Ignorance, Greed and Selfishness
by Biodun Oduwole
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a phenomenon that is ravaging the Nigerian society; the disturbing indulgence of young people and sometimes entire families in singing and dancing
competitions. I was overwhelmed by the reactions to this dangerous trend. Many had been disturbed by this trend but had no avenue of expressing their worries. I was glad I called public attention to this malaise.
Whether we like it or not others are watching us. As the Bible says, we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. These witnesses will report about us and relate to us as they see us. The Yoruba people say “iri ni si ni iso ni l’ojo”, people will deal with you the way you present yourself to them. Perception is reality and nobody can be better than the image he presents to others. It is of course possible that people’s perception of who you are is inadvertently wrong or mischievously conceived. That does not matter because it still forms the basis of their relationship with you. The remedy is to work to correct that perception by whatever means. Many have been ill treated, denied opportunities and ridiculed because of misconceived perceptions of who they are. If they do nothing to correct that perception they stand to suffer those consequences for ever.
Many times we have complained about the treatment meted to Nigerians and other Africans in countries of Europe and America; humiliation at border posts and harassment and victimisation by law enforcement agents, denial of opportunities etc. These all arise from the small opinion that they have of us. Their leaders may be civil with our leaders but deep in their hearts some hold us in close to contempt. Are we responsible for their attitude to us or are they simply being mischievous and discriminatory to keep us under? Search you heart and find the correct answers.
The statement below was published on a New York radio station by a man called Dee Lee not long ago. Don’t get so mad you won’t read all of it, read and apportion blame. Who is to blame, the author of the article or black people. If black people are to blame, what will you do as a Nigerian to change this perception?
We can continue to reap profits from theBlacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED,and SELFISHNESS.
Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, “The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.” We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes &am p; Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.
GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal.
Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%).
Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it.
Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing.
They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, and they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them “Status” or that they have achieved their Dream.
They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities.
With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn’t want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They’ll continue to s how off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.
SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A “Talented
Tenth” he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some “form” of success..
However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn’t read that the “Talented Tenth” was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented
Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not al low them to be able to work together on any project or endeavour of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community.
They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness?
They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM) They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms.
Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are “helping” their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don’t worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, ‘THEY DON’T READ!!!!
abbeyzeekat@yahoo.co.uk
Text only to: 08070991006.
November 29, 2009
Posted in: Biodun Oduwole
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