Nations of deep Metaphors, inconsolable grief and its uncertain future -By Jimi Bickersteth

This piece is echoing the Father Matthew Kukah’s treatise on “Mending a broken nation: the Easter metaphor.” The emphasis on Nigeria’s metaphors in the zango-kataf born bishop treatise were so diversely prototypical and probably has been so painted since the advent of the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket in the fall of 2014. Laughable without missing the point.

Today, the world is one with an outlook that was seemingly incorporeal with its many inclinations to the tip of the precipice of despair and inconsolable grief for its future, and exposés all in a slapstick comedy of silent films.

It’s been rather inclement this week, and a muted presidency and a vice that was only interested in sticking out his neck for the highest seat of power, in a world that begins to look incorporeal, without a body or material form. Everything looks so surreal and empty. Around the world, disturbing trends are causing fear of the future.

In a growing number of nations and cities, surveillance cameras are been mounted to monitor citizens and criminal elements alike. Because of the fear of terrorists, many busy airports have almost become military camps, not precluding the Kabul airport bombings, the deployment of drones, and the consequential, causal high casualties figure.

In other lands, those that are poor enough to take advantage takes the bashing and records a high number of casualties in premeditated attacks. There are murders in the ‘cathedral’, gang rapes and killings everywhere, and millions of children not lucky enough to be raised by a father or mother. Prowling the internet in growing numbers are Yahoo ‘robbers,’ thieves, and pedophiles who prey on unsuspecting victims.

Gradual spread of new and strange ailments, the covid19 and its variants occasioned deaths compounding and pose great challenge to global health issues. On the environmental front, pollution, natural and pysical science devastation, deforestation, extinction, and global warming threaten future life on the only planet that is habitable unaided.

Hurricane IDA’s (predicted to be the worst since 1850) 210km/h terrible wind wrecking havoc, slams Louisiana, America with rain, wind and storm surge and with such devastating force that was able to reverse the flow of the Mississippi River. All of which were intimidating, such that plans for a global revolution has began to incubate in the poor man’s mind. It is becoming imminent that the world really need to change its perspective about life, another way to see life, and generally, the meaning of life.

Unthinkable two or three generations ago, these concerns have today became stellar with the world power and governments attitudes, their indefinable air of mystery to the happenings around the world, and indefinite answers to its myriads of problems, ranging from economy, terrorism, arms proliferation and loose control. Morally indefensible!

For good reason many people wonder what is happening to the world, and what kind of life awaits them and their children. Is the time coming when people will be too afraid to board a bus, a train, or a plane? With prices of everything rising and earth’s resources being taxed more and more, will future generations be able to afford good medical care, quality food, quality education, and sufficient fuel?. One couldn’t appreciate the comedy of the situation.

To be honest, the future looks bleak and very scary in regard to rising health costs, food, fuel, and the generally escalating rise in global standard of living. Why? In order to reduce their dependency on fossil fuel, some countries are investing heavily in biofuel, such as ethanol, which is derived from vegetation. Hence for probably the first time in its history, the human stomach is competing with the automotive gas tank for the produce of available land. The resulting inflation in food prices is already being felt.

Meanwhile, the disparity between the rich and the poor is growing, adding to social tensions. In this second decade of the 21st century, immense advances in human well-being comes with extreme privation and deprivation that cuts across borders and global geographic divide. A World Health Organization report, “life expectancies have collapsed in some of the poorest countries to half the level of the richest.” The causes are primarily disease and social and economic chaos in politically failed states. Which is not a failed state today.

Concern has become all too real, for the growing moral vacuum in many parts of the world has forced governments to pass some laws that appeared ineffectual in an effort to curb crime, and there is a growing deep concern about the future. Here, I have in mind, not politics or poverty, but a much deeper problem –the general erosion of core values within the family, at work, in the community and nationally and globally. The traditional family unit is in meltdown due to plunging moral values and the rise of single parents.

Morality is taking a nosedive, as people are having sex earlier in life and with more partners than ever. Moral erosion has also affected those in positions of authority. People no longer look up to their leaders as strong moral exemplars. Politicians, heads of corporations, and even religious leaders “appear to lack the proper moral fibre.” A number of forces are driving this downward trend. One is a general spirit of rebellion against traditional values, and a curious belief that right and wrong is a matter of personal opinion. Whereas right is right and wrong is what it is, wrong. A rose remain one no matter what name you gave it.

Today’s society thrive and focuses on a second factor, moral autonomy, greed, the immediate satisfaction of individual desires, in a setting in which individual and collective hedonism becomes the dominant motive for behaviour, but are this vice conducive to genuine happiness, contentment and better relationships with others?. The anti graft and corruption agencies effect more arrests of suspects in hotels, bars and recreation spots than anywhere else.

Are people happier and more secure because of the global plunging values? Reflect on some of the result:
a. Heightened mistrust,
b. Insecurity,
c. Failed relationships,
d. Children growing up without father or a mother,
e. Pandemics of sexually transmitted diseases,
f. Unwanted pregnancies,
g. Drug addiction, and violence.
These realities clearly do not spell satisfaction and success but, rather, sorrow and failure.

Throw into this mix the specter of global warming and or the new coinage, climate change, which may cause increased desertification and more extreme weather, even as scientists continue to observe cascading effects of global warming on Earth’s complex ecosystems, and it comes as no surprise that many informed people are jittery about the world’s tomorrow.

The world began the [20th] century, the new millennium, enthusiastically believing that the scientists would save us and by 2019-2021, the world end it not believing a single word they say. The world is still politically manipulating the reports on the report of the origin of the covid pandemic.

Are the global prospects as bleak as they appear to be? Does the world’s only hope for a decent future depend on the leaders of business, politics, religion, and science? What other choice does the world have. Some say the world got itself into this terrible mess and quagmire; it must get itself out. Others feel that it is simply beyond the ability of humans to find the way out and that its only hope for a safe and secure future lies with the supreme being, maker of heaven and earth. That he’s the only one that could save the world from itself.

For me as a writer and blogger, my take is that the beautiful world we call home has over the time developed serious structural defects due to leadership absence and their flawed character. The world is in big trouble. Despite countless social and political tinkering experiments and almost miraculous advances in science and technology, the very fabric of society seems to be coming apart.

In a number of countries, lawlessness and anarchy are already the order of the day. Will desperation drive humans to resolve their problems, to create a new level of assimilation and understanding of the nature of the problems on the ground.

In an effort to make the world a better living space conducive for human habitation and their peace and happiness, thinkers from Greek philosopher Plato to German political philosopher and socialist Karl Marx have proposed numerous political ideologies. The results however, have not abolished poverty or constructed world peace. On the contrary, the world seem to have achieved exactly the opposite.

It is not as though we haven’t tried. The world have tried everything from communism to the pure market; from the League of Nations to nuclear deterrence. It has fought and still fighting too many wars to end war to believe that it knows how to end war, and inner cities and airport road in Kabul, Russia, Kaduna, Zamfara and Jos Plateau and Maiduguri in the northeast in Nigeria look as though there was a continuing blitzkriegs.

In 2001 emeritus professor of economic and social history at London University Eric Hobsbawm wrote that mankind’s political systems “face an age when the impact of human action on nature and the globe has become a force of geological proportions.” The solution, or mitigation, of these problems “will require measures for which, almost certainly, no support will be found by counting votes or measuring consumer preferences. This is not encouraging (in our fast pace world) for the long-term prospects of either democracy or the globe.”

Seeing catastrophe staring mankind in the face, world famous astrophysicist and best-selling author Stephen Hawking asked: “In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, (and economically) how can the human race sustain another 100 years”, with the present state of abysmal failure of leadership without the globe getting ruptured? Yes, just as flaws within bricks might cause a building to weaken and crumble, the failure of leadership manifests itself in ways that can weaken society. These include tendencies toward corruption, dishonesty, greedy, and the abuse of power. As a nostrum – pet scheme or remedy, especially for social or political ills, leaders in government and the judiciary particularly, the legislative arm should try to counteract these with reams of legislation.

That, of course, will not be the end all, knowing full well that one cannot legislate love for one’s fellow man or the desire to be law abiding, and that is where the crux of the matter lie. Year in year out the @UN that appears to be lounging out on an expired mandate, verifies more and more attacks on children and women trapped in conflict, as natural disasters, poverty, hunger, disease, ethno-religious crises, and looming environmental threats dominate the news hourly. A factor in this trend is the failure of governments to address pressing global problems.

A UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa cited a “vacuum of political leadership” as one reason for growing incidences in global health issues, and, same factor could be deduced inductively for the ever recurring political and ethno religious upheavals. Whether the problem involves poverty, health care, the environment, education, or social justice, the world’s poor in particular appear to be cultivating a growing impatience with the inadequacy of governmental and international efforts to solve or ameliorate those problems.

A happier trend has also been observed at the dawn of the 20th century, a trend that saw such financial titans as Andrew Carnegie and john D Rockefeller, Sr., and lately, the likes of Bill Gates and some wealthy philanthropists eager to make a difference now, try to apply methods that invariably gave them success in business. For good reason, the British news journal The Economist stated that we may be seeing the dawn of “a golden age of philanthropy.” The announcements of wealthy individuals donating hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars to worthy causes sometimes make the news. In other lands, Celebrities are commonly seen using their fame to spotlight serious problems. But to what extent can financial generosity help, as prophylactic prognosis and diagnosis especially in the long term.

The world itself is beginning to see for itself that traditional charities, while feeding starving men or nursing sick children and providing welfares at Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps, did not address underlying causes that resulted into the present squalid and terribly horrible situations and circumstances. It must be noted here in parenthesis, that, literally tens of thousands of institutes and foundations have been established worldwide, with assets exceeding a billion dollar, there is no need denying the good that has been accomplished as a result.

Countless schools, libraries, hospitals, parks and museums bear testimony to that. Likewise, programmes to boost crop yields and food production have helped to provide more food in poverty-stricken lands. Funding for medical research has contributed to advances in health care and, in some cases, to the eradication of certain diseases. Today with global problems being fought with greater urgency and with more resources than ever before, the opportunity for success seems bright to many people. In this wise, it is impossible to overstate the impact private giving will continue to have on public good.

Many though are more cautious of their outlook, Laurie Garret, an expert in the field of global health care, wrote: “One might think that with all this money on the table, the solutions to many global health problems (environmental, economic, housing, terrorism) would at least now be in sight. But one would be wrong.” Why? She cites costly bureaucracy, corruption, the lack of coordinated effort, and the trend among donors to restrict which health issue–AIDS, for example–their funds are to be used for. He who pays the piper dictates the tune. (Yoruba’s would say, bá í sí imú alágbàro ṣe gùn tó ẹní fun l’ókoro l’ọ̀gá ẹ̀). Because efforts are uncoordinated and money is being “directed mostly at specific high-profile diseases–rather than at public health in general,” Garrett feels and so do I, that “there is a grave danger that the current age of generosity could not only fall short of expectations but actually make things worse.”

But the public spiritedness and the success of global philanthropy, no matter what its aim, will always be limited. Why? For one thing, neither money nor a good secular education can eliminate such problems as greed, hatred, prejudice, nationalism, tribalism, and false religious beliefs, although these things added to the global woes, they are not the root causes of suffering, fundamental factors are involved. Therefore, philanthropic aims at alleviating man’s problems would appear as a dot in the face of:
i. a global tripling population,
ii. new diversities, liberties,
iii new areas of instabilities, and,
iv.the ability to transform peoples mindsets, and inclinations toward wrong thinking and wrong conduct and receiving wrong motivations, direction and inspiration from wrong sources, even as it nurture characters of religious bigots; and curtail the excesses of political and religious leaders bent on foisting a third world war using the problems of the third world and their
pallid state as an agenda, and the third world as a pedestal of trouble, sickness and deaths. Millions engage in sexual
immorality and drug abuse.

The world have to re-strategise as it sense the needs for more strategic and proactive approach to giving as it creates well-funded institutions and foundations that would foster social changes, fund more research aimed at eliminating problems at their roots.

#JimiBickersteth
Jimi Bickersteth is a blogger and writer.
He could be reached on Twitter
@bickerstethjimi
@alabaemanuel
Emails: jimi.bickersteth@gmail.com
jimi.bickersteth@yahoo.co.uk
jimibickersteth8@gmail.com