Abiding Passions – e-Book

Description

… There is hardly any uncertainty in my mind that Africans are bound to re-emerge from the shadows as central contributors to the definition of human history by the end of this century. The long night is spent and this fact is being announced by the early chirpy bird-songs of dawn; but we need to see to the completion of the blueprint. Suggestions for the formula for our renaissance need to be more consistently and comprehensively crafted, beyond bald abstractions and vague ruminations. The prospective modernizing intelligentsia and mass society have to negotiate and agree on the way forward. Unfortunately, this is most likely to be an excruciating and exacting process requiring revolutionary methods. And so it must be. Universal history suggests that no society goes through the catharsis of fundamental overhaul or renewal without matching sorrow and sacrifice…

… The left ideationally accepts the notion of the brotherhood and sisterhood of all humanity. Philosophically, the position rests on confidence in the power of human reason and rationality to achieve progress for the benefit of us all; very significantly for our times. The left espouses secularism and advocates political sovereignty exercised through a legislature of elected representatives or officers. It rejects inherent privilege, traditionbound superiority, and has a healthy disrespect for personalized or unelected political leadership. Furthermore, the left actively canvasses equality, social justice and fairness in human dealings. Left-wing causes do not always and immediately yield positive social results. In the real world of social practice and political party-rule in neocolonial conditions, not all that goes under the flag of the left is distinctly honourable. Too many promise what they cannot deliver and destroy when they cannot build. They solicit the aspirational sentiments of the societally deprived and in time prove that even in their theoretically championed earthly paradise some are more equal than others. But one thing once can be sure of is that because the left, as a whole, is ultimately inextricably tied by word and deed to the emancipation process and human progress, in the long run of time and history they generally produce desired results. Many of these sought results are not realizable within the uncertain brevity of a lifetime, but in the course of our lifetimes we may see some progress…