Paths Unknown

Air travel could be a hassle when one considers the haulage of miles and hours to get to a particular destination, but could you do it any better through other means? Air travel seems to be the fastest we have so far in this time and age,( super sonic space shuttles and the likes excluded).

Once at your destination, the troubles are thrown away until one sights the port of ones initial entry again for your upcoming departure.

I had never set eyes on the Pacific until this day, i also remember that before the plane landed in Honolulu, i had already google searched, did a little research on who Daniel k. Inouye was. I had seen the name of the airport when i purchased the ticket a few weeks back and probably on one of the screens at the airport of departure. I mean i just wanted to know who is and why was this quite busy tourism airport named after him? Who was he to the people of Honolulu, the island of Oahu, and most especially the entirety of Hawaii. That would make sense right?...a first timer visiting a City/Country googling names of structures, places to visit, things to do, street names e.t.c to get an understanding.

Hawaii probably being the most isolated population centre in the world; as the Californian coast is about 2,400 miles away; while Japan is more than 4,000 miles away; one better have a knowledge base before headed that direction.

As I walked through the airport, I had this instinctive feeling that not only was I being welcomed by the walls of the building, but I somehow felt i had already nailed down a connection to the people of the island.

Several conversations here and there would prove that, as i ended each conversation with "aloha", exposing my internal subconscious adrenaline.

It clicked! This unfound familiarity came from the fact that i had been reading, researching and drawing up conclusions before this very trip. Same as i had done for several other airports that are named after personalities and have opened their gates to my entry e.g Princess Juliana airport on the island of St.Martin, O.R Tambo in Johannesburg, S.A, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, France to mention a few. That internal confidence and self assurance that flows on arrival to your new destination cannot be explained nor skipped.

Did you know that the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta is actually named after two past Mayors of the city? I'm sure many have thought that the names are of one entity.

Imagine if you knew the names of the entry ports in several states in the U.S or in the Country you live in, then correlated this info, state to state..  Now envisage the knowledge, the info!! 

Here is to say let us imbibe the google search mentality, learn relationships, the ask questions mentality in our everyday lives, and also teach our children to do so...

Imagine we took a minute or two to do a little research on the names of buildings we step into everyday, why they were named after the individuals e.t.c they don't have to be monumental structures; i mean buildings as little as your community library in your county zip code. That's knowledge! Therefore that is power.

Here's another one; seated there on the campus of the University of Mississippi (my alma mater) were several structures named after different personalities. I now look back, wishing i had done my research back then to know that some of the buildings on campus were undeniably named after slave owners, some actually because of their impacts on the said Campus through slavery. Take for example, Vardaman Hall is being renamed today, after much opposition as it was named after James Vardaman, a former Mississippi Governor who advocated lynching and adamantly opposed providing education to African-Americans. I never knew this my years on that Campus and my sacred hours in that building.

Let us be inquisitive about our environment, ask questions, read and travel; the answers we can get from these little searches can go a long way in telling us about where we are today, what it took to get here and of course where we are headed.

☆Jubril Blaize☆

     May 2018

Life Saving Art of Calmness during Adversity

Sometime last week I experienced my own fair share of police brutality…and no there was no use of excessive force, as the officer tried to douse me with a lot of verbal and psychological intimidation.

At this time, the race of the officer does not matter as I am not putting it in a racial envelope. This particular day, i would be located somewhere in downtown Houston, Tx with a couple of friends. After I must have driven the perimeter around 2 or 3 blocks for about 15mins, searching in vain for a parking spot, i would still come back to get a spot adjacent to our intended hangout spot. Just like that.. See the elaboration! Ha-ha

Yes, just like that.

Barely five minutes later, I would be accosted by an irate officer who would dash towards me because I wouldn’t walk on the sidewalk. My reason and probably the reason of 67.5 other people around me at the time would be that there was obviously water flowing out from a broken pipe somewhere creating puddles every half a step one would try to take.

By now we were chest to chest; with him yelling swear words at me every time he remembered he had an open hole on his face that could make him audible. He accused me of being intoxicated, pulled out his handcuffs whilst holding my wrist asking repeatedly “do you want to go home or go to jail”, all this in a space of five to seven minutes.

Was I supposed to be scared at the mention of jail, or because of the shiny metallic loops in his possession when I clearly did nothing to provoke or warrant jail time? I was calmer than Pope John Paul the 2^nd after his assassination attempt back in ’81. I didn’t answer any of his not so smart rhetorical questions. I somehow chose to feign dumbness. After trying to explain and he had clearly violated my “man space”, my urge to explode would be wrapped up in some systematic layer of silence. Hopefully it would save my life and keep me from jail.

My silence angered him more, by now there were a few people watching his public display of stupidity. His last words would eventually be “go home”

Another grown man akin to me with a bit of over thirty yrs of experience on Earth would have..

1. Talked back 2. Pushed back when the officer bumped chest to chest 3. Became overly defensive and combative e.t.c

He clearly was there to provoke, aggravate, infuriate, exasperate, you name it. Officer was on a mission that night. The devil in him did a bad job hiding his horns. I saw them, shiny black little things with silvery metal ends. Did he know that he would have an encounter like that as he left his home earlier in the morning? I don’t know but i doubt it.

Sometimes we forget that as humans we have the ability to focus on ourselves in the sense of self re-evaluation and/or operating as spiritual beings in a manner that God created us to be. We can detach our emotions and watch from a distance, rather than choose an emotional reaction, which could end up fatal. This was simply one of those times I was not going to give birth to my defensive angst against an Officer. Having this mindset, I closed my world to him so as not to go too deep or be pressured to judge by what humanity deems right.

Police brutality is not subject to one race, color, region or country.Infact the brutality in China at some point in the 80s gained more popular attention than complaints from other regions. Russia, Egypt and my Country of birth, Nigeria cannot but be mentioned.

 In America, where I live presently, the birth of the civil rights movement and war against drugs has led to recurrent incidents of brutality especially amongst black males which is now a National issue today. I am not going to elaborate on an already existing and non-wavering issue in the wake of accusations today. I therefore refuse to go in-depth into statistics and surveys. My bone of contention today is how the black male in America can increase his chances of survival around this problem. It is here to stay as it is a sub division of racism and/or supremacy. Sometimes, we have to educate to live out of the norm of living to educate. I ask for calmness in the wake of all these recent happenings to reason and answer. We do know these matters arising didn’t just start nor escalate all of a sudden right?  Technology just quadrupled the exposure of these crimes against civilian population. Would you believe me, if  I told you there is more to come.

We were taught whilst growing up to fight for what we want, what we believe in. If you believe in uncertainity, you have to fight for it to persevere to become certainty. But could this be one of those instances where we don’t need to fight for answers, maybe take the route of calmness in the midst of adversity? We’ve employed the tactic of fighting for our beliefs for so long. Maybe it’s time we tried another tactic.

Hopefully someday whilst you and I are standing shoulder to shoulder in what seems to be a protest of some sort after a case of police brutality, and you whisper in my ear “the violent protests from last week seem to be leading us nowhere”. 

Hopefully I wouldn’t whisper in response “I told you this years ago”

☆Jubril Blaize☆

     July 2016

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. ~ Albert Einstein

That idea of abstract realism....what would have been.

They would have been the greatest Nation/Continent. One just needs to read about the visions their co-founders or founding fathers had and you'll see there was adept potential,there was a much bigger dream that obviously never came to pass,still hasn't today. 
They have always been happy with the little that worked out for them since the bloom of their genesis. 
With what they knew,yes they would be labelled as backward today when compared to the rest of the global progress. But their own rate of progress,call it development would have been the most suitable for them. Only them.Western influence....so called civilization destroyed all that.
Will someone agree with me that they were never born to be over curious and therefore lacked that sense of adventure or exploration?? They ought to have been let alone.
Unfortunately,that is not the case today.

My thoughts: 
The thought that if not for white influence... the black man would still be crude and would care less about civilization since he would be quite content with what he has/knows. He would be competing with noone for space,love or experience.
The thought that If he was who he was many many years ago with nothing from the west,it would be eat,sleep,procreate and live his day to day life.
The thought that,it wouldn't be a hell of a problem if he ate from the trees,walked naked and lived by the rules of survival of the fittest,would it??
The thought that If it wasn't for civilization he definitely wouldn't have known a lot of things. 
The belief that leaders who led their Nations into independence had better vision than what the western world had in mind still holds water today..

The white man intrigued him with the way they lived... but if he had picked their brains instead of stupidly following their lifestyle then maybe he wouldn't be as unfortunate as he is today.
Civilization remodeled what would have been considered simple problems for a typical black man to solve back then by and for himself to something he should be passive about. Complications resulted.
The result, is what he is suffering today.
We need to grow up and get rid of that "the white man is a savior mentality"
Just my 25 and a half cents.

☆Jubril Blaize☆

     July 2014

?????

 What is it that i desperately seek for? Relevance amongst my peers,Success,Marriage,Spiritual Accountability,Friendship,Love,or an Excellent Relationship with my Maker???

☆Jubril Blaize☆

     July 2014

Thoughts with Depth...

.In reality.... there is no reality.

.A perfect world where we live,procreate and die. Somewhere in between are womanizing and drinking.

.When nobody wants you...the least you can do for yourself is to love thyself.

.Seems the 'M' names ruled at some time...Marcos Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther king... maybe I should become a Maxwell.

.To the man with a saw... everything looks like wood right?

.If you believe in God,you must believe in evil.

 .Life: An illusion of the stress and madness we face today..

.Believe in your lies..you will confuse the truth!

.When life gives you periods... you abbreviate!

.Nothing has driven me further away from religion than the religious.

.I just don't see the rationale behind a random human cooking up a story and 1,000,000 grown people typing amen to it.

.The masters or the masses? I choose the masses,they are us.

.The message of Christianity will always hold true and pure to me. The problem is the application and the ones who lord over it.

.We all want to be disciples or followers of Jesus.... but who do we emulate? Peter,Judas and the doubting Thomas!

.If only we were who we claim we are...

.See what you like... like what you see?

.Many of us Africans in diaspora super-contradict our thoughts and values. Imagine yourself deep set in Africa,would you do what you did yesterday?

.You still have to choose to believe what is true even in moments of the deepest truth.

.I pray i'm a able to give my child/children the life i never had.. something they will write about when im no longer here.

.Limelight cant do too much to some peoples dark life.

.Summary of Nigerians case: Made it to heaven but forgot the keys.

.Sometimes all one needs is a rude re-awakening.

.Skin color is bone-marrow deep.

.Overwhelmed by my own thoughts.... Aint that life?

.I text God, he didn't text back... He called.

.The most cocky/arrogant people are the ones who never knew what it was like to give their non-sliver spoons to the ones who had no idea of metal.

.Out of darkness comes light, twilight and tonight...

☆Jubril Blaize☆

     May 2013