“In Pursuit of Happiness”

I have always wondered where this phrase – ‘..in pursuit of happiness – come from. I understand a lot of people would say it is from United State Declaration of independence. The expression is credited to Dr. Samuel Johnson in his 1759 novel Rasselas (wikipedia). I have heard it all over this country being used casually and even Hollywood caught the bug with a Will Smith movie, In pursuit of Happyness – nice movie I must say.

The question is what do people mean when they talk of “happiness” or its pursuit? Can you pursue happiness? Is “happiness” a destination or a state on itself? How lasting is “happiness” even when it is has been successfully “pursued”?

I did a little bit of research or lemme call it browsing, on this and I realized that the first public use of this phrase has to do with economic choice of pursuit than ephemeral search for emotional fulfillment. Maybe that tells us more about the use of the expression these days.

I can extrapolate based on the definition and usage of the word that our “pursuit of happiness” has more to do with our fulfillment and satisfaction based on our “acquisition” – Might be love, property etc. That will take me to my next question – Is happiness worth pursuing? I see it from the point that happiness is a means to an end and not an end of a process. Is it worth pursuing? I don’t think so. Why would you pursue a transient state when it is a flow and not the destination? Don’t get me wrong, I am not sadistic or live hating the world, I just think there are other things worth pursuing that could bring happiness as a by-product while giving you more complete fulfillment.

I am not trying to be religious here but I have known from time memorial that the only thing that is what pursuing – Righteousness. Happiness no matter how long it takes is just too risky to be pursued – it is not substantial as a whole point of pursuit – as a by-product, yes, but not the main course. The cost of pursuing it as the lead head and the gain accruing from it just doesn’t worth the effort. Maybe I am wrong…….!

Born in Africa

I was born in Africa, the name they gave my land I was called.
To till the lands my fathers gave me
Not to toil in the baking sun that they so much feared
I am the produce of the land - born in the loin of a warrior
I am the son, his name was Elemeso

Several moons I left my land
Tears, fear ceaselessly flow
Dreams, desires aptly drive
A new world, across several rivers
A place I knew from afar - a land I was called an alien.

What now happens to my generations?
Will they be called by the name they gave my land?
Or the name of the foreign land - Their new land?
Speak in the tongues of my fathers or poetry of this new world?


Will my daughter hums to deep knowledge of Ijala?
Or to the staccato of hip-hop?
Will she ever bath in the cascading torrential downpour?
Or speak in the tone of Ewi?
I wish I know, I wish I can say.

Dare to!

The bright hope is here
subtle and cruising
It is the start of a new month
Another day, another destiny

It is not of a question asked
the gods have no say!

Do I dance on the heels of my wobbling ankles?
Who cares if cock crows no more?
I am on a wild journey of excitement
I dare the streams to look back.

Cry for the Land!

Hold me before I flood the lands
with my tears
I have a torrent coming

I have had enough washing my face
The cool breeze dried them all

Don't ask me if they will come clattering
or ghostly drilling
Can you tell when the stream chuckles?
or its gently wave cascades?

It is for my land, my home
Future soiled, in a sea of greed!

For and against Gun!

The argument about guns and the second amendment right to bear arms by individuals has been raging on among my co-workers and myself for sometimes now. My libertarian conservative co-worker absolutely believes in that right and don't shy away from reminding you that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people". The funniest thing is that he doesn't even have a gun but just doesn't think people have to be restricted in their quest to protect themselves. His other defense of gun right comes from the fact that people that legally get guns hardly use it for nefarious activities. Criminals on the other hands go underground to get guns and use guns that are not registered. These kind of guns will be available, he argued, if guns are banned or not. Meaning if you ban guns, you are not banning the illegal guns, you are banning the legal ones. The illegal guns will still be available anyways. The implication of that is that if you don't have a gun you are actually a sitting duck for someones target practise.

My Iranian and Irish-American co-workers have very liberal attitude to guns vis-a-vis "keep guns away from home, street, alley and crevices". Their arguments pointed to the fact that some of the 'underground' guns actually come from the legal guns. How did the Virginia Tech slayer get his gun anyway? He actually went into a gun shop in Virginia and all they had to check was that he didn't have any prior felony charges. They didn't have access to the court ruling that he had to see a shrink because of health record privacy law. In this case, a legal gun was used to commit a massacre.

I found all these argument interesting because both side of the aisle come with different statistics. The ones that compare death from gun to automobile accident every year or the death from gun to Knife attack. Of course, the other side always come with statistics from Places like Australia and UK with essential ban on carrying arms and attendant fewer death from gun. I find some of these arguments very intriguing and I found out that I have a centrist views about all these.

I could understand nobody wants to be in a place where you cannot defend yourself. I am sure a lot of families that live in the rural areas with two or three policemen in a small town do cherish the right to defend their neighbourhood against any marauder. I mean, thinking from what I have seen in Nigeria, a lot of people that had been robbed by Armed robbers in their homes would have fancied their chances to at least give some form of resistance and get their neighbours to do the same if they had that right. How humiliating would it be for a man being helpless when his family is being plundered by some people he would have sent into low beyond if he had the power to do so? But for everything in this country and for every situation in life, freedom and right come with their attendant responsibilities.

As much as I want people to carry guns and defend themselves, so also I don't want a wacko or someone that is fries less of a happy meal go on a shooting spree. I mean how do you know a guy that got his gun with good psychiatric record started degenerating maybe because he develops a drug problem or some underlying problems? There are borderline millions of bi-polar people around that could be homicidal or suicidal when wrongly provoked. I really don't want those running loose with guns.

I think a lot of argument for and against gun in the American public domain are very simplistic and really don't answer a lot of questions or maybe there is really no answer for a lot of questions raised for or against gun. How do you tell a housewife that drives 10 miles in the rural area to groceries not to arm herself or protect herself? In the same vein, how do you keep guns away untrained kids in the inner cities and 'hoods without infringing on the right of the other lawful citizens? I think this is an argument that will go on across generations in this country.

For my co-workers, the one with the Italian heritage will not talk about that subject at all though he goes to the shooting range all the time and his teenage sons can hit a moving object some 100 yards away. My liberal co-worker from the south and the catholic conservative don't want to hear anything about Gun. As for me, I take both sides - I am for and against Gun in the same breathe - John Kerry never wavered, why should I?

Elemoso

The arrival of the macabre
here comes Elemeso

Now that the gods were cursed
sweeping through the whispers of the winds
I am the last of the Orisas
Never known, never found.

The forlorn cries trail my shadows
The echoes of the lost spirits
Not mine, never mine
but the count of my conquests.

I am Elemeso
Orisas verloren hoop
I was told
I killed the gods

Myth, Belief and Nigeria

I grew up in Nigeria with a lot of myths that I was told were realities or facts. You know, those kind of situations you see in the Nigerian movies. Good vs Evil, witch vs. God's power - The whole shebang. The classic cases are always the fact that anyone that didn’t grow old and die must have been killed by his/her stepmother or a witch in his/her family.

It got to a point where one of my uncles that died in 1995 then of obvious cause of Pancreatic cancer still had someone blamed for his death. I mean, Pancreatic cancer is a very aggressive form of cancer that doesn’t get diagnose until it is too late. He was a Director-General in one of the Ondo state parastatals and they blamed his death on one guy that was his predecessor. How fair is that?

Even accidents that are mostly caused by bad roads, bad vehicles, bad driving skills and just careless driving are blamed on some demons on the road. Don't get me wrong, I believe in God. Of course, the bible talks about principalities and powers, demons, rulers of darkness in high places and the whole lots but in our case in Nigeria which of those actually cause some of our predicaments?

How many roads in Nigeria have speed limit signs? How many roads give you a speed advisory when you are approaching an intersection or an exit? Any reflectors on the road to caution you about curves or dead-end road? If we put in more efforts in getting our government to be responsible in getting our roads ok than being spiritual about it, I think we can reduce a lot of death and carnages on our roads. How many times have you seen Nigeria's Highway Patrol calling tow trucks to move a disabled trailer/car off the road so that oncoming speeding car doesn't run it? Are we going to blame devil for that? This is not rocket science or something to be spiritual about - Get the damn disabled vehicle of the road and some lives can be saved.

What kind of responses do we have for emergencies? Most accident victims die within the first hour of their injuries. Most could have survived with good emergency services and getting transported to the right trauma units within an hour.

I know our health sector has totally broken down but that shouldn’t stop us from paying a little attention to ourselves. I know as Christians we talk about divine health but at least we should try once in three years (if we can’t afford to do once in a year) do our physical. Some of the diseases that kill a lot of Nigerians could be taken care easily if detected early. I know lot at people will talk about poverty and all that prevailing among the larger population but one thing I also realize is that the apathy is prevails among the upper middle class - People that could afford these checks.

One of my maternal uncles died of diabetes some years ago. The man didn’t even know he had diabetes. He just knew he was getting tired a lot. He went to see his doctor and the latter was so alarmed after seeing his blood test result that he had to drive down to his house. It was that bad. His diabetes was already in advanced stage - The Nigerian medical system couldn’t help him again and he died. Of course, someone was blamed for his death too.

I still follow Nigerian news online and the cause of death most times of a public figure never get revealed. I understand that the Muslims have to bury their dead within 24 hours but that shouldn’t stop a pathologist to determine the cause of death - If only to create public awareness of what killed the public figure.

No Nigerian today knows what killed Abacha. We all speculate between liver cirrhosis, cardiac arrest, etc. Let’s assume it was cardiac arrest, what triggered it? What kind of condition hasdhe been living in healthwise? Had he lived most part of his life with Blood pressure? High cholesterol? High sodium content? This is not about making fun of his death but just for the people that are still alive and the future generation. The press was already on and over his death; the government didn’t need to spend any money to talk about that condition again with the publicity and awareness the cause of his death could have been used to educate the masses. I guess no one will get money to embezzle in that kind of simple situation.

Back to my myth subject, I think we allow ourselves to be put in the realm of fear just by not thinking beyond our noses. A lot of diseases and conditions we attribute to devil can easily be solved by either checking out what we eat or take better care of ourselves. Maybe we can serve God even better if we use our head better. What better ways to serve God, when we know we don’t have to bother him praying 30 minutes for journey mercies and casting out demons on the bad roads when all we have to do is just take care of road and the demons will be cast out (lol). If and when we understand that a molue speeding at 70-80 miles per hour on a bridge that is not lined, with a driver that most likely had a high alcoholic blood content, you don’t need a demon or yemoja to push him into the Lagoon. I guess with that we would be able to put our belief and myth in perspectives.