First published on December 5, 2016

I have been thinking a lot lately, trying to make sense of the widespread violence, neglect, hate, and greed. These things are not new to the human race; they have been with us from the beginning, and that makes it more perplexing. Can’t men live in unity and harmony, utilize the earth’s resources, and share the wealth with equity among all without regard to race, religion, ethnicity, or political opinion? Aren’t men engineered to live so? 

When I watch the news, I see history repeated. People use hate to fight hate. Or should I say a minority group made of power-obsessed people using small groups of desperate, obsessed, and greedy people as pawns to play a deadly game of power and wealth-grabbing? The majority have always been the victims of this game over the centuries. 

The Whiteman thinks the Blackman is less of a human because, over the years, the Blackman has been portrayed as a primitive and savage race by his government and the media. He also sees him, the Blackman, as a source of his problems —a lazy entity to which his government is always giving his tax money, money that could improve his standard of living. 

The Blackman either has unqualified admiration for the Whiteman because he is his lord and savior or has great resentment for him because, since the time of his ancestors, this man has been the cause of his woes.

I come from Ghana, a western African country rich in crude oil, gold, bauxite, silica, salt, diamonds, and fertile lands, and it has an intelligent human resource base. My nation hosts many multinational businesses and corporations that make billions in profit, yet about 25% of my people can’t afford to spend a dollar a day on food, and more than half of our population can’t live on $3.00 a day. This is a country where people own fleets of Range Rovers, Ferraris, Bugattis, private jets, and multiple mansions. So you see, you and I are victims of a rigged system engineered to enrich the privileged few, and we can’t get out of it when we hate each other.  

Do you believe in God, or is it Allah you call on? Is it Buddha or Haile Selassie for you? Regardless of what you put your faith in, there is a common belief. A belief that a Supreme Being created the earth and all things it holds. So who are you to classify and condemn his creation? Nobody chooses the home they are born in, so why do you persecute them because their family’s way of worshipping the Supreme Being differs from yours? 

Faith, I know, is a thing of belief and love. Faith has nothing to do with oppression and hate. Faith is an innate decision and has nothing to do with human doctrines. Faith should be a tool for unification, and we shouldn’t allow people of power to deceive us and use this beautiful gift to divide us.

The human race has evolved significantly over the years with many genius inventions, but this hasn’t led to any meaningful progress. We have landed a man on the moon, yet millions of our race still die of common diseases like malaria and cholera. We are spending billions of dollars annually trying to land a man on an alien planet, yet, back home, most of our race live in poverty, and people are dying from starvation. Millions are killed so that very few privileged can satisfy their fantasies.

When I watch the news, I see history repeated. People use hate to suppress hate. People using violence to quench violence. After hours, days, weeks, months, or years of bombardment and invasion, they say the forces have been able to kill the number 3 leader of the rebel group. Sometimes it’s a single person or a group of 10 killed in an airstrike. The question I always ask is, so how many families have been left without a home? How many kids are left without a father? And how many kids are left without a mother?

Sometimes I ask how much of a nation’s story was lost, how much of a family’s heritage, and how many dreams have been shattered by these rockets. They say the wars are for peace and liberation, but I see the wars creating a circle of hate, consuming our race. We are so focused on killing ISIS, and we pay no or little attention to what’s arming ISIS. But no matter what you do to the branches of a tree, so long as its roots remain in fertile soil, it will find a way to germinate.

Why do I care so much? After all, I live in a peaceful country, and even though things are not rosy, every day isn’t a struggle for me. But I saw that the fall of Libya threw the Sahara into chaos. Tuaregs are displaced and left to die. Mali is feeling the impact. Timbuktu, Morocco, Algeria, and Nigeria are experiencing the effects of negligence and greed.

When Iraq fell, the world felt the effects, and because of your government’s role in these fallouts, trains got bombed in London, runners were killed in New York, and fans were blown up in the cycle of hate, and I could go on and on because the whole story has never been told.

Maybe writing about it will make you start a conversation. A conversation that will inform the next brother or sister that there is war – a war against nature, a war against the human race, a war against our existence. A war is being fought in the physical, mental, and spiritual realms.

There is abundant crude on earth, yet you and I still buy fuel at high prices. Technology has advanced, yet we still pay a high price to treat common illnesses. Despite all the inventions, putting a roof over our heads remains a toil.

We are gladiators toiling and fighting to the amusement of a few privileged ones, helping build their selfish dreams and satisfying their fantasies. But do not despair. There is a silver lining – our fights make the show, and it won’t be a show when we cease to fight. It is of great benefit for us and our children if we stop the fight, focus on unity, ensure equity, respect each other, and call to order those who are destroying us and our environment for their selfish gains.

The course of the world’s history has been charted by war in past generations, but I pray my generation won’t be an underachieving one. We have come a long way, and won’t accept that cruel mantle passed on from generations. Our world has been made one by the invention of television, the telephone, the internet, and bullet trains.

We want to learn from other cultures. We want to learn new languages and get silly on Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. We want to do poetry and art, share ideas on Twitter, and be superstars on YouTude. We want to travel the world, experience cultures, smoke some weed, take photographs, and share them on our blog. We don’t want to rule or conquer anybody.

But first, we must break the chain of hate and do away with greed and selfishness. We can’t travel the world when there is instability, nor can we be stars online without an audience. The only way to achieve that is through love and tolerance; otherwise, we won’t be successful if we choose any other way. A wise man said, “When you fight to gain something, you’ll have to continue to fight to maintain it.”

You and I must ensure that we contribute in whichever way we can to make every corner of our planet feel like a better place. Let’s all come together.