Jasmine and Lotus ... in truth the ordinary becomes extraordinary

An ordinary life becomes extraordinary

 when you seek truth

setting your face against deception and lies.
Find it. Defend it.

Then your life will have meaning to others.
It will make a difference; howsoever small.
And the world will change; for the better.
Yes we can.

The above is the first page impact statement in my book –"The other – without fear, favour or prejudice -" published on Lulu.com in 2010. At the time I imagined that the time had come for ordinary people to pursue truth in order to effect real change.

Change is needed … badly needed. It is blindingly obvious that the world is pretty well messed up. It starts with the United Nations. The UN, operating at unbelievable costs, does not stop wars, genocide, mass rapes and all kinds of brutalization of people by all kinds of despots, tyrants and corrupt regimes. It is a club for leaders, where they hold a brief for themselves, as leaders, to conduct deal brokering in power, influence and assets ... for themselves. They do not hold a brief for humanity … but for themselves.

So the culture of “we are the bosses … and here to stay … regardless of the cost to ordinary human beings” cascades down to other “leadership camps and cabals” like the African Union, SADC and the Arab League.

In the result human rights, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, sanctimoniously subscribed by all of the so-called leaders at the UN, count for very little when in competition with those of the snouted ones at the trough of power and self-enrichment. So, led by one leader, Thabo Mbeki, SADC and the AU had no trouble at all in providing security, comfort and support for Robert Mugabe, killer of some 20, 000 Ndebeles in his Gukuranhundi pogrom, and architect of one of the most brutal regimes of modern times. As regards Thabo Mbeki, over 320, 000 of his own people died on account of him denying them antiretroviral  HIV/AIDS drugs. For this no one has suggested that he be brought to account.

Zackie Achmat

So in a situation where leaders look after leaders, I imagined that ordinary folk needed to do something.  They needed to do something about social injustice, which is the price paid for corrupt leadership. So the book makes the point that the key is for ordinary folk to seek truth, set their faces against deception and lies. Central to all this is that leaders propagate and maintain social injustice by routinely peddling convenient untruths and suppressing inconvenient truths.

Full credit must be given to Zacki Achmat, an ordinary human being, who led the Treat Action Campaign, to force an end to the Mbeki sponsored denial of anti retroviral drugs to HIV/AIDS victims. He, and his team, were simply not prepared to believe the obscene obfuscation of truth, trotted out by leadership to justify a most pernicious example of social injustice.

Now we have Mohamed Bouazizi. He was a 26-year-old university graduate without a steady job, trying to support his family. This ordinary man decided that “enough was enough” . and set himself on fire. As my book says – “when you take a stand, as an ordinary human being, it will have meaning to others and will make a difference”. 

In this case it did just that … on an unprecedented and incredible scale. Other ordinary people, ordinarily conservative and highly respectful of authority,  rose up in the “Jasmine Revolution” and rid themselves of 23 years of oppressive rule by one of the most senior members of the leadership club.

AP

[The picture shows soon to be deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali trying to save the situation by visiting Mohamed Bouazzi in hospital]

Since then the world has watched, in wondrous fascination, as ordinary people, rose up in  Jordan, the Yemen and Egypt, in order to reject long-standing deception, lies and social injustice, make a difference and free themselves from oppression. At the heart of this revolution is a new phenomenon of change, social networking, proving a powerful vehicle for replacing lies with truth.

Fundamental, to this new state of things for the world, is the fact that ordinary people have been greatly assisted in finding truth on account of this being the "information age".
As a direct result of this phenomenon, it has become impossible for other leaders to come to the aid of their despotic counterparts, who stand completely exposed for what they are.

As regards Egypt’s Lotus Revolution the revelation(s) is quite sickening. The United States, bastion of democracy and self-proclaimed “world policemen” on human rights has been supporting a despot, Hosni Mubarak, in its own interests , without so much as a squeak about the fact that this leader has been denying his own people basic human rights for some 30 years under a “state of emergency”.  The notion that a man who is raping his own daughter is a friend is truly remarkable, but absolutely obscene. In the result, poor President Obama has been caught with America’s pants down. He and Hilary have struggled to find a “dignified and acceptable” way to abandon America’s erstwhile ally, Hosni Mubarak, who is finding it even more difficult to simply accept the simple truth that the Egyptian people just don’t want any more of he and his kind.

In addition, it has now emerged that Israel, supported by the US, has routinely rejected quite unbelievably benevolent concessions made by the Palestinian negotiating team, trying desperately to bring a bloody conflict to an end and secure social justice for a whole people.

The game is up. Ordinary people are no longer prepared to accept lies and deception. Leaders will be held to account on the basis of truth.

China has been the first leadership clique to react to this new threat to the camp. So it immediately shut down all internet and media access to news on the revolution occurring in Egypt. To China what is happening in Egypt is an inconvenient truth that it does not want its dispossessed people to know about. The Mubarak regime had vainly tried to persecute and emasculate Al Jazeera and to deny ordinary people truth by shutting down internet services.

It will not work. The world has changed forever. 

Ordinary people will no longer be denied information. 

They will no longer be denied access to truth, and the right to act on it, 

in order to make a difference and bring about social justice!.
_____________________________________________________

PS: The above was posted at the beginning of the "Arab Spring", in 2011.
In 2016 Donald Trump secured the American presidency, even though he lost the popular vote by over 3 million votes to Hillary Clinton.
During his first year of presidency, the world has witnessed this man emerge as the biggest liar recorded in history. His central message and slogan is "Make America Great Again" that has no other meaning than that America be returned to its disgraceful era of racial and gender oppression.
Despite being constitutionally obliged to "defend the realm", as his first duty, Trump has a blindingly obvious liaison with Vladimir Putin leader of Russia, America's biggest enemy.
It is therefore no surprise that he has mounted a sustained attack against the "information age" by bellowing, grunting and snorting out the concept of "fake news" in referencing our purveyors of information.
America is now in its most disgraceful period since the days of slavery.