Summer 2010 Jo Lee - JO LEE Magazine

THE POWER OF MOMENTUM
JO LEE Magazine – CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF LUXURY – DECEMBER 2010
On Africa’s Little Failings
By David C. Wesonga
Nairobi – Kenya
I have never been an advocate of
self-help literature, and neither do I
believe in external motivation figures.
I do not even consider this article a
self help / motivational article. But
I’m a firm believer in the happiness
factor.
We spend entire lifetimes searching
for happiness, pursuing even that
which is beyond our reach, in the
hope and prayer that it will be found.
In fact, from a closer angle, every
act is in search of happiness, even
if we try to conceal it. And such is
the power of momentum; it keeps
propelling us to newer heights in our
search.
We go to movies, matches, parties,
and the desire is happiness. We get
into relationships, break-up, divorce
and even get into same sex marriages
- all for happiness. And the search
keeps going on in the hope that next
time, we will be more successful.
In search of happiness, the Greek
mythology of the sirens has been retold
the world over. Men wandered
in search of the singing sirens, lured
by the pure touch, the thrill to the
ear of the voice of the maidens and,
unto their deaths, their happiness.
It is said, at the height of happiness,
one ceases to think. An inner silence
engulfs one and peace takes over.
Read death of the sirens.
Equate happiness to the recent
story of the Sudanese businessman
Mo Ibrahim. Mo Ibrahim is a
media mogul, best known as the
founder of Celtel, the leading pan-
African mobile telecommunications
company. He also founded a
foundation to honor good leadership,
governance and democratic practices
in Africa. With a cash package
larger than the Nobel Prize’s, he
wanted to reward the few examples
of exemplary leadership around the
continent. After two years, he ran
out of former presidents to award!
Could African leadership be happy
with the state of affairs? Most likely!
African examples are littered all over
with occasional inspirational stories
and lots of firsts! And that is the
problem with happiness. That there
is no need to search for happiness
or to create it; on the bizarre end,
everything has to be let off, to go,
for one to experience happiness. I
will be stoned for such moronic
utterances, but the third world seems
to be happy so far, and doing well,
the developed countries? Not so
sure.
The argument is, Africans are
a happy lot. Else how do you
explain the many firsts around the
world? When a Kenyan gay couple
found time off to wed in London,
homophobes came out of the closet
in large numbers. There was a time
when “identity” referred to a “state
of being” – color, sex, ethnicity, race,
religion, language, marital status,
national origin, political opinion,
disability, and wealth or other social
status, today “identity” is understood
to include sexual orientation. What
of the state of happiness?
While we were busy ostracizing
two adults in a very straight frame
of mind, for same-sex marriage,
countries the world over were being
brought down to their knees by
macho men and heterosexual women
who strike off a love for God and
country! And we seemed happy
about it, and went on, in pursuit of
happiness.
JL
Jo Lee Summer 2010 65