What Are You Grateful For?

A Persian poet named Saadi Shirazi wrote a book titled “Gulistan” or “The Rose Garden” in 1258. From the chapter titled “On the Excellence of Contentment” come these lines from “Story 19”:
“I never lamented about the vicissitudes of time or complained of the turns of fortune except on the occasion when I was barefooted and unable to procure slippers. But when I entered the great mosque of Kufah with a sore heart and beheld a man without feet I offered thanks to the bounty of God, consoled myself for my want of shoes…”

That is why in the Freestyle Clip #16, I ask: “What Are You Grateful For?”

It Is Not Normal

The German physician, Theodor Bilharz was the first person to recognize that urinary schistosomiasis was caused by the parasitic flatworm. He was working in Egypt in 1851 when he made this discovery. Thus the condition is also known as bilharzia or bilharziasis.
The Brazilian parasitologist Pirate da Silva described the whole disease cycle in 1908.
The disease is found in tropical countries in Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
There are 5 species of the flatworm that infect humans and they are often found in freshwater, where they can bore through the skin and enter the bloodstream. Even though they have a predilection for the urinary bladder or the intestines, they can ultimately affect other organs, even the central nervous system.
 
When the bladder is infected, one of the symptoms is hematuria or bloody urine. In areas where the disease is endemic, it is not surprising to find a large percentage of the population with bloody urine. The attitudes of the people in these areas in interesting and are illustrated by this study from Nigeria in 2004.
 
The researchers from the College of Medicine at the Edo State University questioned about 3800 people from a population in southeastern Nigeria, where genitourinary bilharziasis is endemic. The questions touched on their knowledge about and attitudes towards the disease – whether they used preventative methods when in freshwater bodies, whether they had been infected before, if they got treatment when infected or knew the cause of the disease.
 
Even though knowledge of the disease was quite high, the researchers were struck by the attitude from a fair number of the respondents. When asked about getting treatment for symptoms like hematuria, the stated that:
“… their condition was a stage in the course of their human development and therefore, it is a natural stage in the course of existence. They have learned to live with it until it disappears on its own or they die with it. However, they do not believe in divorce even when there is no child.”
 
This attitude has also been confirmed anecdotally by colleagues who have worked in other areas in West Africa where genitourinary bilharziasis is endemic. They have heard responses like: “Everyone’s urine here is red. What do you mean that is abnormal?”
This dire lack of understanding this morbid condition does not spare them from the sequelae of genitourinary bilharziasis – bladder cancer and kidney failure.
 
The attitudes of these people in areas endemic with schistosomiasis almost parallel a rather disturbing state in the US – the epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings..
 
Dear America, it is not normal that a young man shoots up a school with six and seven-year-olds. It is not normal that people are gunned down in churches, synagogues and movie theaters for no apparent reason. It is not normal that this occurs almost every week.
IT IS NOT NORMAL!!!
These killings should not be a stage in the course of our human development and should not be seen as a natural stage in the course of our existence. We should not learn to live with it until it disappears on its own or they die with it. We should not.
IT IS ABNORMAL!!!
Maybe you think it is a small price to pay for the right to bear arms. Listen, it is a price alright but it is not small. It is destructive and evil. Accepting it as a way of life is wrong.
 
I am not asking for anyone to take away people’s guns. All I am saying is that there should be a sense of urgency to do something about this scourge – and it is a scourge. Thoughts and prayers just aren’t cutting it. The death of fewer than 5 people has literally halted development of driverless cars and yet over 300 people have been killed this year alone by mass shooters and not one committee has been set up by lawmakers to deal with this abomination.
Are we as a nation so jaded we cannot see the “blood in the urine” anymore? Are the killings now just par for the course? Part of life?
 
Every day I drop my daughter off at school, I sit in the car watching her walk into the school wondering if she will walk out again that afternoon. I sit there knowing that there is a large possibility that I might not see her again. That even though there are cops present at the school, all it takes is one bullet. And I know I am not alone. All across this nation millions of parents live with this dread and foreboding. Is this normal? Should we just accept it like docile sheep being led to a slaughter?
 
The Nigerians in explaining why they did not get treatment for hematuria secondary to bilharzia replied, “we do not believe in divorce if there is no child”. It pretty much sounds like a play on the marriage oath, “Till Death do us part”. I guess like them, we plan to “live with it till it disappears on its own” or better still, maybe we all need to get guns and if we have to go down in a blaze of glory.
 
That cannot be normal.

That Moonlight in the Gloomy Night

An Ode to Music

The invasion of Russia by Napoleon started in June of 1812. In the subsequent Battle of Borodino that September, a battle that had the highest number of casualties of all the Napoleonic wars, he routed the Russian army but did not completely annihilate it. He then followed the retreating army of Tsar Alexander I to Moscow, thinking the Russians were going to surrender.
By the end of October, Napoleon realized the Russians were not going to surrender. Moreover, the Russian winter was starting to take a bite. Of the 286,000 men he entered Russia with, he had only 95,000 left and those men were freezing, hungry and ridden with typhoid fever. Napoleon and the remnants of the Grande Armée had to withdraw. By December when he crossed the Russian border, he was only left with 23,000 men. Napoleon had with the withdrawal handed victory to the Russians and they were elated.

Tsar Alexander I commissioned the building of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior to commemorate the victory. Even though Alexander himself died thirteen years later, work on the cathedral continued.
By 1880, it was nearing completion. Other upcoming festivities were the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Alexander II in 1881 and the All-Russia Arts and Industry Exhibition in 1882. With all these festivities in view, the composer Tchaikovsky was asked to write a piece that would capture the spirit of all these festivities.
Tchaikovsky began work on the project on October 12, 1880, and at the end of six weeks, had composed what was to become his most famous piece – the 1812 Overture.
A piece known for its powerful finale marked by cannon fire, the chimes of bells and vivid brass notes, it debuted on August 20, 1882, in Moscow.
Even though Tchaikovsky hated the overture, and described it as “… very loud and noisy, but without artistic merit, because I wrote it without warmth and without love”, it is truly one of his most remarkable pieces and suited the festive nature of all those events perfectly.

The power of the 1812 Overture truly lends itself for celebratory occasions and thus it is no wonder it is played during firework displays on July 4. It has also been used for movies and coopted into others’ work.
For me though, the overture is a piece that wakes me up and gets me going. It seems to summon my animal spirits and turns me into a doer, ready for the day. A lot of mornings, it is the piece playing in the car as I drive to work. Those crashing cymbals and cannon fire have a kick.

Which brings me to the crux of this essay.
There are musical pieces that get us into specific moods. On the other hand, we sometimes pick specific pieces to suit certain occasions.

I remember my bachelor days when I’ll set the mood for an impending date with some Barry White. His baritone could work wonders.
At parties, you want something bumping. Something with beats that make the diaphragm on the bass cone in the speakers bounce. Some hip-hop, R&B, hip-life, soukouss, salsa, merengue…something that helps with gyration and inspiration.
At worship, 50 Cent would not do. There, you want hymns by Charles and Joseph Wesley or even gospels by Cece and Bebe Winans.

On the other hand, hearing the notes of the trumpet flowing from Miles Davis might make you think of the concept of the Cool. What is the Cool? Billie Holiday’s voice might remind you of lynching through her song “Strange Fruit”. Whitney’s music may make you yearn for love and the warmth of the One. Phil Collins’ may make you miss the ’80s.
Music can do that.

Being the soundtrack of our lives, we tend to pick the right ones for the right occasions. However, it can also make us long for the situation to fit that soundtrack.
Music lifts, it exalts, it calms yet can also excite and invigorate. It makes us want to make love but it also reminds us of the one who got away. It makes us cry and yet can make us feel like we are floating on a cloud.
Music does that.

These seemingly conflicting roles of music always come to mind when I am listening to an opera or watching a musical.
Whereas the music of an opera takes you to a “certain” place, a musical, in mixing dialogue with music is more like picking the right music for the occasion.
Both genres seek to tell stories but that is not the most important thing with an opera.
With an opera, it is really all about the music. One does not have to understand the lyrics of the aria “Nessum Dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot to feel the tug it exerts on the heart and the yearning one feels in the Tenor’s voice. Even though the opera tells a story too, that is not the essence of the experience. It is the music. The composer wants you to close your eyes and let the arias carry you to a special place.
Musicals, on the other hand, have dialogues that are important to understanding the story. The music is a bonus and the pieces set the mood and add a certain verve to the experience. Thus even though the music in “Wicked” is great, ultimately one needs to pay attention or the essence of the story is lost.

An unknown writer once wrote, “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” How right he or she was.
The ability to immerse oneself totally into a swirling amalgamation of tunes and tones at the perfect harmony and pitch can transport one to a great place. Whether you play a piece to set the mood or the piece you heard has got you reminiscing, let yourself go. Like the German writer, Jean Paul wrote in his novel “Titan”, “Music is the moonlight in the gloomy night of life.”

So be it the powerful pieces of Tchaikovsky or the unmistakable piano sonatas of Chopin; be it the unmistakable voice of Bob Dylan or the guitar riffs of Jimmy Hendrix; be it the soul of Aretha or the rock ‘n roll of Elvis; even the rhymes of Tupac, the melody of Egya Koo Nimo or the pitch of Makeba…let music seep through that night and light it up with beats, harmony, and soul.

On That Tightrope

Since the midterm elections about a week ago in the US, I have been thinking of funambulism, the art of tightrope walking. Now bear with me, I’ll explain.
 
You can argue till you are blue in the face but a representative democracy is really the fairest kind of government there is. It is far from being perfect and making it work and keeping it going is tough, however, it beats autocracy any day.
Sure, some autocratic-run nations are bucking the trend and achieving good standards of living for their people. However, the human can never be oppressed forever. Sooner or later, the wish for freedom erupts in ugly ways.
 
With that said, representative democracy has its challenges too and sometimes, I compare its practice to doing a walk on a tightrope spanned between two skyscrapers. One needs concentration discipline and balance. One small slip and it is plunge down into the depths of anarchy where fascist, autocrats and dictators lurk.
 
If one watches a funambulist as they walk across a tightrope, one notices that they hold a long bar during the walk. This bar, known as a balancing bar, is quite important for the art.
It does three things:
– it reduces the rotational torque of the funambulist, so he or she does not tilt off the rope;
– it lowers the center of gravity, giving the walker more stability on the rope, and
– by allowing the walker to shift the bar to one side or the other, helps with balance.
Thus we see how important the balancing bar is.
 
If I compare practicing representative democracy with tightrope walking, what in this system is comparable to the balancing bar? If the system itself, embodied in the leaders, is walking the tightrope, then elections and the people’s ability to vote form the balancing bar.
Think about it.
The votes of the people can move the nation to the left or the right. The votes of the people can provide leadership that stabilizes the country or leadership that causes it to tilt off the rope.
The votes of the people are what the leadership needs to stay on that tightrope. Without them, the leadership falls off and another takes his place.
 
There is a big difference however in the control a tightrope walker who has over the balancing bar versus the control a leader has over the balance the vote provides in a representative democracy.
Whereas the funambulist totally controls the bar and thus its effect on his walk, a leader only influences the electorate by his actions and words. If they like what they see and hear and appreciate how he wields the power of the balancing bar they have handed him, they give him control to make the changes necessary to keep the walk going.
If they are displeased with him, he notices a gradual or sometimes even sudden shift of the bar into other hands.
 
Thus one sees how potent the ability to vote is. Each voter has the ability to closely affect how a nation is ruled in a representative democracy. Sure, one can lament the role of money and corporations. One can also lament the slow speed at which change occurs. To the first, I’ll say, ultimately the will of the people comes through. To the second, do remember the analogy – representative democracy is like tightrope walking! Speed is an enemy during this feat.
 
It is no wonder that the first thing an autocrat, dictator or fascist does on attaining power is to ban elections. It shows you the power inherent in the will of the people.
No matter where you are in the world if you ever have the opportunity to vote, do so. It is a power that one never wants to give up, then like the balancing bar, it keeps a representative democracy on the rope and accountable to the people.

In Her Toes

It started at the base of her spine – a sweet tingly sensation…then it started spreading…up her back, making her arch it…into her face, making it feel warm…into her chest, causing her to heave it…into her groin, making her gently undulate it…breathless, she felt it spread everywhere…and as she finally started to moan, she also felt it…

“in Her Toes”

This Too Shall Pass

As the season drew to a close, he wondered what was going to motivate him to write, to create, to pull tales out of thin air…nothing seemed to do it…with this head in his hand, all he did was sigh and chew on his pencil…whatever was he going to do to get rid of this writer’s block?..that is when he heard it…heard it from none other than the raven…

“This Too Shall Pass”

That Face

That nightmare was back…barging into his nights like an unwanted guest…it made him wake up in a cold sweat, gasping and recoiling from something so unreal and yet so frightening…so imaginary and yet so haunting… like the fears that clouded his life, the figure made him afraid to do what he needed to do – sleep!…then when he closed his eyes, all he saw was….

“That Face!”
(A Wet Plate Collodion image)

A Letter to Dela Goldheart

Dear Ms. Amelia Amedela Amemate a.k.a Dela Goldheart,
 
REGARDING THE PRACTICE OF CONTEXTOMY
 
Have you heard of the word “Contextomy” before? It was coined by the historian Milton Mayer in 1966 to describe the misquoting of the Talmud for propaganda purposes by the Nazi, Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi paper Der Stürmer . This was in Germany just before WW II broke out.
Mr. Streicher was virulently anti-Semitic and his newspaper carried horrible stories and cartoons about Jews that led to their dehumanization and made it easy for Hitler to push through “The Final Solution”.
 
“Contextomy” is defined as “the selective excerpting of words from their original linguistic context in a way that distorts the source’s intended meaning.” Some call this practice “quoting out of context”.
Like Wikipedia says, “The problem here is not the removal of a quote from its original context per se (as all quotes are), but to the quoter’s decision to exclude from the excerpt certain nearby phrases or sentences (which become “context” by virtue of the exclusion) that serve to clarify the intentions behind the selected words.”
 
Recently, you took the words of a man you sparred with on social media back in February, omitted a few words, placed a few ellipses here and there, and hey, that man now sounded like a raging misogynist and none of your listeners was any wiser.
 
In his excellent book ”They Thought They Were Free – The Germans, 1933-45”, Mr. Mayer explores the many reasons a lot of Germans went along with the atrocities of the Nazis. If a lot of Germans believed the rather erroneous and inflammatory articles published in “The Sturmer”, and those articles helped dehumanize the Jews, then that tells you how potent the practice of contextomy can be.
 
That is why what you did is not only dishonest, fraudulent and low; it is also very dangerous. It is dangerous because you are using lies to sway public opinion about another human being, to his detriment. On a larger scale, that is what the Nazi, Julius Streicher did.
Herr Streicher also had a motto: “Something always sticks”. Even if his false claims were later debunked, something demeaning always stuck to the Jews’ reputation. Even if all attempts to show that you “contextomized” your opponent’s words, a sheen of misogyny now hangs over him!
 
A lot of the atrocities we see in this world start when dishonest men and women misrepresent the words of others, to fit an ominous agenda. Like the Nazis did and like the Boers did in South Africa as they misquoted parts of the Book of Genesis to buttress apartheid.
 
You may be doing this to further the noble cause of feminism but in so doing you actually besmirch the commendable attempts of all who try to do it the right way. Or maybe, you are trying to get back at your antagonist for his unkind words back in February. Well, at least he was upfront and honest while you are being backhanded and dishonest.
I have taken your words from that day some months back – the words that started it all. I have treated the words like you treated his words. See how much the meaning is altered! Do you now appreciate the severity of your dishonesty?
 
If you aim to make a mark on humanity, learn qualities that will carry you through this journey called life. Dishonesty is definitely not one of them. Courage is one very important quality. Now, dig into yourself, find some courage and let that propel you to apologize to everyone who saw those altered words during your presentation. You owe them the truth. You also owe the man whose words you altered an apology but for that, I am not going to hold my breath.
 
And while you are at it, find another nickname. If the soul of us humans sits in our hearts, I cannot imagine a dishonest heart containing any gold.
 
Sincerely,
 
Nana Dadzie Ghansah MD
 
PS: Julius Streicher was tried and found guilty of “incitement of active persecution of Jews” during the Nuremberg Trials and hung on October 16, 1946.

Jack-o-Lantern

On Halloween night, you might see him…he still wanders the deep with that ember the Devil gave him long ago…unwanted in heaven, cast away from hell…his existence, an epitome of hopelessness and eternal damnation… he is…

“Jack-O-Lantern”