TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
ifebuche
ifebuche
« previous 10


Tupac's Vision in 'Changes' and America Today
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Sometime last week I was reading a blog somewhere and saw a reference to Tupac's Changes and the America of today (I don't want to claim the idea of the link).

He'd started with "I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself is life worth living should I blast myself? I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black." All through the song, both it's lyrics and beatings with his voice would stress the burden of being black in his America. He continues with "Cops give a damn about a negro, pull the trigger kill a nigga he's a hero..." His dream as he continues, ("We gotta start makin' changes, learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers and that's how it's supposed to be") is an America -and the world at large- where colour does not entail demacations. the discomfort was so heavy on his heart he felt a chang would be hard: "That's just the way it is. Things'll never be the same. That's just the way it is."

All his later life, it seems his vision is capped up when he recites in the song:

"We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive."

Just like he noted; we all get what we bargain for no matter how long we think we got away: "And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped, & I never get to lay back, 'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs. Some punk that I roughed up way back, comin' back after all these years."

Barack Obama's message was that of 'Change.' Has Tupac's "Changes' suddenly become irrelevant, and is America going to get back all the roughing up meted out on blacks and other minorities way back? Surely we are up for Change with Obama.

This reminds me of a mail that made its round not long ago with a big picture of President -elect Obama nicely framed up and gracefully placed on a wall reading:

"Mr. President, Now Available in Black!"

I can't help but feel happy at the change. Even if Obama does nothing to impact on the race issue (and I don't frankly think there is somethign so great he can do about it like declaring a compensation for each balck family), it is a consolation that at least, Mr. President of America is now Availbale in Black!


November 28, 2008 | 7:48 AM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


Let it Go Round!
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

You Know what is wrong with all the sit-tight-here-cos-the-world-is-hot? They all have refused to make it go round. Yeah, it actually tries to go round but when it comes to them, they'd like it to sit and serve them instead of giving a hand and making it get round.

Well, all ya who are out there sitting on the fence, it ain't gon work for us no more. Let us get up and do something. We gotta help it go round.

Asking what is it? Well. Let's Share it: Love I mean.

November 28, 2008 | 7:48 AM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


My Dad's Gone
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

All through my earlier growing years since the first time I had the power of imagination and the reality of self, I had always wanted to be like this particular man. I am so sure that I wanted to be like him physically. He was tall, huge and for all I know elegant.

Mey father was all these. But we never know the things we know until we begin to realise them. I grew up and we fell apart for some issues and it still hurts me till today that before his scary death, I was not in speaking terms with him. He was, shortly before his death (which doctors told us is due to cardiac failure) a shadow of himself. He was the picture of a man who had given up hope in the face of the monstrous challenges that faced him. What unsettles me is that I had aways known him as a hard man; bow then did things get to him? There was only one answer: he pilled everything up and they weighed him down. We tried, at least, I tried to get him out of the shell he was getting himself into towards his last days. I though I was succeedign at a stage bu then it all went back to how it was. We had a plan for us; business had gone bad a very long time ago. We suggested, asked, pleaded and towards the end tried a little lobbying before we tried to coerce him. then we decided to give him space and allow him actually work something out like he had said two years back. All didn't work, yeah, none did. At last he went, still stubborn and hard. I know he thought he was doing the right thing; how, I couldn't tell. He just continued saying we should wait and hope, but all was faling apart. For two years we hoped and watched but nothing was coming yet he was sitting on the very key that would have opened up for us the door of hope and so turn around his life since it seemed he was so tired and scared of everything.

My Dad's gone at 61 and it still hurts that we couldn't do anything to help for when we got to him he was already long gone. I checked him into the morgue myself with my younger brother and the help of two other neighbours.

Now I really know who I'm working with because a lot of things have come to happen. People have been good and sympathetic. A lot more have been heartless and wicked.

November 21, 2008 | 3:37 AM Comments  1 comments

Tags:


The Grief of Death
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

This morning I woke up to some grief
I heard a death shrill over the air
So suddenly did it pierced the skies
That the calm air was thrown into turmoil
The skies shuddered and birds scared
Hairs stood up all over my terrified body

God gives and he takes
He creates and calls the stakes
We come on loan
And sometimes no matter how much we moan
We still at his bidding live
No matter how much we try not to leave

Three months before the end of the year
Sometimes on the second day after the fifth
It was hardly a couple and an hour before midnight
Before I could finally shut the doors of my eye
Came such scary shrill in a baritone
The next second I was crashing the stairs half naked

The sad part was that we could do nothing
Then anything we did was too late
We had to carry my own father, dead
There was not time to try to save him
There was no attempt because there was no chance
Finally we carried him out and buried him

So, whenever you see me musing all by myself
Or gathering words in a deep recollection
I am declaring that I have been there
When He took one and rather very forcefully
I could only ask one question: ‘Why’
‘Why now’ ‘Why here’ ‘Why like this’

November 21, 2008 | 3:37 AM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


Why do we ever have to love?
Related to country: Nigeria


Sometimes I wonder why we ever have to fall in love. Yeah. It is so weird that we love and then our love breaks our heart. Is it possible to make a legislation that penalizes heartbreaks?

Sometimes I do not think it is beneficial to fall in love. Well, you may not feel so because probably your love life is in shape. the thing is, can we ever find love? Tell me. Where does love well?

June 2, 2007 | 7:18 AM Comments  2 comments

Tags:


My Lovely Memoir
Related to country: Nigeria


Over the phone just the other night, I told my baby my fright, that it has become a nightmare, the thought of me losing her. She said she was feeling the same way; but that she was always going to be mine, she was always going to be there for me. Then I asked my baby 'do you love me' 'yes, i do and always' came the angelic voice. Then I told her about all the hesitations that have come to play in mind, how I was bound under chain and lock in the name of being a candidate for Aaron. She told me it was going to be alright, but she did not understand me; then again i told her I wanted to get away, I wanted to be free and know that we can be together forever, and over the phone, I heard her smile, yeah, I saw her through the air, over the MTN network. It was during the free night calls and we were free as the call.

February 17, 2007 | 4:01 AM Comments  1 comments

Tags:


I love My Chick
Related to country: Nigeria


I never for once doubted the feeling behind Busta's spine when he sang "yep yep, I love ma chick."

I think I am probably nursing the same feeling right now. Wwell, what is this supposed to be: a diary or a journal? Private or public? Either way, I know this is on the net and the net cannot be private for any reason; so I am telling the world that the day past I kissed my baby for the first time and not just that, she did it with me; I dunnot how to put it. I feel like I am the best user of the TIG network because unlike any other place, I am abe to tell the world my mind as it is.

January 25, 2007 | 10:28 AM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


The Origin of 'Madness'

This is rather a summary of the stages of the beginning of hat I will here call 'mdness' but which actually is more correctly termed wishful thinking or illusion. These cases appear when we know the truth or the given reality but we are not so comfortable with. We would have , especially thought-out actions by human beings. The progression goes first from WISH, to HOPE, then it graduates to the reality.

We would always hope that we had something, or that somethignhad happened; then we would next hope that it is the case. It is only after we had gathered enough information about the subject (or been bold enough to face the reality; either conciously or unciously) that we are able to actually make our conclusion.

January 12, 2007 | 12:18 PM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


On Happiness
Related to country: Nigeria


On Happiness
What is happiness; or better still, what does it mean to be happy? In our every day life we always refer to happiness so often but alas without giving it any series thought. What happens and there is happiness and what conditions are necessary for happiness if it should be a state. If not a state then is it a process that inhales in itself or as a consequence of some other thing. Can we in trying to talk about happiness make an allusion to the relationship between justice and peace? It is accepted that when one seeks peace then there should be justice. Peace is not thing per se in the sense of saying that there is peace over there or that peace is obtainable here or there as we can say that there is a river between Anambra and Enugu at the boundary between both states. Peace is rather the result of the presence of justice. We will not go into the intricacies of defining happiness, but suffice it to say that peace is the result of equity and justice as contrasted with mere victory over the other after and argument or a court session.

Happiness for the younger ones seems to be synonymous with a high spirit, one that is attendant with the atmosphere around social gatherings. This view of happiness makes it an activity or rather a process that happens just as we say that it is raining. There is a mechanical implication to this. It is not something that develops but something that happens. There may seem to be little difference between something that develops and one that just happens. When something happens it is precipitated by some mechanical occurrences that are so to say prototyped. When I set out for a party for example, I know that I am going to enjoy myself and have fun with friends, probably with some wining and dining. I have started out working towards this event and when I am there and actually engage in the activity, then and only then, in the process of the party that I can say that I am happy. How realistic is this happiness? This reduces happiness to an activity or at least as something synonymous with one activity or the other. Perhaps this si why the younger ones seem to always be on the go , always looking out for some excitement spot or the other in pursuit of happiness. This is not what I think happiness would mean. This activity-happiness or happening-happiness is so in vogue that at length younger people are after activity/happening places. For some reason or the other, the younger generation would not to some extent experience authentic happiness.

Another way happiness is seen is from the point of view of a filling up of some vacuum. This seems to be gain ground as we get older. There seems to always be some space ever yearning to be filled up and the yardstick for evaluation is always in the guise of what and how much. There is a quest for more money to fill up so much as to be full. But what is this particular that is being filled? This cannot be easily answered. We look at around and see people eating and drinking to their fill. It is always a question of the more you are able to acquire the better. The more you eat, the more you are happy, the much you are able to drink is the extent of happy you can be. This disposition is only an attempt at fleeing from the reality of the time and the responsibilities of the present and the future. We seem to be trying to evade some force that is coming up against us. The drinker forgets that after drinking s/he would live to desire to drink again. The businessman is oblivious of the fact that s/he is going to want to acquire more tomorrow. As the earlier description is activity/happening-happiness here it is more of a filling-happiness. The problem here is that the vessel so filled is never able to be full and somehow gets to let out what is in it requiring to take more. The happy person is the one who has gotten the most s/he can. But who has ever got the much s/he can ever be able to. The richest person in Nigeria for example can still do with an extra naira.

Something is common to the two descriptions of happiness already outlines. There is a common denominator of a situation where the subject is not conscious of the state. This is not a state that they are in because happiness in neither of the two descriptions is a state, both are an activity. This activity is pursued but the resultant ‘happiness’ is unconscious. It is an evasion of reality. There is something the subject seems to be trying to overcome and actually hides away from it. Imagine a person who has just had a row with the parents or any other person and drives off to go and party in order to get over the situation at hand. What if the same person decided to go and do some work or better yet to and drink? This is in such a way as to evade the reality of the moment or still to evade the present state that seems to threaten their peace. There is however a way that these activities would finally result in a state which would be happiness but not in the aforementioned guises.

Happiness is the end of all of us and until we finally get it we can never rest. Now, what is it that is happiness? ‘Feeling or showing pleasure,’ is what Encarta states as the first meaning of ‘happy.’ (Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary adds ‘or causing’ –pleasure) This shows an activity. Note that it does not say ‘the feeling’ (this would be a noun, more of a state./condition), but ‘feeling,’ a doing. Now looking at the other component of the meaning we see the idea of pleasure. There seems to be a relationship between happiness and pleasure. It would mean that pleasure is all about happiness and when one has found pleasure one has also found happiness. The former is a litmus indicator of the latter. The first part of the definition (‘feeling’ and ‘showing’) has to do with the filling-happiness already outlined an the latter (pleasure) in tune with the happening-happiness which surfaces after some activity and actually inhales in an activity. What then can we point out as happiness? In the first place, happiness must be removed from any activity and any point of acquisition. We can only express happiness in proper light when we talk of happiness as a state.

Imagine a situation where you wake up and for the moment you are aware that there is nothing pressing on you because you have taken care of everything that needed attention. Think of the student who has just got some money into his or her account from their parent or guardian after they had taken care of all their bills. There is a sense of security; a state of awareness of being secure and totally lacking (at least for the moment) nothing. It is not important that s/he has all the money available at their disposal and can a such dispose of them as they like. The emphasis is on having got every bill settled and still getting some money after everything had been settled. This state of spirit when all these basic needs of the moment have bee taken care of is what I refer to as happiness. If there is anything that we hope to get in the life after which we are to term happiness, then it must be a state like this: where everything ahs been taken care of. This reminds me of the recent account I heard of some archaeological discovery made of recent in Palestine, in an ancient cave. Therein was found several scrolls and on one of them was the Hebrew for ‘it is finished.’ When the scroll was opened it was discovered it contained the names of all those who had paid their taxes. This is an instance of what I term here as happiness, a state where every basic need of the moment have been actively taken care. It is a conscious effort that results in some state of the mind of security and assuredness that there is nothing to worry about. It is never a situation of trying to evade the worries of the moment, rather, the conscious tackling of the troubles of the moment and the resultant security that accrues for such responsible living. Another intuition pump will help convey the message very well. In the movie, ‘City of Angel,’ when the lady doctor had gotten the angel to take humanity and having been assured that he was hers, she went out to pick some groceries and took the time out to buy a variety of fruits to show the angel turned human. She was so full of her new feat that she was coming back on her bicycle with her arms outstretched and eyes closed. She was secure, she had taken care of all she thought she should and consequently has a settled mind unafraid of anything; she didn’t dare to fly in the midst of the main road that when she opened her eyes moments later it was that she was running into an oncoming trailer that would kill her.

The former models of happiness would contrast in more than one way with the present paradigm. The former two seek happiness in the activity and not in the resultant state. In short, the state after the endeavour undertaken actually leaves the subject empty and sometimes feeling guilty. Again, none of the two are done consciously. By this I do not mean that the subject is unconscious during the process but is unaware of the fact that they are trying to evade some reality or the other. This is why I said that young people sometimes seem to be unable to attain this happiness and do so when applicable seldom. It is a state that has to do with conscious responsible living. This is brought about by living in the now and making meaningful decisions aware of the consequences. It is a decision to act responsible and not purely from the whims and caprices of our untamed emotions. It is the resultant state of a life well planned and worked out.

Happiness is not to be sought in anything but from the subject who consciously makes meaningful decisions towards a better and well planned life. It is not activity but a state after some activity.

January 5, 2007 | 1:06 PM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


My Most Open Secret

I didn't think I will ever put this on my Tigblog but to show loyalty and respect, and the deep feelings that I have for somebody I will shortly introduce briefly. She is somebody I met some six years ago or so, in circumstances that I call natural. She was young and beautiful, plus she was almost naive and then very shy. These came together as the qualities I wanted to associate myself with. She is one of the best things that exist in this world. Well, let me kind of stop at that. She is simply an angel. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and the first thought that comes to my mind is her. Truly, it is because of the relaitonship between myself and her that I was prompted to develop my theory of love and relationship (you can write me and I send you copy of it) which in summary says that in an affectatious (as I termed it) relationship, one party should own the other entirely and vice versa, just like one owns (not one's external property that can be disposed of but...) one's arm! I love you with all my heart Ifebuche. And you know what; just look at my screen name, it is 'Ifebuche' and that'sher name. That is just how much she is into me: entirely!

December 27, 2006 | 1:19 PM Comments  0 comments

Tags:


« previous 10


sleemfesh's Profile


Latest Posts
Let it Go Round!
Tupac's Vision in...
The Grief of Death
My Dad's Gone
Why do we ever have to...

Monthly Archive
December 2004
August 2005
October 2005
March 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
June 2007
November 2008

Change Language



20587 views
Important Disclaimer