Taking steps back to look forward

The Diary of a Love Immigrant Taking steps back to look forward…

I slip into the easy familiarity of the language of change. Today I did not hear the word struggle, but a talk that resonated with resistance, self-criticism, understanding, activism, interaction, radicalism, and militarism amongst it all, still seeking responsibility for the self and solidarity.

Yet, it is important to understand, this necessary distance to gain a new perspective. Opening the mind to another kind of space to grow beyond the dreams of freedom. Craving a post revolution society transformed through breaking down the old and bringing in the new. What did we inherit instead?

Bankrupt systems, a skills bank ransacked through under development, a society soiled by lack of mass participation in their own integration. Transformation believed to be synonymous with transition; expectations to be compliant with mass delivery. Literally caught in lines black and white. Spaces and places contested. Lives increasingly cheaper, jobs globally dispensable and as the opportunities knock at different doors, opening creative space requires more than participation. Leadership incorruptible, change greater than a paradigm shift on paper.

But, we moved on, working hard, banking on the elements of success, moving two steps forward, three steps back, the ghoema of life sometimes out of step with the idealism nurtured on the path to liberation.

Beaches of paradise, pots of gold, guns for hire, communities on fire, all part of a melting pot we call reality. We are still caught in the nightmare of an experiment gone wrong.

I do not hesitate to proudly say “We survived!” Ours is a rich heritage of understanding change, in time the next generations will find a way to cope with the remnants of a racist, unjust system.

Changing hearts and minds will always be our challenge, like everywhere else in a world where the gap between the rich and poor exists and is widening. We will continue to scuffle and scrape for diminishing resources. Love, peace, forgiveness, joy, acceptance and prosperity are the words we need to nurture in the cradle of Justice, Human Rights and Respect.