LYING IN THE TRUTH

I wish I could tell you where I was going or how it came to be that I found myself seated beside this “Rasta” man in a trotro. I wish I could tell you what kind of weather prevailed that day or what the newspaper headlines were screaming. I wish I could begin with all these things but I feel it would defeat the purpose for which I write this.

So with much apology I would simply like to fast forward to the fact that on a hot sunny day I was seated beside a man in his mid thirties who could easily pass as a descendant of Bob Marley. Only thing though, his dread locks would make Bob Marley dread locks. He had tied his locks so many times around his head that I feared any attempt to witness an airplane in flight would result in his back on the floor. I was intrigued by this man and extremely curious to know more, his mannerisms, his take on the world, the reason for his marijuana use stereotyping I know but I would take a bath in the korle lagoon if I were wrong. My mind raged with these questions trying to gather enough courage to make them verbal

He said: I indulge Mary Jane because there's no drug called comfort then they claimed I had lost my sanity, just because I wouldn't buy their vanity. You see they realized I had found a way to remain happy without a dependence on the fantasy of their own artificial creation that supposedly guaranteed true happiness, the cars the high fashion the "appropriate" women...

These things never made me happier and without them I was never sad. They saw they couldn't sell me this lie, so they concentrated on the gullible majority and painted me black in their eyes.

But, I would rather be painted black than to be painted in a white man's illusion. They have created a society governed by numbers; it is only a matter of time before we become robots. Numbers are the basis for creation of machines. Sooner or later you will serve the numbers, the numbers will determine your decisions on love compassion and almost every other human emotion, at that point you would have crossed the divide between human and machine.

What makes mathematical sense takes the place of the Gospel in your mind. So, yes, daughters have and will be sold "the right way" to pot bellied men whose numbers are as high as their morals do opposite.

And knives and bullets will continue to pierce the hearts of those who stand in the way of MONEY. A fool's paradise would be your address if you still live in the mentality that everything is black and white, even priests and police write exams under supervision.

Every mind is corruptible if a badge or a title directly revealed person’s thoughts then we could be in business, but common sense tells us they don't. They just give you the assumption of what one should be thinking and sometimes we may be right in our assumption, other times, very wrong.

This Nativity of Naivety will continue to show daily in theatres disguised as churches and charities and the warm embrace of president Obama.

False hope sold to the masses, but u can't market hope without having something to hope against, hence, "necessary" evil.

After all, religion is based on hope as well as faith. And that sells with the populace. So after ignoring conflict in Sudan for lengthy spells, they create charities that ask for the people's money to aid victims of this genocide. Victims of a genocide which with one wave of an arm could have been a mere scuffle between opposing minds, but they wouldn't do that, they aren't foolish. They would rather profit of appealing to your faith in the goodness of society, otherwise any Intervention they make must come with gain.

Oil, the most popular of recent times. Knowing this you would hope the elements of good would prevail. But the problem here is your "institutes of goodness", are run by people "in bed" with perpetrators of evil.

Hence, George Bush plunders the world, Laura chairs the charity.

You wouldn't be interested in this, because to you it seems you are not affected directly. You'd rather wonder who the next American Idol is or comb Accra for the sweetest deal you can get on an iPhone 4, your women would rather lay with a man drenched in the fragrance of Donna Karan New York than to rest in the arms of one who's only cosmetics are lime and Shea butter, in other words they prefer "cuming" to America.

Just Like they did with common mirrors and talcum powder aboard European ships headed for Africa in the 1400's, you remain enthralled in the fantasy of vanity that distracts you from the actual reality. The reality that this world in any honest wise man’s tongue is another Nima, another Bronx another hood; a FALSEHOOD.

You throw words like freedom and justice around as though you were living testimony, as if no one understands this concept more than you do, but a simple question remains, are you truly free? Living outside prison walls or within a democracy does not necessarily make you free. How is it freedom when you wake up to the whims of a man made clock that determines your every move, work five, sometimes seven days a week in an organization whose ideals mean little to you or stands contrary to where your talents lie, just to make enough to pay bills.

Spend your little profit on those material things that give you an heir of importance in society, your inner "peace" is determined by how much Vanity you can amass. Times have changed. Physical slavery is no longer feasible hence it had to turn mental, and economic, 21st century slaves. Still captive in chains of louboutin and American visa approval in all honesty though, blame cannot be apportioned you. After all mankind had betrayed one another for so long, it was only "natural" that the greater majority of humankind began to place their love and trust in those lifeless things which did not fake love, did not cheat, did not lie, commit mass murder or abandon.

Humans have a natural instinct to love, love is supreme to hate, for we only hate that which threatens what we love. Meaning the concept of love still exists strongly only thing is it has been misdirected. Misdirected in such a way that the fact that his rims are spinning and yours have no wheel caps is more of a problem to you than the little boy knocking on your window asking for 50pesewas.

I’m not asking you to lock your hair and dress like I do I’m not asking you to follow my religion or chase my ideals I just wish you would wake up and realize. Wake up to consciousness and be aware...

Bus stop!! he yelled, as the circle of Dankwa reared its head, his sudden burst simultaneously yanking me out of the deep thought that had engulfed my mind, he murmured something that sounded like or strayed along the borders of Jah Rastafarai coupled with something about a certain sellassie’s eye and fist bumped me as he squeezed through the small space the mate had made available for him and just like that he disappeared into the bustling Osu crowd…

As I looked on into the maze of people who gradually camouflaged his existence, I unconsciously reached into my pocket and pulled out the first note amongst my wad (yes wad) my fingers could touch, there it sat in my palm 20Gh Cedis, all I did was stare ….stare at that rectangular piece of paper decorated with ink; paper which determined a man’s worth determined whether you lived or died in certain circumstances, a sad smile registered on my face as I returned my lunch money to the safe confines of my pocket. Thinking to myself it may be impossible to wean myself thoroughly of the things of the world, myself, my family, and humanity have become irreversibly dependent on the yin and yang of progress that may retrogress, but… I sure as hell was going to draw the line between necessity and greed hence forth…

PAY MORE ATTENTION TO THE THINGS THAT MATTER; THE THINGS THAT SHOULD TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER NON LIVING MATTER.