Kuolachalie Seyie
The problem of these times is perhaps most aptly summed up in the words of former Yugoslavian Vice President, Milovan Djalas: “We are living today in tomorrow’s world with yesterday’s ideas.” Our attitudes bear on our now and tomorrow. We are too quick at creating problems by not guarding our identity and culture and not respecting genuine leadership but prompt to follow the negative and misguided leaders, becoming stumbling blocks to positive change be it in infrastructural development, moral, economic or Christian values and even capacity building in our land. This is one of the reasons for the nightmarish proportions of our multiple problems and our problems are never solved. A return to the primal truths is needed, and to correct our perspective we must seek first the kingdom of God. The spiritual area which, sadly, we often neglect is the storehouse that will take care of our myriad problems of body and mind, our social, economic, political and infrastructural needs. Often we keep just out of the reach of relief by our stubborn refusal to reconcile with God and others.
Today’s’ society seems to be under famine of truth, trust, harmony and justice. We hide behind a façade of arrogance and shortcuts of drawing money doing practically nothing behaving as if we can not survive without a Government job. As such too many people chasing very few Government posts followed by fighting and rampant corruption. Thus the limited Government posts have become degraded to the level of cheap resort to the flocking masses. This surely is no way to a confident future for our youth to live in dignity, peace and harmony To diagnose and acknowledge a problem is the first step towards its solution. To quote G. K. Chesterton, “It is not that they do not see the solution, it is that they do not see the problem.” Landrum Bolling further says, “There are no hopeless situations but only hopeless men.” Hopeless people are our problems.
The most important factor to nurture a people is to nurture its ‘human element’ which has to be drawn in the right direction at all costs. The Chinese word for ‘crisis’ is represented by two characters – danger and opportunity. A cultured people will turn any crisis into opportunity but an opportunity unwisely handled can turn into a crisis and nightmare. A nation’s vision and thinking must first be monitored in order to salvage its cities and towns and to begin to consider another way to build a secure future where harmony, trust, justice, honesty, love and care for one another prevail.
‘Man is a reed (grass) but he is a thinking reed’ – Blaise Pascal. But selfishness, irresponsibility and greed obstruct the function and attitude of the reed. Mrs. Doe Peter Howard: “If you want anything for yourself everything goes wrong in whatever you do.” And no man can live crooked and think straight.
The vengeful divisions of clanism, tribalism and narrow mindedness have paralyzed our whole society. “At a time when we urgently need to start to develop our economy, ruthless opportunists exploit our slogans and our dividedness to enrich themselves, behaving like leeches making it impossible for our business community and entrepreneurs to create wealth”, said Niketu Iralu at his Somorendra Memorial Lecture, Imphal. I believe God doesn’t have plans to solve all our problems Himself. He gave us wisdom and power to discern between right and wrong and His plan is in us. We are the answer to fratricide and corruption, to fanatical party politics and hatred, pride and hedonism. We need to obey Him all times heeding to the pricks of our conscience. Further, it is fitting to repeat Albert Einstein here that “we cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” We have to live today embracing a broadness of thinking anticipating tomorrow’s world and not yesterday’s narrow ideas in order to have a more comprehensive and confident warm culture.
To quote Niketu Iralu again, “The problems we are wrestling with are the problems of a people who have just started their journey. This perspective is needed. We need to learn from history that problems and challenges become the common strength and wealth of a people or nation if they are clearly identified, acknowledged and tackled adequately. This challenging responsibility is always understood and accepted only by a few individuals at first. In many cases this battling to solve society’s problem by individuals can go on for years, even generations without visible results, often actively opposed by those in power and influence. But if individuals who see the roots of the problems do not give up and fight on “wanting nothing for themselves”, the soul and conscience of the public are impacted and opinion changes. Finally the tectonic shift of the society for constructive change takes place… For if we will learn to shed tears for one another we will shed less blood of one another.”
One may have great ideas for the nation and plan on paper a well-developed country with a sustainable economy and a new world order but new society has to be built with a new people; we are to be a new people. A morally corrupt man will always betray his nation.
In order that the new nation does not remain just a romantic vision, we must reorganize into a people who can trust and commit to each other. This confidence can be built in a people of strict integrity, honesty and commitment who are not swept off by immediate selfish indulgence.
“Nagaland for Christ” our favorite (Naga) declaration claims that all Nagas stand on and abide by the teachings and principles of Christ as our Lord and Saviour. It is a covenant between God and us to which we are bound without choice. How beautiful! But the question is, are we true to ourselves or are our hearts decayed and hypocritical? Let us restore and retain transparency and make “Nagaland for Christ” genuine and a blessing. If not it becomes for us a curse.
Let us practise kindness and sympathy on one another, forgive each other in Christ just as God forgave that others may see in us a clear-visioned people rooted in the true God.
My good denizens, to do nothing is not an option. As a society we cannot find healing and a just and stable future if we neglect the pain and abuse and suffering of the other. We the leaders must not allow ourselves to become numb to the injustice in our midst as rightly pointed by Shiv Khera that the society is never destroyed by the rascals but the inactivity of good people. We must not remain doing nothing. Let us rise up for justice without which there can be no real peace and harmony. Our common humanity is degraded and traumatized when any of us are treated as less than human.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn of Russia: “The lie may come into the world and even dominate it, but not through me.” Let us make the right beginning with this declaration of Alexander so that trust and harmony germinates and seeps through the crevices of our society bringing forth “another way to build a confident future.” The building of a nation begins in the family. God’s eyes are on the ways of men; he sees their every step. To build a confident future, we have to be careful in small things. God blesses you for every little good thing you do. So also the Devil is in details to pull you down beginning with little things where you are weak and unaware.
We are living in a society experiencing an increasing number of broken families. Exclamations such as ‘my son is into drugs’; ‘my daughter is in bad company’; ‘pray for my alcoholic husband’, etc. are common cry. An errant member of the family drives the whole family to madness.
A paradigm shift from shortcut and get-rich-quick mentality to a practical approach of self-reliance, hard work, humility, dedication and commitment is the urgent call. Take full advantage of the faith that God sees your every step and cares for your every step. All things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. The message of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God that gives us a confident future. Change is possible though never easy, and positive effort is always rewarded with worthy fruit.
