HOW TO SHINE LIKE A STAR AND INSPIRE ACTS OF COURAGE IN OTHERS
To shine and act like a shining star is not easy.  It comes with challenges. Having been a victim, I know what I am saying.
In 2008, when I started my Polytechnic Education, I found out that the youth of our community were living wretched and hopeless lives due to how porous the community was. The porosity of the community was so profound that a cross-section of the youth has decided not to go to school because of the view that school is a waste of time and resources.  I read the book Greatness Guide by Robin Sharma and learnt that living for others is the only way to have yourself still on earth long after your death and that the world will be clean if each of us decides to clean his doorstep.
 I therefore formed ELEMENTS OF CHANGE, a community-based organization to champion the cause of the youth by giving them the platform to grow and take over the world through acts of volunteerism, philanthropy and self-development. Today, a considerable number of the youth in our community are now making positive strides in life.  Some are becoming reference points to the younger ones who have taken them as role models.
We can inspire acts of courage in others when we build ourselves and get interested in others by doing these.
ACTIVE READING
The more we read, the more we enlarge the lens through which we focus the world.  I came across the sheer story of heroism of Raoul Wallenberg when I was surfing the net to find something worth-reading. When you read about Wallenberg, your life never remains the same.
PREPARATION
This involves preparing the mind for creative thinking. It might include formal education, experience and taking advantage of other working experiences. Raoul Wallenberg before embarking on his mission had already built himself by becoming an Architect in the first place, a Businessman and then a Diplomat.  He later got recruited by the US War Refugee Board (WRB) in 1944 to travel to Hungary. This further helped him in acquiring the protective passports he provided to Jews and sheltered them in buildings designated as Swedish territory.
GET INVOLVED
There is no better way to inspire these virtues in others than to get involved. You have to involve yourself in as many social activities as possible and be committed just like Raoul Wallenberg was committed to the cause of humanity till he drew his last breath.
EXTEND YOUR HAND
The good thing about our global world now is that everyone knows everyone else’s business. This can be a cardinal tool in making you a shining example. You can help someone in dire need or another who has found himself despondent.
MAKE YOUR PRESENCE FELT
All of the following are certainly great ideas for planting seeds of courage into others but not everyone can do it. A lot depends on the setting in which you find yourself in. if you have faced fierce resistance in your community, then reaching out to someone who is an avowed adversary can be dangerous. In this case, the best course of action is to make your presence felt in the community.
OVERCOME YOUR FEARS
“Courage is not the absence of fear but the overcoming of it” as stated by our elders.  We all have fears but how we approach them determines failure or success. Fear is a traitor which makes us lose what we might have achieved by making us not to try.  Raoul Wallenberg persevered even in all the vagaries of war and tyranny. And as he liberated himself off his fears, his presence automatically liberated others as one poet said.

EDUCATION

 

We saw how catastrophic it was in those days
We saw how catatonic ignorance had its ways
Brains were doomed in gloom
Ignorance took over the warp and woof
As it mortified man, hand and foot.

Hearts got rusted, feelings gutted and intellect was wasted
Life was raped, thinking maimed and human development halted
Men were living in the night
The night was deep and numb
As in the tomb, pitch-black
It deepens after each lightening flash.
Ignorance indeed is a night,
but night without moon and stars.

I saw education come with its beauty
And intellect, an internal quality
To imbue man with a sense of dignity
Cum knowledge, and sheer sagacity
Education charms the eye and fascinates imagination
Uplifts the soul and rekindles the spirit
Garnishes life and embellishes its limits
Nourishes the brain and gives satisfaction
Education is surely the way out of poverty
Assesses the past and improves upon it
Changes animals into humans as a faculty
It is an ornament in prosperity
And an ally in adversity and refuge for a non-entity.




 An admonishing to everyone alike
There’s one thing that keeps you alive,
Constant learning that enriches the mind
Cause it’s one thing the mind cannot exhaust
Cause it’s one thing the mind cannot destruct
Never do without, never be spoilt nor distrust
The educated differ from the uneducated
As much as the living differ from the dead.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EATING LITTLE AND MODERATE HUNGER

The great friend of Allah Mahmud Sami Ramazanoghlu emphasized the significance of eating and drinking little in his book Mukerrem Insan (The Perfect man) and says:  “ They asked the doctors: what is the best cure, they answered: Eating little. The people of wisdom are asked how they found so much power and courage for worshipping Allah. They answered: Eating little. The ascetics are asked: what makes the tie between man and Allah stronger:  They answered: Eating little. The scholars are asked what is the best state for learning. They answered: being in a state of hunger (rather than satiety) and eating little.”
There are so many benefits of eating little (never eating until the stomach is filled):
 In moderate hunger there is clearness of mind and heart; the memory is stronger. In the state of being overly full, there is forgetfulness and foolishness.
In moderate hunger, there is gentleness of the heart. The heart benefits and takes pleasure from worship and supplication. With a full stomach, the heart is insensitive and takes no pleasure in worship.
In moderate hunger, there is softness of heart. Satiety produces insolence, conceit, pride and bragging.
In moderate hunger, one thinks of the poor and hungry, whereas a man with a full stomach never remembers the poor and the needy.
In moderate hunger the appetite, needs and the wishes of the animal soul are broken. When full, the animal soul is strong and the desires find strength.
In moderate hunger the body is in an agile and aware condition. When full it feels sleepy and careless.
In moderate hunger, one feels ready to worship and give service to Allah. When the stomach is full one feels lazy and wax.
In moderate hunger, the body is healthier. Sickness disappears. Overeating makes the body feel worn out and sick.
In moderate hunger, the body feels light and spacious, making one cheerful.
In moderate hunger, one feels more generous and ready to provide support for the poor with charity. On the other hand those who do not experience hunger all do not understand the sufferings of the poor. Also, for this, in the heat on the fearful Day of Judgment, the servant will come into a state of coolness and shade. Fullness produces a state that goes from stinginess to wasteful spending which leads to the destruction of the servant.

Culled from the book:  ‘Islam; Spirit and form’ by   Osman Nuri Topbas.

NIMA YOUTH CLASH WITH THE POLICE

One of the poets whose works I have come to cherish is the Laureate of the 2013 NSK Neustadt Price for Children’s Literature, the Arab American Naomi Shihab Nye. On the dreadful September 11, 2011, she related that she was with teenagers at the Wonderful Holland Hall School in Tulsa when the planes flew into the various buildings in the US of A, and they were just talking about words as ways to imagine one another’s experience. Just after the hijacking incident happened, one of the boys asked her “do you think you will write about it”?
She responded feeling sick and her head spinning “it would not be my choice of topic, but as writers, we are always exploring what happens, what comes next, turning it over, finding words to sit in like chairs, even in terrible scenery, so maybe I will have to write about it; maybe we all will. Because words shape the things that we live, whether beautiful or sorrowful, and help us to connect to one another…….”
After my second published article as a young and upcoming writer, “the life-changing prisoners and the time-wasting youth’, I have searched frantically for something to write about, explored to find out what happens  so that I can turn it over and find words to sit in like chairs. Then, “Eureka”! the planned demonstration I was to take part in  but absent due to a lecturer’s demand of his trustworthy class representative,  hit the country  as “Nima Youth clash with police, defy order to suspend demonstration over stalled project” (source, myjoyonline) gave  me something deep and profound to write about.
The demonstration as stated in the letter given me as the secretary of Since Morning, a youth organization, “is to awaken, inform and sensitize the community on the stoppage of work on the Nima/Maamobi Drainage.”  Unfortunately, it led to a clash because the police stated that the youth were not given a permit. Funny! (When we demand our rights, they say permit, but do the politicians go for permit before they embezzle our funds)?
The clash (as reported) that the Nima youth had with the police as a result of   the latter’s instruction of the former to halt the demonstration. To halt a demonstration of the   injustice meted out to them by the stoppage of work on the malodorously-stinking gutter that has been left unattended to by whomever in charge?   That is serious! 

The clash is sour to the tongue and unpleasant to the ear. It should not have come to that in the first place. However as stated by our first President and perhaps the real politician this country has ever had in  a speech he delivered at the  Positive Action Conference for Peace and Security in Africa in Accra on April 7, 1960,   “No man willed this situation and no man can stem the tide or divert the winds of change. We decry violence and deplore it…….. Experience has shown that when change is too long delayed or stubbornly resisted, violence will erupt here and there- not because men planned it and willed it- but because the accumulated grievance of the past erupt with volcanic fury”, the youth will definitely not countenance any albatross to them venting their spleen. And any attempt to do that will absolutely result in an altercation. Of course, the longer the oppression, the more dangerous and explosive becomes the situation.
Ayawaso East has been taken for a ride for a very long time by all the successive governments of the Fourth republic. This is manifested in the poor and ramshackle state of affairs in the constituency. The problem is exacerbated by some praise singing “Uncle Toms’ who parade themselves as the all in all of politics in the world, yet are the bane of the constituency. Their actions depict Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. A story that demonstrates how damaging a clique of sycophants and praise-singers can be. Their failure as leaders (titular leaders they are) to effectively represent their people when dealing with the authorities in charge is the single factor that rustles the development nest of our constituency.
    I seriously support any action taken by the youth to address their grievance so far as it is not lethal. Our politicians are gradually draining the country with no service for humanity on their minds. It’s of no wonder that instead of making the number of hospitals built, the quality of schools constructed, amount of potable water provided, how the capacity building of citizens has been boosted etc. as the yardstick for success in politics, one dolt of a minister decides one million dollars to be hers.
For the past three weeks, access to water has become ‘Hajj” as people “travel’ long distances just to fetch water in East Ayawaso. It is only in East Ayawaso where public toilets blast in this break-neck developing 21st century.  It is heart-wrenching for   this to happen in these modern times when even in the 1960’s, the world had moved astronomically past this.
Bob Hope dramatized how the world had moved in as early the 1960’s by saying “if, on taking off on a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to New York City, you develop hiccups, he said, you will hic in Los Angeles and cup in New York City. That is really moving. If you take a flight from Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday morning, you will arrive in Seattle, Washington, on the preceding Saturday night. When your friends meet you at the airport and ask you when you left Tokyo, you will have to say ‘I left tomorrow’. Try to appreciate and understand that!
That was the extent of development of the world in the 1960’s yet we in Ghana more specifically East Ayawaso live in an analog state in a digital age due  to the liars, sophistry, empty promises, bootlicking and other repugnant political acts that have become  the order of the day..
The demonstration, in whichever way it was planned shows that there is a rude-awakening looming and it’s going to brutal. The bad ones have been in the system for so long and the youth will chase them away. The drainage system has taken centuries to be constructed and we can’t wait anymore.
It was Ben Franklin who said “Geese are geese thou we may think them Swans, and truth will be truth though it sometimes proves to be mortifying and distasteful.” No matter how mortifying or distasteful it is, the truth must be told that the politicians are dilly-dallying  with our lives in East Ayawaso Constituency and the more it lasts, the more explosive the situation becomes.

Inusah Mohammed (Maazi Okoro)
NB: The writer is a student of the University of Professional Studies, Accra.

THE LIFE-CHANGING  PRISONERS AND THE TIME-WASTING YOUTH

The place I pray in my life never to be in is a prison. If for nothing at all, the pangs and throes of incarceration that I went through for about twenty-four hours from the 17th to the 18th of May 2007 inside the Adabraka police cells have given me an inkling of what is to be expected in a prison. At least, Atubiga and the “Prisoner of Conscience”, Ken Kurankyie are the most recent living testimonies to the ordeal one goes through in prison.

Perhaps a more vivid picture will do. Antonio Gramsci, the Marxist who got imprisoned by the Italian Fascist regime for nearly a decade saw the traumatizing effect of prison life and drew this picture for us ”prison life can shatter the soul and will of anyone who experiences it. It destroys thought utterly. It operates like the master craftsman who was given a fine trunk of seasoned olive wood with which to carve a statue of Saint Peter; he carved away, a piece here, a piece there, shaped the wood, roughly modified it, corrected it and ended up with a handle for the cobbler’s awl.” What a clearer description of the vagaries and asperities of imprisonment? It is miraculous then to see mere mortals make positive strides that will boggle the mind of the world whilst in prison. In the 18th Century, William Addis overcame the pangs of imprisonment and came out with one invention the world cannot live without and perhaps the most popular hygienic tool ever, the toothbrush.

In 1807, Jesse Hawley also got imprisoned in a debtor’s prison due to “his problems in acquiring reasonably priced transportation” (simply put, he was not able to acquire a horse at his time). He spent his prison time writing 14 exhaustive essays detailing what opened up trade between eastern and western America at a crucial time in the westward expansion, the Erie Canal. According to one writer, “without Hawley’s work, pioneers would certainly have had a harder time forging the pathway west, and could all very well have broken an axle, died of cholera or tipped over while fording the river and would have to restart from the beginning.”

The single most influential work in the Spanish Golden Age was written by a man who decided not to masturbate and curse his stars in prison but rather launch his writing career. Miguel des Cervantes wrote one of the books that revolutionized literature in the world, Don Quixote, at a time when writing was left for the aristocrats and middle class in the society. The African man of the millennium, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, wrote in his autobiography, “My experience of fourteen months in prison convinced me, moreover, that in a very short time prisoners lose all their individualism and personality; they become a set type in an unhappy world of their own. They lose confidence in themselves and are so un-equipped to meet the outside world that it is little wonder that they hanker for the misery and boredom of their prison cell, a protective shelter for their lost and shattered souls” yet he ran for the 1951 elections and won ultra-convincingly by receiving the largest individual poll so far recorded in the history of the Gold Coast, 22,780 votes out of a possible 23,122 when he was in prison. The win was so profound that it was the straw that broke the opposition’s back.

I definitely cannot talk about these special breed of persons without mentioning the man the world celebrated on the 18th of July. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. A man who was loathed for his belligerence and bellicose nature, entered prison and came out, in his own words “I came out matured” been loved and revered by all to the point of the world honoring a day after him. According to the Times Editor, Richard Stengel in his book Mandela’s Way, “The Nelson Mandela who emerged from Prison at seventy-one was a different man from the Nelson Mandela who went in at forty-four……. Prison steeled him but it broke many others. Understanding that made him more empathetic not less. He never lorded it over those who could not take it. He never blamed anyone for giving in. Over the years, he developed radar and a deep sympathy for human frailty.” He wrote his Long Walk to Freedom in Prison and other humanistic essays and much more significantly was how he raised the whole question of talks between the African National Congress and the apartheid government by writing a confidential letter to Kobie Coetsee, the then minister of justice. This single act in Prison necessitated the chain-reaction that saw South Africa in its present state. A vivid picture was painted about Ibn Taymiyya, the scholar who wrote his Letters from Prison that relieved the men of his time off the Apron strings of ignorance. “When he entered prison, he saw the prisoners busy with all kinds of time-wasting games for entertainment, such as chess and dice games……. The Sheikh rebuked them strongly and commanded them to do good deeds. He entreated them to bolster their faith and thereby rendered the prison a haven for the seekers of knowledge………… “

The wanton dissipation of time by the youth is perhaps what these great men sought to challenge hence their profitable use of time. The youth today have lost their sense of time. Go through our communities and various stamping grounds (popularly known as bases) with different names have become the current fad in town. ‘Kosovo, Michigan, Since Morning, Public enemy, U too can fly’ are some of the names of the places the youth sit to ‘while away’ and ‘kill time’ in unproductive activities. Unnecessary arguments, idle discussions and sterile debates have eaten into the fiber and fabric of our communities. In the community I find myself, most of these arguments end up in violent altercations and in worst cases, fisticuffs. “Losing a sense of time is an easy way to lose one’s grip and even one’s sanity” as stated by Mandela to show his strict adherence to time. The youth have forgotten that time is the most priceless possession of man because it flies away quickly and never returns and has no substitute. It is therefore very precious. The preciousness of time derives from the fact that it is the receptacle and medium of every exertion and activity, every achievement and productivity. For this reason, Time is, in reality, the genuine capital of man, individually and collectively. If men have been able to overcome the struggles of confinement and make overwhelming strides in their lives that impacted the world, then how much more free men walking about?

Hassan al-Basri the poet, stated more poignantly, “O man! You are but a bundle of days and as each day passes away a portion of you vanishes away.” Perhaps, the youth must realize that the life on earth here is transient and must therefore work diligently to make a dent in the universe. They must realize that youth is the most opportune time for work when all the strength, the zeal, the gusto and the enthusiasm is on the high. They should work hard to push the existing frontiers of knowledge and achievement; they should work hard before they become senile.

Malcolm X, another man who turned from being a dead-man walking to a man who continues to ultra-inspire people posthumously, had a volte face when he found himself in the Norfolk County Prison. He was described as “a clock” for his strict adherence to time. No wonder he lambasted time-wasters in his “I have less patience for someone who doesn’t wear a watch than with anyone else, for this type is not time-conscious” statement.

The world is moving at a break-neck speed and procrastination, mere intention is becoming the bane of human existence. Though I am not entreating anyone to go to prison, I am stating that we should be time-conscious because irrespective of where you stand, time is precious.

The materialists say “Time is money” but the realists and pragmatists say “Time is life”.

INUSAH MOHAMMED (MAAZI OKORO).

NB: The writer is a student at the University of Professional Studies, Accra.