WHY CAN’T WE JUST BE GOOD NEIGHBOURS?

By Dode Sescri

WORDS TO ELATE

Eleventh Agenda

Copyright © 2022 DODE®

No part of this book should be redistributed without prior permission from the author, both in print, portable digital format and online.

Disclaimer

All readers are welcome to challenge the contents of this book, and should process them with their uttermost intellectual capabilities before they can assess them for reference purposes because they are largely a work of the authors own personal Opinions.

Some stories given as examples in this book do not represent Factual or historical events but have been used fictitiously to bring out the literal aspects of discussions and also demonstrate author’s intended thoughts and ideas exemplarily. Do not take them too seriously.

This book is stacked up with numerous mini chapters the author refers to as neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood stands for each idea or topic of discussion.

You will also find some non-English words, the author has used them only for the sake of enhancing description. They are not a result of typo.

Table of Contents

Neighbourhood -1- Siblings Rivalry on the Eastern Bloc

An astonishing attack

Much Needed Global Attention

Trying appeasement Policy

Bringing back home the Afghan Hound

Trump's Buddies Overseas

Welcoming the Refugees

The Africans perspectives on the Conflict

The Taiwan Statehood Saga

Surprise break-up with Saudis and the Arab World

Playing boycott Politics

Siberian Super Villains

Insider’s Perspective

Neighbourhood -2- A small storm brewing over Zululand

Inadequate Police response

Saving Face of the Old Guard

The Pride of Africa.

Poor Mans' Narrative.

Xenophobic attacks

White Genocide

Get Off My Land

Across the region

Pressure from new generations

Similar arguments across the Atlantic.

South Africans Overseas

Neighbourhood -3- Into the heart of a majestic continent

the ever-growing Hostilities.

Neighbourhood -4- The People of Today

Neighbourhood -5- weekly revolutions.

Neighbourhood -6- Royalty of the old.

Neighbourhood -7-The plight of refugees.

Neighbourhood -8-Greener grasses

Neighbourhood -9- ethnic colonialism

Neighbourhood -10- A city of foreigners.

Neighbourhood -11-love of mother land.

Neighbourhood -12-A cruel Master.

Neighbourhood -13-Land Bottlenecks

Neighbourhood -14-somebody’s watching you.

Neighbourhood -15-The 21st Century crusaders.

Neighbourhood -16-ideological warfare.

Neighbourhood -17-government business.

Neighbourhood -18-conspiracy kings.

Neighbourhood -19-Mono planet.

Neighbourhood -20- nothing to lose.

Neighbourhood -21-citizen Samuel.

Neighbourhood -22-the last buffalo.

Neighbourhood -23- Solvable conflicts.

Neighbourhood -24- world in a turmoil.

Neighbourhood -25- the king and queen of hearts.

Neighbourhood -26- For Better or for Worse.

Neighbourhood -27-Machiavellian minds.

Neighbourhood -28-Professor Tukkon's manual for young nations.

Neighbourhood -29-Enemy at your door.

Neighbourhood -30-Exile a new home.

Final Clause

Footnotes.

Neighbourhood -1- Siblings Rivalry on the Eastern Bloc

I hope I am not the only person who is baffled by this scenario, but I have noticed that the current Presidents of Russia and Ukraine have very similar first names, The Russian President is called Vladimir while the Ukrainian President is called Volodymyr. I see this is quite baffling because they are heads of states of very two different countries with quite different political systems, I am not an expert in distinguishing names here so I may need some help. If there are people on the internet from that part of the world who understand these cultures then you can offer us a little help. My first thought when I heard their names and looked at their faces was that these guys could be blood brothers or some distant cousins. ‘’Their faces also look very similar, maybe they are long lost relatives,’’ I thought to myself.

It’s not new that heads of states of different parts of the world could be related. For instance, during World War One, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, The Russian Tsar Nicholas 1 and the British King George the Fifth were all cousins. So, it looks like world war one was being fought to settle some old family feud. The leaders of all these governments were fighting each other fiercely even though they knew they were blood relatives. Where is the old phrase, we once believed in which said that blood is thicker than water? Is that really so? Conventional wisdom tells us that the best way to settle family disputes is sitting down and talking things over, nothing ever gets solved by exchanging blows.

So how did these two heads of states come to share names? For people from far away, it’s a feat that is quite difficult to comprehend, maybe the Slavic people can give us a little bit of explanation here. Ukraine and Russia are two countries that have had very long history of cooperation that goes back many centuries. Ukrainians and Russians started working together more than a thousand years ago.

An astonishing attack

Ukrainians living overseas are receiving the news in shock, they hold their breadths each day as they listen to the live reporting of distressing news coming from their home country, they cross their fingers and hope everything is going to be well; they hope against hope that despite the desperate situation their loved ones will be safe. Many are thousands of miles away from home and are aware of the fact that there is very little they can do to make a difference, so they just sit and pray for their loved ones.

We feel sorry for the people of Ukraine for the hardships they are going through now, they are suffering just like people in many other countries of the world currently experiencing conflict. From Asia, Africa and the Americas, many countries are experiencing a lot of internal turmoil. It looks like peace and security are slipping out of the hands of humanity. Whatever the geopolitical differences that are flaring these issues up, we hope they get solved soon enough so that people can resume their normal lives.

Sorry guys for breaking the norms, I usually don’t talk about these kinds of stuff, but the Ukrainian Saga has caught all of us by surprise, everyone on the web is talking about this issue and what detrimental impacts it could have on the World. The previous two years of 2020 and 2021 were dedicated to Covid 19, but this year 2022 is dedicated to Russo Ukrainian duel, it is of great significance to us all because it touches so many aspects of our daily lives. Other than international relations, skyrocketing of food prices and other basic commodities, people are wondering if a conflict of a similar kind can emerge elsewhere in the world.

Much Needed Global Attention

Conflict is now getting the attention it deserves, if the conflicts in other parts of the world always had this kind of attention, in terms of the human impacts, then the world would be a better place, no conflict is too hard to settle.

What people in other parts of the world are saying is that Europeans are now openly discussing the effects of wars and how to avoid or deal with the effects of war. Simply because war is at their doorstep, they never seemed to be bothered when it happened to some countries many thousands of miles away. Now they seem genuinely concerned about the plight of refugees as a whole.

For weeks now the only thing being spoken in the Western media is nothing but Ukraine. The talk of conflict has given us a break from the Corona Virus Pandemic. For two years straight the world media has been talking about nothing except the COVID 19 Pandemic. We have been bored to death by the mainstream media as well as social media being dominated by nothing except the Corona virus discussions. Quarantines, Lockdowns, Jabs, triple jabs and vaccine passports are all we have been hearing for over two years now. It hasn’t gone anywhere yet; in fact, it is here to stay with us at all times. But for now, the media especially western is directing the eyes of the whole world towards the crisis in Ukraine. It’s like Covid became irrelevant overnight, it is the first time since the fall of USSR that Russia is fighting a real conventional ground warfare. People fear that this situation may escalate into yet another world war. It is the first time since Bosnian war that there had been major battles fought on European soil.

Trying appeasement Policy

People are questioning if appeasement of Russia by NATO countries could have worked. If the west gave Russia what it demanded, which is the neutrality of Ukraine, would we be in this kind of position at the moment? Does Russia really have legitimate security concerns as it claims or is the country being dragged into a brutal unnecessary war by a former KGB Spy master, is Russia being nostalgic about the good olden days of the Soviet Union and trying to bring some of those glory days back? Russian diplomats deny the accusation that their country is on a war path for territorial expansion, they claim their military activity is of strategic security importance and therefore had no choice but to act. ‘’The act of Biden sending lethal aid to Ukraine to be potentially used against Russia was more than good enough reason for Russia to do what it is doing right now. It was a direct threat against kremlin and Russian people,’’ they said. Russian diplomats also pointed out another of their military operation in a former soviet republic of Kazakhstan. About a year ago, the Kazakh government asked Russia for help in quenching violent protests that were spurred by rise in fuel prices, the government had feared that the protesters could be accompanied by extremist groups that might destabilize the country. The Russian military went in to help and left almost immediately after the protests were over. Russian diplomats say that this act proves their country has no intention of restoring the former soviet empire. They operate only in places where they are invited or needed.

Bringing back home the Afghan Hound

Did the clumsy US exit from Afghanistan last year signal to the Russians that the US is a declining military power and therefore gave them the morale to launch their own offensive into eastern Europe? Russians have been watching the Afghan saga unfold for months last year which reminded them of their own disaster a few decades back when they were still called the mighty Soviet Union. The kremlin may have calculated that the US is too weak and not in a position to put its own troops in another conflict in the region. Russia is a nation that is still bitter from the loss of the Cold war. It’s hard to evaluate the exact geopolitical grievances that have led to this conflict but one thing for sure is that it’s a dispute that goes back several decades.

When they left the Taliban whom they had been fighting for over two decades back in power, it felt like all their efforts had been in vain, it appeared to have been a waste of time, lives and financial resources, the US military activity in Afghanistan really ate into the country’s economic budget. An estimated two trillion was reportedly spent during the two-decade occupation of the country. Critiques argue that all those trillions of dollars in spending on the Afghanistan war went to the US defence companies, not a single dime was handed over to the poor Afghan people, they all spent it on themselves and returned home victorious. Now life in the hands of the Taliban is worse than it had ever been during their first takeover decades ago. Hopes of many young Afghans have been crushed already, the situation for many is hopeless.

Trump's Buddies Overseas

Many Americans argue that Donald Trump was a good friend of Putin, they heavily criticized him for being friends with heads of states that the west had classified as extremely brutal dictators, these includes Erdogan of Turkey and Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Even though trump exchanged harsh words with Mr Kim, he ended up being the first US President to meet face to face with a sitting north Korean leader, this is an action that reduced tensions in the region as North Korean leadership liked launching Rockets at Japan and its arch enemy state called South Korea. Trump also diffused Tensions in another part of the world called the middle east, he oversaw the signing of normalization of relations between Israel and her Arab neighbours. Israel is one of the most controversial nations in the world today and a war between Israel and any neighbouring state could easily spill over to other countries. As we all know it from history, when a war breaks out between Israel and an Arab state, it always drags in America and other western nations in support of Israel, that Arab state may then get support from the Arab league or other anti-western nations in the east. Israel however small and insignificant state it appears to be, it is a country that can very easily trigger another global conflict.

Just as the Jews were blamed by the Nazis for German Problems during World War 2, the Jewish state could very easily be blamed for triggering another global conflict. The Trump administration tried to ease tensions in this region and therefore no major conflict occurred in this part of the world. Other than North Korea and Israel, a third country on the list of nations under tense geopolitics was Ukraine, as back as 2014, experts already predicted that a full invasion of Ukraine by Russia may trigger another global conflict, they already said that if Russia were to attack Ukraine, the west would be forced to take sides and support Ukraine, Russia on the other side would be supported by its allies in the East, you know that Russia too has close allies, there are countries in the world that deeply hate the west especially America and its foreign policies that they would be naturally inclined to support Russia. With several countries now taking sides in the war, this crisis is already a Global conflict.

Trump was greatly criticized for mistreating his democratic ally Zelensky, while being cozy and friendlier towards the authoritarian Russian president. In the US mainstream media, he was widely discussed as a sell-out who preferred to befriend America's enemies while antagonizing America's traditional allies. What people are questioning now is whether there would be such an horrific conflict if Trump was still in office. That's an if. His supporters say that he may have lacked etiquette, had almost zero table manners and extremely vulgar fellow, but at least he tried to maintain world peace.

This is a conflict that is heating up bipartisan politics in the US, Republicans are now getting an upper hand and have a reason to point fingers at the democrats calling them out for incompetence, ''first it was Afghanistan now its Ukraine, they keep accusing the democrats of mismanagement of the world affairs, it’s now more blame games, '' the republicans are saying that even though they had a vulgar president who was quick to hurl words of insult at anyone that crossed his path, they were at least better off at the time because they were not facing global conflicts of this magnitude.

Welcoming the Refugees

It is hard to imagine that in Poland just a few months ago there were thousands of people on the streets engaging in anti-immigrant protests, even the Polish leadership itself publicly announced that they do not want any more refugees on their home soil. It surprises everyone that they are acting very differently right now, maybe the refugees they didn’t want were different kinds of refugees who came from very far away countries, they feared that these refugees from distant nations in Africa and middle east would have a very hard time integrating into the Polish society and way of life.

Some refugees however, are partly to blame for the perceptions they created in the minds of Europeans, back in early 2010's Europe used to welcome lots of refugees with open arms. European countries like Germany welcomed in Millions of them, but shortly after that, some radicalized folks from the middle east entered Europe as refugees and started conducting terrorist attacks on European citizens. These were horrible attacks that had led to the death of hundreds of European citizens. Innocent people were caught in the crossfires and paid very dearly, it was the attacks in France, Belgium and Germany that got lots of Global attention.  Horrifying videos of people desperately trying to get away from terrorist gunmen went viral on social media. This was a very shocking scenario for most Europeans, they often saw terrorism happening many thousands of miles away in other countries, they never though it would one day reach their home soil. Even though the attacks received worldwide condemnation including from the Muslim world. The damage had already been done. Those handful of jihadists ruined life for every other innocent refugee who was willing to integrate into European societies. Many European countries said they had already seen enough; they saw every other refugee from North Africa and Middle East as a Potential Extremist who can easily get radicalized and wreak havoc on European communities.

The cultural differences are a great factor in the rejection of refugees from certain parts of the world, many refugees from north Africa and middle east come from societies where Sharia governs every aspect of an individual's life. Like for instance, all women are to be veiled whenever they travel outside of their home. When young men from Arabia come into Europe and saw that European women were not properly covered, it was a kind of shock to them. They grew up in societies where women around them were always covered in public. This is bound to lead to culture clash, and it is a never pleasant scenario, things often turn ugly. There are incidences like ''New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany'' where young women were targeted by Arab men who came into the country as refugees, they say that the women were not properly dressed and therefore had a good reason to assault them.

Many European citizens and Legislators have feared that once the refugees have numbers in Europe, they will try to impose Sharia (Islamic Law) on Europeans. You hear Europeans cry out in protests that Muslims are gentle only when they are a minority, but when they become the majority in your country, they will impose sharia on everyone else. There is this real fear by the Europeans that their cultural identity is being eroded by immigrants from faraway lands who have cultures and religions that are very different from their own. They claim they are a secular state not an Islamic state. So, the rejection of refugees from certain parts of the world by Europeans goes beyond skin colour.

Ukrainians on the other hand are their next-door neighbours, even though they speak Ukrainian which is a language different from their own, they would gladly accept them with open arms. They see them to be a very close match of their own, it’s not just about their light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, it’s also about their culture and religion which is very similar to other Europeans, there are almost zero chances of these Ukrainian refugees being radicalized someday to start conducting terrorist attacks on their fellow Europeans. So, we have seen how the actions of a few can destroy opportunities for everyone else.

Those refugees from north Africa and middle east that manage to settle down in Europe still face lots of hardship throughout their lives, when an Arab woman walks around Europe covered in veils, she always gets unfriendly stare, the covering on her head screams out loud what her religion is, it screams out loud saying that ''I am a Muslim girl.'' Some European locals are heard talking to one another in a very stern tone, ‘’look there goes the Arab girl again, we are a secular state and allow Muslims to live here and freely practice their religion as they see fit, because freedom of worship is enshrined into all European nation’s laws. Yet when you go to Arab countries there is no such thing. No one that doesn’t practice Islam is allowed to live in Arab countries, yet we allow them to stay here, enjoy themselves and do their own thing, are we not being invaded by the Arab world? We welcome them with their religion with open arms, yet they don’t allow an inch of our own to live on their soils, and they still refer to us Europeans as cruel racists. We see Europeans being executed in some Arab countries simply because of their faith yet there is no such thing here in Europe, no Arab has ever been executed in Europe because of his/her religious beliefs, even those that were involved in extremely violent murders were peacefully arrested, given fair trials and then given prison sentences.'' ''we are doing a lot of good for many asylum seekers that never gets acknowledged or appreciated by the world. They keep pointing fingers at us blaming us for everything that has gone wrong for them.'' says the European Seniors. They believe from the bottom of their hearts that their cultural identity is being threatened.

This is how Europeans always answer in self-defence, ''it is a well-known fact that in the west, there are thousands of mosques, the Muslim immigrants there enjoy themselves and live their lives as they please, yet you can't say the same thing about Arabia, there are practically no Hindu temples, Christian churches or any other religious buildings that are not mosques, and anyone who publicly reads the Bible or any other religious book that is not Quran will surely get executed. There are well known sad stories about people in Arab countries that were instantly executed after being found with copies of Bibles in their homes.   So many Muslims complain a lot about islamophobia in the west yet they forget that in their home countries things are way worse for non-Muslims. They call Europeans racist islamophobics, yet westerners don’t have any kind of freedom in Arab countries, what right do they have to complain, when we have given them so much accommodation and freedom?''

Another issue that the Europeans claim to fear is the number of children that many immigrants from these countries have, some cultures especially Muslims have a practice of having many children which are likely to have a drain on state resources. Some European countries have become welfare states whereby the country' government provides free access to quality public services like transport, healthcare and education. Now with these immigrants there is likely to be an immediate swelling of the population size, a number that the state institutions may not have prepared For. The government therefore goes to the point where it tries to control the population size by offering family planning to all of its citizens, who are taught the importance of having smaller more manageable families from a very early age. But they fear it would be a difficult campaign to sell to the immigrants because they are from a totally different culture.

European women stopped having many children several decades ago, today on average, a European woman has a total sum of one to two children in her lifetime, while on the other hand, immigrant men especially from Muslim cultures have an average of four wives and countless number of children, so in just a few decades, the population of several thousand can easily balloon to millions. That is a conspiracy theory that frightens most Europeans and causes them to become more hostile to immigrants that are from cultures outside of Europe. The anti-immigrant protesters in the EU were even openly saying that ''they want Europe to remain white and Christian,'' they don’t want a population that is not tuned to their culture to take over their continent.  When the immigrants ask them, ''why were you dropping bombs in Arab countries to begin with? If you didn’t want Muslims to come into your countries your governments should not have recklessly dropped bombs in Muslim countries, Muslims and coloured folks are also human beings who can flee for their lives when their homes are set on fire by conflict. No human being can stay put in a burning house; you should have known that.'' The Europeans have no way to answer that.

The Africans perspectives on the Conflict

It’s evident that the European Union and other Western Nations are on the side of Ukraine. But in another part of the world, Ukraine is facing difficulty getting support. We have already seen how divisive the decision was at the UN general assembly, during the vote to condemn Russia's action in Ukraine, two dozen African countries abstained from the vote, which means they do not wish to take sides. Most African countries want to remain neutral and work with both Russia and Ukraine.

When the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky asked the African union for support in the condemnation of Russia, he was met with a blank stare and deafening silence. It wasn't because African countries didn’t care about what was happening to Ukrainians, it’s just that many of them have been experiencing war for decades, and some even see the way Ukraine is whining as a child's play'. ‘’We have been through worse'', they say to Ukrainian diplomats. Another issue the Ukrainian President Zelensky had not been made aware of by his advisors is that there are a dozen African countries that are currently under US or EU Sanctions, which has caused immense sufferings among the native populations.

The reasons for the sanctions range from Human rights violations, Poor governance and foreign policies. Zelensky’s advisors should have informed him first about these geopolitical issues before he went out asking African countries for support. Some African Countries have been under US Sanctions for decades which resulted in abject poverty for many of its citizens, A Good example is a Southern African country of Zimbabwe where the Sanctions have had crippling effects, the currency and the economy collapsed, leading to millions of people especially high skilled citizens leaving the country for greener pastures elsewhere, this brain drain then affects the country even further as there are less qualified people left to run the country's institutions. The Zimbabwean dollar has been known for more than a decade as the least valuable currency in the world. The hyperinflation in the country had made the situation so bad that an orange fruit at the grocery store costs millions, this has forced many vendors to reject their own local currency and instead go for foreign currencies such as South African Rand and Us dollar. These are countries that are least likely to rush to Ukraine's support especially when they know that they are in close partnership with the US.

A more pressing issue for the African Union is the current conflict in the Ethiopian Region of Tigray. The war which broke out in November 2020, has devastated the country's Population and its economy. The war has been threatening to destabilize the horn of Africa region.  This is a conflict that has already claimed nearly half a million lives according to some estimates. There was a time when the war moved so close to the capital city which the rebels threatened to attack. African nations held their breath as they waited to hear the potential downfall of Addis Ababa, the nations' capital and the headquarters of the African Union. African leaders thought that the collapse of Addis Ababa would symbolize the failure of the African union itself. But fortunately, the Sitting President Abbey hammed was able to gather public support for his government and the army and was then able to drive the rebels back far away from the nation’s capital. This is an incident that happened less than a year ago and is still very fresh in the minds of many African leaders. AU Leaders see no need of being involved in a conflict far away in Eastern Europe while they are already trying to resolve another brutal conflict happening in Ethiopia which is the heart of the African Union.

The Taiwan Statehood Saga

A few years back before the covid disaster hit, there was a lot of press coverage on the issue of China and the Island state of Taiwan. The so-called experts were out there screaming out loud to the world warning that the Chinese leadership in Beijing is planning to forcefully take back Taiwan and place it far away from the influence of the so called evil American imperialists. They claimed that China was planning to launch an invasion of Taiwan, to take back what rightfully belongs to them. If China decides to launch its reclamation program right now, Washington will find itself caught in the middle, USA will now be fighting a war on two major fronts, first it would be against Russia in eastern Europe and then secondly on the Taiwan strait. That would be a conflict too much to bear for America and the West even when they are using Proxies. It is believed China has postponed its invasion plans for now, they are watching carefully what is happening to Russia in the wake of its actions in Ukraine, they have seen how Russia's economy is suffering under US sanctions and have decided to keep things cool so that they too may not suffer. China is a very close ally of Russia but would never openly support Russia's actions for fear of repercussions from the West.

China has been playing the Watching Game for quite a long time now, during the cold war when the USA and USSR were fighting all over the world using proxies, China had been closely following the wrestling match of these giants. China being a giant itself sought to seek real truth behind the outcome in that great wrangling. In the early nineties, it became clear that the Soviet Union was the loser even though it had more military hardware than USA. The USSR had more Nuclear Warheads, Ballistic missiles, ICBMs, Tanks, Fighter Jets, Troop numbers, Submarines and battle ships. The USSR was more superior to USA when it came to military might, but on the other hand it was economically weak, towards the end of the cold war, the economies of soviet states were so bad that life was becoming unbearable for soviet citizens, food rations became the norm, people were lining up for hours at supermarkets for basic household food items such as bread, sugar and flour. The Chinese saw this devastation of the soviet people and decided that they should never put their own people in a similar scenario. They concluded that economic might was more important than military might, so for the last few decades the Chinese leadership has been aggressively building its economy through massive industrialization and international trade.

Taiwan has been a part of China for thousands of years, all the people on the island are ethnic Chinese who speak mandarin and still practice some sort of traditional Chinese culture. But they lost their beloved island during their hundred years of humiliation. First by the west and then secondly by Japanese empire. China has been humiliated for over a century. Even though they complained frequently about this subjugation, its Chinese leadership at the time who was to blame for the misery of their people. In the last few centuries, the Chinese dynasties stubbornly refused to modernize the state, even though China still remains the oldest continues civilization in the world with over five thousand years of history, it was important for China to modernize to adapt to the changing times.

The Chinese invented the gunpowder and used it only for celebratory purposes e.g., the fireworks during the Chinese New Year. Countries in Europe like Britain quickly capitalized on this new Chinese technology and used it for military purposes, so the Chinese invent the gunpowder to be used only for good things such as celebrations while the Europeans used it to create evil things such as cannons, riffles and bombs. The Chinese leadership at the time believed they had everything they needed to survive and therefore should not be bothered by the turmoil in the world around them, ''besides we have five thousand years of history, the Chinese nation will remain supreme,’’ they comforted one another, or so they thought, their reluctance has come back to haunt them, it did cost them dearly. It is the adoption of this new military technology, that allowed tiny western countries such as Britain to defeat China in battle, it allowed small island nations like Japan to conquer and control very huge chunks of Chinese territories. That is a part of humiliating history that Chinese leadership doesn’t want to go through anymore and are willing to fight anyone to take back what they believe is rightfully theirs.

Since the seizing of Hong Kong back in 2019, experts believe that Taiwan is next on the list, the massive prodemocracy protests that went on for months in Hong Kong drove the Chinese Leadership to crack down on the island's leadership and replace the systems of governance that were left behind by the British. Even though the duration they had agreed with the British was not yet over, they still went on with their political moves as they feared the unrests in Hong Kong Could very easily spread to the rest of the Chinese mainland territories. According to the CCP, the rogue Hong Kong youth had to be disciplined as soon as possible.

This kind of censorship by the Chinese Leadership is not something new, throughout its long history, China has lost a lot of history and cultural heritage due to the censorship that was put in place by different dynasties, Chinese emperors are known to burn entire libraries of books that contained information ranging from culture, trade & commerce, religion, Medicine, Science and technology, military and warfare, information that could have kept China the number one superpower for thousands of years, yet the Chinese kept destroying this valuable treasure called knowledge & Understanding. Just because they didn’t like the previous dynasty, the new emperor destroyed all their records including information that could be of great economic or military value to the state.

China is older than mighty Persia, Assyria, Greece, Rome and all the western empires that ruled the world in the last few centuries, China is even older than Ancient Egypt, the once magnificent imperial kingdom on the Nile we all love to talk about, yet all these empires rose and fell, they crumbled into dust never to achieve greatness again, China is the only civilization that has never completely crumbled. The reason for that is a myth that continues to baffle scholars all over the world to this day, no one really knows how and why China could survive for so long. To live on to this very day.

Surprise break-up with Saudis and the Arab World

Saudi Arabia is by no doubt the most influential nation in the Arab world, an alliance with the Saudis is an alliance with many other Arab countries.

Many Americans are trying to understand why Joe Biden, the most Politically educated President is trying to break this decades long mutual relationship with the Saudis, compared to Trump, he has been in government for a very long time, that is being a Politician throughout his entire adult life. Before being elected president he had held the second most powerful office in America for close to a decade.  Did you know that Joe Biden is the only President in this century that didn’t get any briefings before entering the white house because he knew everything about the oval office already long before he got elected?  So, such sensitive geopolitical partnerships are things he should already have been informed of, he should have known that the Saudis and Americans have always been there for each other through thick and thin. Whatever the Americans asked for the Saudis happily provided and whatever request the Saudis had, the Americans were happy to look into that matter. For the last few decades, Americans and the Saudis had been like fraternal twins that even though they were born different they had common interests that kept the relationship warm, the love affair between the cowboys and the Bedouins has been going on for decades. Now it looks like things are falling apart.

Most people today think that the only reason Americans like the Saudis is all because they provide them with cheap quality oil. Well things are not all that simple. The Saudis have helped Americans in more ways than provide them with cheap oil. They have been there through most of the activities the US had in the middle East. It was the Saudis that enabled the successful accomplishment of the first Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm), the Saudis also facilitated the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom and Post September Eleven military activity against terrorist safe havens in Afghanistan, in fact, the US hardly ever does anything in the middle East without The Saudi's stamp of approval, but now the relations are getting even sourer, things will continue to become incredibly difficult for the US to have an influence in the region. The Saudis had even decided to overlook the so-called war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians, they had agreed to hold no further grudges against a US baby brother state called Israel.

It was the Saudis that helped USA to break the back of the Mighty Soviet Union at the end of the cold war in the late eighties and early nineties. The Reagan administration and the Saudi Kingdom agreed on a way to crush the Soviet Empire's economy through manipulation of the international Oil Markets. If you have plenty of time to kill, you can check records in the library of congress about the deal Reagan administration had with the Saudis that gave the soviets their final crushing blow, The American Buffalo could never have defeated the Russian bear if it wasn't for the Help of the Saudi's desert Falcon. Now the Saudis want to go their own way, ending many decades of long partnerships, it now looks like America will be in serious trouble soon. Biden's decision to antagonize the Saudis may be a decision that comes back to haunt him any time soon. It is seen as a grave miscalculation by many US politicians from both parties.

Playing boycott Politics

Thanks to the western sanctions, Russian athletes are now being banned in all the international sports organizations, it happens to be that the biggest international sports organizations in the world which are FIFA World Cup and the Olympics were started and run partly by Europeans and other western nations. They have incredible power and influence over these organizations.

But why should innocent Russian athletes be punished for the actions of their governments that they have no control over? This sounds very cruel, because these are people that have dedicated all their lives to sportsmanship so that they can excel with flying colours, they have put aside all other careers and professions so that they can focus on their sports, but when time comes to compete, they are denied entry into the sports venues, all because of some geopolitical wrangling somewhere in the world. This is very unfair to the athletes and their families who have dedicated their time to supporting their loved ones.

Russia has always been a target of these kinds of attacks, just a short while ago. Russia was banned from international competitions because of the so-called state sponsored doping scandal, no other country in the world went through such negative publicity, yet they professionally managed to host the world cup in 2018. which is going to be the only world cup that Russians will participate in for years to come.

A year or so back there were massive social media campaigns calling for boycott of Beijing Olympics, now it's Russia, next it may be India or some other country. There is also a lot of talk on the internet on why India should also get sanctioned or get completely banned from doing some international business and participating in sports. The anti-China sentiment has already been there for many years, that we already know of. The astonishing thing is that Russia has already been added to that blacklist and India is probably on the way, she could be potentially added to the group. soon everyone else will be sanctioned and there will be no countries left to take part in international sports associations, some politicians say that sports have already been over-politicized, sports venues should be places where countries go to solve their political differences not start wars.

So now imagine Russia, China and India, three Asian giants being cut off from the global community and still hope that everyone else will be just fine without them, is not that smart thinking. These are extremely huge countries in terms of land mass and populations, they have incredible influence not just in Asia but the world over, they just can't be thrown under the bus and then cross your fingers hoping everything else is gonna be fine, well nothing much is going to remain cool if such a dreadful action is taken, don’t policy makers realize that antagonizing these giants will only draw them closer together? they may create their own world order and invite other nations into it, and that is something that can defragment the world even further.

These beautiful international sporting events where everyone comes to take part will cease to exist, and there will be no other venues left for the global nations to interact in. everyone is going to turn their own way and the world will be more hostile than ever, with no venues left to solve political disputes. Diplomats in many countries are now questioning the integrity of these international sports, countries are asking themselves, ''if Russia, China and India can easily be cut off from international events because of political differences, who else then is safe?'' they are concluding that FIFA and Olympics are European organizations and not world organizations, they were created only to serve the interest of the Europeans and not everyone else, the world should therefore create alternative sports venues that offer every nation equal opportunity to participate, and leave the Europeans with their old broomsticks.

According to some diplomats, it appears to them that the policy makers have a very narrow mindset, they act on their emotions and do not think about the long-term negative consequences of their actions. Russia hosted the FIFA World Cup just a few years ago, now it's sad that its fans and citizens will not see the stadiums of the next one coming this year in Qatar. Did they think that banning Russian athletes will cause the Russian government to change their mind about their war effort in Ukraine? No, I don’t think so. In fact, the Russian government is using this as a leverage to rally local support on their homestead, the state officials say to their people, '' you see now what we have been telling you all along? it’s not only the government officials they hate, the West hates all Russians and will do anything to completely destroy the Russian population, you see now they are attacking our world famous and prosperous athletes.'' Russia is using these actions by the west to rally local support. Nothing can make them think otherwise, when they see their own innocent citizens being targeted by international travel bans, embargoes and sanctions, it firmly cements the beliefs they always had about western motives, they think this is now a solid proof that the west always had malicious intentions towards Russia and have made this an opportunity to carry out their wicked plans against the Russian people.

Siberian Super Villains

Have you noticed that Russians are always portrayed as villains in Hollywood and other Western Films? Russian men are always portrayed as marauding thugs always out there to wreak havoc on others while their young women are always portrayed as hookers eager to satisfy the lustful desires of filthy rich western men. There is hardly ever any positive portrayal of Russia or Russian peoples in general when it comes to the western entertainment media. Russian politicians are saying that the western attitudes towards them have never changed, it’s always derogative in nature. The bear of Siberia is like the bogyman whose story is always used by North American Parents to frighten their kids and coerce them into bed at night. According to Russian politicians the west thinks that the Russian bear is way too big, he is threateningly large and should therefore be chopped up into smaller less threatening sizes. This may only work by reducing Russia's national boundaries through a UN Charter. Something that is not likely to happen in the near future.

Insider’s Perspective

With the way we see things going at the moment, this is a conflict that is not going to end any time soon, I am afraid it may continue to drag on for many years to come. And the suffering of the people involved may unfortunately continue. This is however an outsider’s perspective of the conflict, those directly involved may be seeing things differently. Dear readers, if you are Ukrainian, Russian or Eastern European on the frontlines or directly affected by the conflict, please leave your thoughts on the reviews section so that others can learn about your side of the story. Anyone else however can still send me their opinions in the email address I have provided at the last chapter below this book.

Neighbourhood -2- A small storm brewing over Zululand

The Jacob Zuma Saga of 2021 reiterates time and again that forcefully removing heads of state from office however unpopular they may be always produced   catastrophic consequences. First of all, I send my support to the south African people and wish them the very best in such times of difficulty, the upheaval that has been going on over there in the midyear of 2021 is nothing to be happy about whether you are a native south African or anybody else in the outside world. Things over there slowly returned to normal and hopefully long-term calm and prosperity will be restored. In the Aftermath of the days of rioting, images and video clips coming out of South Africa were truly astounding, debris is lying all over the streets, it looked like those places had been hit by a natural disaster, some kind of tropical cyclone, tornado, hurricane or typhoon, it’s unbelievable that in just a few days, so much harm could come to a small developing city. I am truly sorry for the people that have lost their lives or livelihoods in the aftermath, and I therefore hope that the local economy recovers soon enough, even if its gonna take a while for people and businesses to recover from the trauma.

Inadequate Police response

It's a quiet surprising thing that we were seeing in these shocking videos the way the law enforcement failed to respond in a timely manner, from the videos we had seen on social media, a lot of the police officers appeared lethargic, they seemed unbothered by what was going on around them, they appear to have been fed up of watching out for these people creating havoc while being asked to hold them back all the time, something of which they were quickly getting tired of and trying to avoid altogether, a lot of locals are seen in the videos really shocked to see some police officers in uniform taking part in the looting spree, they are seen taking goods from the rioters and then placing them in ''their own patrol cars'' for safekeeping, whoa! Plunderers putting their loot into police cars for safekeeping? That is something that no-one ever saw coming. The fact that the army had to be sent in to quench the unrest shows that the local law enforcement is either unwilling to respond for whatever reasons like fear for their own safety or sympathetic to the arguments of the rioters, or it could be that a section of the police force are in league with the protesters themselves and secretly helping them wreak havoc that they always publicly pretended to stop. It is such a sad thing to watch.

Whole Shopping district malls were stripped clean of their stock except for bookshops. These are probably the visible impacts of high levels of illiteracy levels in the country, uneducated people see no value in books and would therefore waste no time in trying to collect them, it sends a message that a vast majority of if not all south Africans don’t read, they don’t really like reading, no one has the time to read books when there is barely any enough food in the house, people who live from hand to mouth can never waste time reading useless stuff.

Saving Face of the Old Guard

What happened to Jacob Zuma was something that his fans could not take down lightly, for he was not just forced to resign over an allegation but publicly humiliated by being sent to prison, this is not just a humiliation to him and his family but a large portion of the ruling ANC Party and immensely large proportion of the Country as a whole. This is a guy that has suffered so much for his country, he spent a whole decade on the infamous and inhumane Robben Island prison under the brutal apartheid Regime, if the ANC was a football club, then Zuma would be on the first team as he is an icon in his own right, he belongs to the same class of people like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, they together helped South Africa get its first true independence. During the Trials and court hearings, I used to tell my South African friend that they should stop the proceedings of those Kangaroo courts at once, coz they were leading to nowhere, Zuma is not a person to be publicly humiliated not unless they want to bring back the days of the Soweto uprising, those Godlike judges that had been talking down on him should have swallowed their pride and looked at the bigger picture. The guy they were dealing with was a great freedom fighter, even if those judges had sufficient evidence to prove that Zuma had taken a few coins from the public purse while in office, they should have known that’s not how to best treat freedom fighters.

Politics is not just about the politicians but their impact on the Society as a whole, but those judges thought of themselves as gods and stubbornly refused to listen to the pleas of the people, many south Africans pleaded with the judges on behalf of Zuma, they told them, ''If you have anything against our former president, if he has wronged you in anyway, then you should forgive and forget, let the old man retire in peace for he has lost too much blood for this country,'' but the godlike judges stubbornly refused to listen and went ahead with their prosecutions. Now they are witnessing the fruits of their arrogance.   Who exactly is to blame for this mess in SA? is it the protesters that are causing mayhem in the streets, the judges that sentenced him to serve jail-time or Jacob Zuma himself? the images and videos that are coming out of south Africa today are more horrifying than those we saw during the Soweto Uprising, Some South African politicians tend to downplay the magnitude of the problem by saying that the looting occurred in just two provinces out of the Nine administrative regions of the country, claiming that it was just a small number, well my dear politicians, two out of nine is not that small, it is a significant figure, the fact that the military has to be involved to quench the unrest speaks volumes, if it was just a small problem then the law enforcement especially the police would have solved the issue in just a few hours, the fact that the rioting, looting and plunder went on for days nonstop until the military had to be sent in to rough up the rioters clearly demonstrated that things really got out of control.

The military is usually used at the borders to defend the country against foreign threats, but when it is used within the country it means the country is under extreme political unrest. South Africa is likely going through some kind of civil war, or about to go through one in the near future. There is an internal struggle between different groups that threatens to boil out of proportion. The power struggle between the ANC and other emerging  political parties like EFF, the class struggle between the Urban rich and Poor, the racial tensions between the black majority ghetto dwellers and the white minority land owners, it all looks like a powder keg that is about to blow up, all these tensions and frustrations have been building up for years, they have been suppressed for a long time, the arrest of ex-president Jacob Zuma was like the flame that ignited that gunpowder that had been quietly piling up for such a very very long time. As you can hear from some of the protesters saying that they are just letting go of the steam.

The Pride of Africa.

South Africa is ahead of most African countries in terms of economic development, it is the most industrialized country on the continent with a GDP of over three hundred and fifty billion dollars, the third largest on the continent just after Nigeria & Egypt, many African governments have been striving very hard to industrialize their own nations and grow their GDP to be as large as that of South Africa, this is a country that does well in other areas such as tourism and conservation. Tens of millions of international tourists visit south Africa every year to have a good time with themselves or their families, it is the third most visited country in Africa after Egypt and Morocco, the government has economized on this industry and reaps billions of dollars in revenue annually, south Africa's wildlife is also one of the most conserved in Africa only rivalled by Botswana. Conservation, wildlife and tourism are industries that are playing a big role in South Africa's economy today making it an envy of many African Countries.

Poor Mans' Narrative.

The Protesters in the Streets of South Africa have been blaming their poverty on the government’s policies that have for decades failed to deliver on the promises they made when they came into power, many feel disappointed that even after nearly three decades since the end of the brutal apartheid regime, nothing has changed for the lives of the Poor People in the ghettos, some have even gotten worse. First of all, the ANC has failed to provide affordable education and create jobs for the young people, it is these factors of illiteracy and unemployment that creates idleness among the youth, and when you have a lot of idle youth they start stirring trouble, many of the youth that are frustrated for the lack of prospects In life have no choice but to resort to crime.

South Africa is currently leading in the whole continent of Africa when it comes to violent crime, many Africans who have visited the country for tourist, business or academic purposes have always returned to their home countries with horror tales, they tell their friends and families of how gangs roam the streets of South African cities gagging and robbing people in broad daylight, and the law enforcement seems to be powerless to stop them. I had a Zambian friend who did his degree in South Africa, he says that there are places in south Africa where foreigners are warned not to dare set a foot into. South Africa Ranks among highest in Africa in these Crimes;

-Robbery with violence

-Homicides,

-Femicide

-Sexual Violence

-Home Invasions

-Gun Violence

All these things are happening because of a generation that has refused to cooperate with the state over the lack of prospects in life. illiteracy, poverty and unemployment are very much present in many other African countries, but this never seems to translate to the blatant Crimes we see in South Africa today, why? Well we have to put this into political context, a lot of young people listen to the stories their parents tell them of how they suffered under apartheid, those angers are translated down to the children born after era of Mandela, these  young people look at their own lives and compare it to the rich folks in the suburbs, they then come to the conclusion that they are still under the same economic exclusions their parents suffered under apartheid, they mobilize their gangs and claim to take back their right to live, work and enjoy life in their country. Many south Africans still believe that the same economic programs that were there during apartheid never went away.

Xenophobic attacks

Just in the past few years, dreadful scenes have been coming out of South Africa of foreigners being targeted by local lynch mobs, these were scenes that shocked many people across the world and especially the Africans, the attacks later appeared to have been instigated by local politicians who blamed immigrants from other African countries for taking the jobs of the locals, thus causing local lynch mobs to gather themselves in huge numbers and started targeting local businessmen of other African descent, leading to the loss of lives of dozens of people. The xenophobic violence got South Africa into a lot of trouble with other neighbouring states in the region, for instance Nigerians wanted to attack south African owned businesses in Nigeria in response to the attacks of Nigerian owned business in  south Africa, several Nigerians had lost their lives over unverified claims that they were engaging in illegal activity in the country and causing trouble for the locals, a treacherous act that caused so much anger back at home in Nigeria, many who wanted to avenge their fallen brothers by also taking the lives of south African business folks who lived and worked in Nigeria. You would hear many Africans say... ''I thought that indigenous south Africans had a problem with the white members of their family, we didn't know that they are capable of attacking their own fellow black African brothers. If other Africans are now the problem, then we conclude that south African issues are not just about race, but something more troubling.

White Genocide

There have been reports in the past few years by critics of ANC that that there is a mass killing of white farmers in south Africa by armed gangs, these claims have been aired worldwide by many international media houses, and some world leaders did comment on them negatively leading to diplomatic tensions, South Africa however dismissed those claims, they said that crime is indeed present in the country but there is no evidence of white people particularly being singled out. A group of white south African activists have formed unions that want to arm all white farmers so that they could better protect themselves if attacked. According to their communal data, dozens of white farmers get killed every year by black gangs, to these white communities, that is a horrific data that needs immediate government action.

But when you look at the National data, tens of thousands of Black South Africans get killed every year by those same black gangs, so if you compare the stats, you will find out that the number of whites is just a drop in the ocean. All life is important even the loss of a single person is always devastating to the family and the community so we are not downplaying the loss of any group, what the government vehemently disputes is this wicked term that has been coined by haters of south Africa just to taint the image of the country. They are not accepting the term ''white genocide'' because blacks are dying at a rate that is a thousand times that of the whites. The homicides are a nationwide issue that affects communities of all races and economic class.

Get Off My Land

Probably the biggest issue in South Africa right now is that which revolves around Land, dispute over land ownership is by no doubt the most difficult subject matter in the country more than even the race issue, in fact it is the wealth disparity among different groups of the society that continually brings this subject matter to the forefront time and again, when white South Africans take a walk through the black neighbourhood, they often get this blank stare, even though no harsh words are thrown at them, it is always written on their faces, the anger in their bloodshot red eyes is clearly visible, and silently echoing the words, ''What are you still doing on my ancestor's land, please get off my land!" Some black Folks in South Africa have been asking, ''How can we have any kind of reconciliation between the black and white before settling the issues of the land? The white folks own all the land while we have nothing.'' Several study groups then come together in order to sort out this land issue once and for all, they start a national dialogue with the good intentions of bringing peace and harmony among all South Africans despite what has happened in the past, they are young, full of vigour, their passion exudes through their voices, they ask the black folks, ''why do you keep causing trouble for your fellow south Africans, can't you find something useful to do other than cause trouble?'' The black folks then reply angrily, ''can't you see the misery that these aliens have put us into, we simply don’t have a starting point,'' the team then turns to the white folks and say this to them, ''can't you see that whenever the black folks become hungry the first thought is of you, when the food runs out of their homes in the ghettos they look at the luxury estates across the street and see white children playing with food, they are shocked when they see white children smashing cakes onto each other’s faces at birthday Parties, they have got no one else to blame for their misery other than you.’’

In the ghettos, black women are seen lining up all day long just for a chance to fill a Jerri can with water for their domestic use, the luxury suburb dwellers spend hundreds of litres of water a day, they allow their taps to run nonstop all day without any worry, they fill their swimming pools with thousands of litres of fresh water each day, a staggering amount that the ghetto dwellers don’t even spend in a month, you find a whole family using only twenty litres of water a day for all their domestic consumption. When you look at the townships, you find tens of thousands of people crammed in just a one-acre piece of land with hardly any breathing space while on the other hand, there are white folks who own tens of thousands of acres of land that stays mostly unused, this is what angers the black people the most, how can someone sit on land that they never seem to utilize? A single man sits on a humongous piece of land, which gets overgrown with weeds and shrubs, wild animals invade the territory and make the land their home, he then starts to pick his hunting rifle every weekend to go for a thrilling adventure, this often looks very unfair to the squatters. How does someone sit on an arable land that can be used for agriculture by the poor, just to use it for the purposes of hunting? if those township dwellers could be given just a quarter an acre per family, many would certainly lift themselves out of poverty, in addition to growing food for the markets as well as their own domestic consumption, a piece of land is a place you can build your home and start life in safety & comfort, there is no one poor as the one who doesn’t have a piece of land to call home.

When some white folks are asked, ''why can't you give away some of your land to these miserable squatters so that they stop blaming you for all the problems they have? Even a quarter of your land will go a long way to cooling the tensions,'' they then say that they are not in a business of giving free handouts, that many black people are lazy and want everything for free,'' this was unacceptable for their ancestors worked very hard to make those pieces of land productive. They say they were there long before the population of the blacks had blossomed to the numbers they are today, that they found the property a barren wasteland with no inhabitants, and after a long struggle through tens of generations they finally made the land fit for human settlement, now when they sit down to enjoy the fruits of their land these lazy folks show up and claim to own a share, that is unacceptable!" They exclaim. These guys have been growing up on the game farms, all their lives have been on that piece of land and that is not something they are gonna give away very easily, tens of generations have lived on that land and the dwellers know it as their fathers homeland. Their stay goes back for centuries. They appear to be oblivious to the political wave that is sweeping across the country, they refuse to believe that other people think differently, it is this conflict of interest that has continued to keep South Africans on the edge.

Across the region

Issues of the indigenous communities fighting to gain a piece of land is not unique to south Africa but common across the region, the political storm in South Africa is also brewing in places like Namibia where activists are stirring up local communities to fight for a piece of land, the Minority white folks of German origin own a vast majority of the fertile land which they used mostly for keeping game, you see Namibia is a semi-arid region in which a vast majority of the land being either desert or semi-desert, the indigenous folks have been crammed in those desert areas while the white folks keep all the green fertile land which they can't allow the indigenous people to grow their own food on.

Dispute over land is picking up steam in Namibia and there are fears that if the Government doesn't do something about it immediately, there will be months long vandalism and looting spree. Another country in the southern Africa region where there is great disparity over the land is Botswana, just like South Africa and Namibia, Botswana is dotted with millions of acres of unused private land, a lot of which are also game farms, but due to their low population and proper management of the country's natural resources such as diamonds, the Botswanan government has managed to deliver on many of their obligations such as providing affordable healthcare, education, housing and almost everything that the citizens ever need, this has kept the indigenous people happy, the government there has given the people no reason to complain about anything, and as a result there is no hatred for white people in Botswana.

The Southern African country that almost all of us are aware of their current deplorable situation is Zimbabwe, in the early two thousands when land ownership issues boiled out of proportions the indigenous people pushed the ruling party ZANU PF to confiscate all the white owned farmland, this sounded like a patriotic move of the government by the indigenous folks, but unfortunately set off a chain of catastrophic events, first of all, the agricultural economy collapsed as the indigenous  people who were handed the land had neither skills nor experience to properly run the huge technical farms, Zimbabwe lost a huge chunk of its markets like Europe and many other western countries, because the farmers who were robed of their land travelled to many countries and asked them to stop buying Zimbabwean agricultural produce, so in addition to low productivity due to the poor management by the new indigenous staff, the little that was able to be produced got sanctioned in many countries where it used to have a market, this was of course devastating for the Zimbabwean economy and that’s how we came to be hearing about the ''famous trillion dollar Zimbabwean Notes.'' from the mid 2000's onwards inflation in Zimbabwe became so bad that people stopped accepting money altogether, they resorted to trading the old school way, they began to barter with one another for goods, oranges in exchange for mangoes, chicken in exchange for ducks and goats in exchange for sheep. Many economists in the world are aware of the worthless Zimbabwean currency but very few (if there is any) are aware of the underlying issues that led to that economic catastrophe, it all began over land issues.

The ANC of South Africa is fully aware of this possible scenario and has become risk averse especially after what they witnessed happening in Zimbabwe. even though a lot of the indigenous folks are pushing them to take on land reforms without any further delay, they are too frightened to take their country in the direction of Zimbabwe, it will be way too unbearable for South Africa as a state as well as the region, south Africa is a trade partner of many African countries, an economic crisis in that country will echo across the borders and affect a huge faction of the continent. ANC Politicians are fully aware of the geopolitical implications of their rash actions, this is the dilemma that Nelson Mandela had to wrestle with after achieving freedom for his people, he realized that the white folks even though they had treated him like an animal he had to work with them because they were needed by the country that wanted to smoothly move forward. Nelson Mandela believed that "forgiveness without forgetting" was the key to reconciling the country's past and prepare it for the coming challenges of the future, he saw the land issue as a matter that can be solved slowly later on. Many black South Africans however believe that Nelson Mandela Sold out his own people to the oppressors when he allowed them to continue running the economy after he became president.

Madiba was a smart gentle person who knew what needed to be done at the times of crisis, he saw no need to punish children for the sins of their fathers, he became the servant leader and had little desire to be served himself. He gently spoke to his bitter tribesmen who wanted nothing but revenge, he asked them how they can chase away the very people that were running the country's economy?  Madiba outsmarted every vengeful folk and managed to turn them into his way of thinking, well he saved the nation great catastrophe, that is what we call wise leadership. Had Madiba not been whom he was after apartheid, there would have been a bloodbath at the dawn of the first black majority rule, south Africa would not have been the African giant it is today. Well, you see people are different, every human being has their own unique personality. Mugabe is not Madiba, he ran his country the way he felt like it should be, even though he suffered less than a half the time Madiba suffered, it still was a long time, ten years as a political prisoner is not a joke my friend, Mugabe came out of jail with rage and did what he had to do, even though it would mean ruin for his people.

A huge proportion of South Africa's agricultural produce goes to Europe, The ANC would not risk sanctions from the EU and other western countries for chasing white people from their country, even though there is no threat of sanctions the ANC would not risk taking action that would be detrimental to the country's image on the continent as well as worldwide.

Pressure from new generations

Now in South Africa we have a generation of Politicians that don’t give a damn about Mandela or anything he stood up for, all they want is to have their objectives achieved whatever the consequences may be, politicians that want their land back at all costs, however ugly things may turn, they simply don’t care, now this sets a disturbing trend that may lead to who knows what will happen. The six days of Vandalism have proven that if underlying socio-economic issues are not properly addressed, they will quietly reach a boiling point and erupt to the surface whenever an opportunity presents itself, just the same way a volcanic magma erupts to the surface after centuries of slowly boiling in the underground and spew out hot lava through a weak vent in the earth's crust. You only get to see its full wrath once it reaches the surface.

Similar arguments across the Atlantic.

What we are seeing in South Africa toady is very similar to what we are seeing in USA, the black youth of America that lack job prospects in life reflect on the suffering their ancestors went through as slaves, those horror stories of the past combined with their current deplorable economic condition is a perfect recipe for social unrest, a lot of the young black men in America have joined violent gangs and done drugs, whatever it is that will make them feel rich and powerful, whatever makes them feel good they will do eagerly, they believe the state is turning a blind eye to their suffering and therefore take matters into their own hands, they have done things that have put millions of them behind bars and in turn devastated their own black communities. a lot of black men that ended up killing white people in America were under the impression that white people are evil, wicked folks with no souls who would not hesitate to take the life of a black man. They see them as hypocrites who carry the bible in the right hand and put a sword on the left hand, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ only when it suits their selfish interest. It is the same old story in both nations, just like the townships in south Africa separated from the lavish neighbourhoods, there are a lot of ghettos in America which are occupied by predominantly the black community, and just across the streets there are predominantly white affluent neighbourhoods with large mansions and spacious lawns. This situation in both countries resulted after decades and centuries of economic segregation that somehow carried on to the present environment in the twenty first century.

I believe that if the black people of America were living good lives, working well-paying jobs, driving luxury cars and living in mega mansions in the countryside just like their white counterparts then there won’t be any racial issues in America. It’s all about the socioeconomics, it had nothing to do with the skin color, it is the economic disparities that bring all these issue to the surface, if the state had addressed this issue right when it was still very young, then there won't be any racial issues in America today. The topic of race is a very sensitive and dividing issue in the USA just as it is in South Africa. Anyone that has ever lived in South Africa knows exactly what life is like in the USA while anyone that has lived in the USA knows exactly what life is like in South Africa, the two countries share a lot in common.

South Africans Overseas

There many people of ethnic south African origins that are living all over the world now and are closely following what's happening at home, many of them live modest lives, they are average people doing average jobs living average lives. There are those however who have grown incredibly rich and famous either because of their God given talent or their sheer hard work.

There are many celebrities in the US and several other western countries that proudly talk about their south African roots, every time they give their public speech they would eagerly narrate how their past south African roots shaped them into the person they are today, or the stories of how the difficulty they experienced hardened them enough to be able to overcome the challenges they later went through in life, or how their own parents experiences saved them trouble for a later date in life. But that is not with Musk.

Mr. Musk is filthy rich, he is in a position where he can make a huge difference in the country at the moment, but he seems not to be willing to take action. He is building very expensive rockets to take people to mars while many people are starving in his native country. Well, every business entrepreneur has a right to protect himself from the dirty politics and corruption that affects many countries across the world, Mr. Musk doing business directly with the south African governments will definitely taint his own reputation and ruin his entrepreneurial career, that would not be a smart thing to do. What a lot of young people especially Africans are asking is why won't he just provide a helping hand? To use a small section of his vast and limitless fortune to build basic amenities for some communities, things like providing clean water, building a few schools and a few health institutions would be something that many south Africans would welcome.

He is a tech genius, he can open a technical college anywhere in the country to help many young people especially from poor backgrounds to get a college diploma or degree as well as the skills they need to deal with tough things in life. A lot of people are baffled by the way musk appears to be ashamed of his own background & homeland. He is not willing to give a penny to any south African charity yet. Elon Musk Left South Africa a very long time  ago and he would never give a damn of what is happening in that country, he never wants to be associated with that so-called bloody country at all, especially with the direction it is heading to right now.

Neighbourhood -3- Into the heart of a majestic continent

Central African Nations Continue to Suffer under the Curse of their Mineral Wealth --The countries of CAR (Central African Republic), DRC (The Democratic Republic of Congo) and SSD (South Sudan) are Countries that have been embroiled in conflict for decades all because of the presence of natural resources. These Countries are rich in Gold, Diamonds, Timber, Oil, Gems, metals such as Cobalt, Iron, tin, copper, Zinc, Aluminium and much more. Despite these riches they are among the poorest countries in the world in terms of economic development. They are classified as very underdeveloped even by African standards. And all this is because of their Natural Resources.

Warlords have curved mineral rich territories for themselves which they exploit and illegally sell the proceeds to multinationals in exchange for firearms and inherently fuelling further conflicts. The international community should do much more to alleviate the suffering of Peoples in these countries.

The trio have come to be known locally as the ‘’Troubled Three Brothers.’’ Because they share a lot in common. There are communities within the regions of these countries that have been divided by national boundaries even though they speak the same language. They share the same climate of a tropical rainforest.

You would often hear locals participating in religious groups in those States praying to God, always asking him to take away their mineral recourses so that they can finally have peace. They cry out to God in churches asking Him to end their suffering for they have been in pain for too long.

Africans appear to be the ones least capable of managing their natural resources well for the benefit of their people. These issues are raised in the African Union over and over again but the proceeds of those meetings often bear no fruit. It is sad to see that even an organization powerful as the African Union has no power to bring long term peace and stability in those countries.

The DRC Issues for instance go back to more than a century in the times of European expansionisms, even after the colonizers left, the welfare of the Congolese people never changed, The negative experiences of the Congolese people with the Belgians has created so much hostility between the two countries, that even today, Congolese and Belgians are always at loggerheads with one another.

Well, the innocent Belgian people should not be blamed for the cruel acts of King Leopold the Second a century and a half ago, the Belgian people today say that they have nothing to do with his past war crimes. Well, why then haven't they tried to make amends with the Congolese people by offering reparations? If they were really sorry then they would have acted sorry, but they are not doing that, the Congolese people say that the Belgians' reluctance to make attempts for reconciliation is a proof of their guilt.

DRC Congo is also a pristine Jungle covered in tropical rainforests rich in all kinds of Biodiversity. You will find wildlife here that you will not find elsewhere in the world. The DRC problems are issues that almost every kid in every African household knows about like the back of their hand, they learn from teachers in their schools that DRC Congo is the African Country that received the most blessings by the Creator but never gave her the peace to enjoy the fruits of her land.

Many people argue that the main reason these countries are having so much troubles is simply because they have bad leadership, the expression that mismanagement and corruption are the root causes of the biggest issues these countries have, well there may be those issues of greed, corruption and mismanagement but there are also other elements of the problem that are often overlooked. The discovery of mineral resources in countries where illiteracy levels are very high and government institutions are very weak, inherently creates a breeding ground for instability once those minerals get discovered. If you take the natural resources element out, then the people in those countries may be telling a different story.

It was the discovery of Oil in Sudan in the seventies that fuelled the ethnic and religious tensions between the people of the North and the south. The small tensions that began as insignificant disagreements escalated to civil wars that lasted for decades and led to the loss of millions of lives, and the country dividing itself along religious lines that later became separate states of Muslim majority North and Christian Majority South.

The twenty first century Conflict in CAR(Central African Republic) was also partly curved along ethnic & religious lines(Christians against Muslims) with both sides committing grave atrocities, the control of mineral rich regions was among the most contributing factors of the conflict and lives of tens of thousands lost in the process.

the ever-growing Hostilities.

Because of their countries' experiences, a vast majority of the Congolese people have lost all trust in their government, they don’t listen to a thing that their government tells them, they tend to believe more what they hear from their friends and their families than the words of the state officials, they disregard all the information that comes out of their state media apparatus as absolute rubbish and will not comply to any request by the state unless forced to.

Every Congolese is suspicious of every foreigner that visits their country, when you land at an airport in Kinshasa, the checking staff asks you, ‘’why are you in Congo?’’ Then you reply, ‘’I am a tourist,’’ ‘’what is in that bag of yours?’’ ‘’they are just my clothes,’’ ‘’well, let us check to make sure that you are not carrying guns and bombs to kill our people.’’ When you say that you are on a business trip, they'll ask you, ‘’have you also come here to steal our minerals?’’

Most of the Congolese people that I have met are always suspicious of foreigners as well as of one another.  Even when you go on an evangelical mission with a church group and say to them, ‘’I am a minister of the word and we have come to bring you the good news of Jesus Christ.’’

They will reply that, ‘’David Livingstone said the same thing yet he ended up helping his European friends to sell countless tens of thousands of Africans into slavery, the Belgians came into the Congo preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ and left with the blood of millions on their hands, they never practiced a single word they preached.’’

The hostility of Congolese towards Belgians is still rife to the present day, the Belgian government and its people have not done enough to reconcile the two countries, The Congolese know the Belgians as white Europeans, so whenever a white person travels on the streets of Kinshasa, he/she is stared at daringly, almost every member of the community throws bloodshot red eyes at them, they hardly travel anywhere without being extensively stared at, the vengeance and hatred is all written in their eyes.

Neighbourhood -4- The People of Today

The people of today, they have no respect for their leaders, they shout at them, and draw very close to them almost spitting on their faces, they said unto them, “didn’t we send you into power with the casting of our votes? We put you into office, what power do you have which you don’t owe it to us? Didn’t we donate a thousand tons of gold to fund your campaign? Listen carefully to our instructions first,” they say,

“we brought you into power and gave you the vast dominion you have over the country, now you must do things in our way, shut up and listen carefully to what we tell you, if you sleep on the job, we shall have you punished terribly, if you shut your ears on us, or disobey even a single command we give, we shall kick you out of office.

From this moment you shall therefore never do anything without our approval neither shall you have secret operations, nor do things in the background without our knowledge, if we discover you have been doing heinous things behind our backs then without warning we shall have you thrown out of your post and put someone else in its place.

The leaders then respond, “Yes we heard you, thank you for your support you have given us all through, we appreciate every little effort you have made throughout these years. Now it's our turn to take on the responsibility of looking after the nation, there is something you must also understand. In as much as you would like your voices to be heard we too need enough space to think freely and make important decisions, having voted for us doesn’t earn you the right to push us around, we too are humans so speak openly about your discontentment but remember to keep your distance, do not cross the boundary lines just as we had agreed earlier.”

If the leaders are continually pressured to perform, to reveal the fruits of their stay in office, then some might mess things up in an attempt to please their unthankful citizens, what if there is no major problem that ever rises for them to solve, what if things go on smoothly as they have done before and no big problem hits the country, will the people still call their leaders and condemn them because they have improved nothing? Does every leader that enters office have to come up with something new? "We want lots of improvements and new things" is the song they have always sang. Even maintaining the stability of a county, province or nation is still work. Things could have gone haywire without their belittled efforts. It looks like the citizens of this county are bored holidaymakers who have got lots of time to watch others backs.

For sure no leader has ever been to office without facing extensive criticism.

A president is the most insulted person in the country and most blamed, all the citizens point fingers at him.

“When in positions of power and influence people try to manipulate you like a puppet for their amusement, one day when you find yourself in such a situation you shall understand,” says the parliamentarian that they try to control you for their own selfish interests.

Neighbourhood -5- weekly revolutions.

Politicians have to make those promises, otherwise people will not elect them to office. Every government that comes to power has plans to bring a revolution to all sectors of the society, education, health, finance, international relations, etc. many governments come and go but the lives of the citizens will always remain the same. Some things do change indeed, many are improved but there is a lot more that remains the same as it has been for ages. How much really can a government achieve in its lifetime? In its duration in office if I may ask?

We surely don’t wish to have a society that is constantly changing colour, like a chameleon’s skin.

Neighbourhood -6- Royalty of the old.

Royalty in the olden days was a very prestigious thing, there was nothing more glorious than watching a king and a queen before their people, those days are forever gone never to return, there was both bright and dark side of these systems, when a wise king ruled long enough, he transformed the nation in every aspect to proudly stand above all others, glittering with brilliance and majesty, but when a foolish king comes to power, he undoes everything that the ten previous kings had worked hard to achieve, he destroys everything

Once it used to be said a king’s decisions have led to the downfall of a nation, but then the power was taken away from the aristocrats and was given to the people, now it’s the people that are misbehaving, characterised with poor decision making, whom can it be blamed on if it's not them?

In the olden days people honoured their leaders greatly and entertained them, they brought them gifts and presents, highly esteemed they were because the lives of the people depended on them, the people of today have become independent. It’s rather the government officials that depend on the ordinary folk.

Now it’s the opposite, peoples of today no longer have the burden of entertaining a royal, they therefore resort to insult, mockery and name calling and would not appreciate contributions they have made to their countries.

Neighbourhood -7-The plight of refugees.

Many people have waited for years for a visa, many have grown ill and died on the queuing bench, waiting for a residence, what they had thought as a dream easy to catch ended up costing them their lives, “wouldn’t had it been better if we had died in our homeland than to scavenge like rats in these filthy tents?

Had we died in our homeland, our motherland soil would have preserved our bones, and carefully hid us in her bosom, and leave alone those who are killed by disease, we understand that they are doing this to protect their citizens from the so-called wolf-men.

When some of us went to have a rest in the city steps including other public buildings, the citizens came out with torches at night, armed to the tooth and drove us out like wolves, those who persistently remained behind were beaten mercilessly to death. Their youngsters & children come spit on our faces with disgust.

You don’t even allow us to clean your latrines so that we can get a few coins to buy dry bread. How then do you expect us to survive in this wilderness of a city?

Some of the dwellers of the city are kind though, they came along and as they see the kind of suffering we go through daily, they throw a few crumbs of bread at us, we then scramble over them for a piece like meerkats, children are trampled upon in our midst.

Our makeshift camps are no better than sleeping in the open, when it rains it falls profusely, when the sun shines, we are baked from the inside.

These fellows have their own laws and customs different from our own, that we clearly understand, all we need is a little act of kindness from them for the short time we are going to be here, when the hailstorms that have battered our motherland is over, we shall be free to walk back home as we thank them generously for their hospitality.

Neighbourhood -8-Greener grasses

“You live in a graveyard, you plus your family continue to dwell in a death camp,” that’s what the planetarium informants preached to them for decades, which they actually believed. In your neighbouring countries in the north, there's good life, good citizens, good governance, no one is ever in need in that part of the world.

"Aren't we energetic people with arms and legs, why don’t we leave our doomed nations of the Hambreed and move south to the lands of milk and honey? The situation is hopeless here, we cannot by ourselves rectify it, no one can, let's stop wasting our lives in these mud clogged trenches and go forward to our dreamlands where food walks to you and sets itself on the table, and all you need is a fork to finish it off." they say to one another.

Many of these youngsters travelling aimlessly had been brainwashed by their communities that they have a better chance on the other part of the world than where they are at present. It makes one wonder why someone would risk so much to gain so little? It's probably more appealing in the mind than in reality, a result of many years of brainwashing them with beliefs that are not true makes the unfortunate to take dangerous measures, there's many of them who have been sent off to their perilous journey by their own family members.

Since they face rejection at home, they would rather choose to perish than go back home when they get to see the reality of things, "there is nothing for us there, only death," they say to their families, "so is here," reply their families, but at least there you have a chance for greater opportunities, here you are living in a sinkhole.

Do not return if you don’t bring back something of value,"

It's very evident why they prefer not to return home than come back with shame. Everyone has heard that they are travelling to a wonderful place and will therefore return with wonderful things, everyone is expecting a gift from them. Some of their own relatives are the ones sending them to their untimely end, those neighbours who once professed to love and care for them are now cleverly trying to get rid of them.

I heard a heart-breaking story of a woman who sold her family land and her dairy cattle in order to get funds to push her across the scorching heat in the desert. Her sisters had told her to do so, claiming she will make more money when she travels out of the country with the little she has in hand.

Upon reaching the shores she could not believe her eyes for she thought she was living in a dream. She could not enter Canaan because they were treated as criminals, the tribes and nations living there were hostile to them, she could not either return home because her funds had run out.

The unscrupulous agents had overcharged and stolen from her, she found herself between a rock and a hard place, but looking deeper into the story we discovered that her sisters had deceived into selling their family property so that they would get a share of the proceeds.

She inherited this property from her parents a few years ago, being the sole heir and left in charge of running all the activities of the family business, her younger and rather crafty sisters deceived her into selling all of it, because they know for sure if she had all the money in her hands, she wouldn't deny them a pinch of it, they would tell her, "you are going to a better place, why don’t you leave us with a small share of it, you will have it when you return. She wouldn't refuse us of course I believe." life on both sides of the fence is hard, but they are led to believe they will lead a much easier life on the other side of the palisade.

"The same is to say with our ancestors," says big Joe, were it not for those cruel kings we wouldn’t be here. Isn't African kings that sold our ancestors into servitude? In as much as the European slave traders are to blame for the damage they did to the communities, they are guilty of worse sin, because had they opposed the move the explorers would not have had much power over the locals, instead they chose to sell their own flesh and blood. Anyways, that’s a long time ago, those days are long over, and am glad we now dwell in sweet_Jamaica. Thanks to their sacrifice.

Neighbourhood -9- ethnic colonialism

Nations that are minimising births in their homeland slowly kill their native population and open themselves up for the world's largest ethnic communities to penetrate. Man's intellectual reasoning's and thoughts are great, he decides that keeping a small family is the best thing for each citizens welfare and the nation as a whole, but cultural and religious beliefs are strong, much stronger which easily overpower these notions, it is very hard to eradicate a practice that has gone on for thousands of years in just four decades.

In very densely populated areas, people gather themselves to find solutions to their problems. They call a council to discuss this issue, "brethren!” they say, “Why should we suffer in this desolate area when there is plenty of room for us in the outside world? We are like bottles stacked in a stale container, with hardly any place to breathe, gather all your belongings tonight because tomorrow we will journey South, to that countryside where fresh rivers flow, covered with beautiful green grasses, there we will set up camps, eat from the fruits of the land, buy farms and plough our fields, we will forever live in joy, let us invade this virgin territory united." They then swarmed across the sand dunes like locusts.”

Like a red army they marched in huge formations, they are so numerous that they easily overwhelm the natives, their previously feared opponents, even when the gates are shut, they flew in from every direction, and they pour in from the roof, from the backyard, over the stone wall. This really became a huge problem for many governments, they tried to put the situation under control, and sadly they couldn’t.

In the first weeks there was 50 trillion on the move, on the second week there was one hundred trillion, so on the first two weeks alone there was one hundred and fifty trillion on the move.

It is nearly impossible to contain a very large population in a very small geographical area. Even if a laser fence was put around to encircle the country borders many people would still find a way to get out to venture into new territories.

First the idea was to eradicate the problems that often arise from overpopulation, so the intellectual nations began their projects at home before they later spread their ideas to the other parts of the world, to make the world a better place (as they put it) which later proved disastrous, they made their natives vulnerable to invasion by land, sea and air.

A time will come when people will no longer put faith in paper travel. Travel papers will be of little or no significance when counting such numbers.

A passenger pigeon saw something from the sky, it thought it was a river of grains flowing on the ground, upon descent only to discover that it was heads of people travelling along the road.

Neighbourhood -10- A city of foreigners.

“Not unless you are a native Indian, then there is nothing you can tell me about being a foreigner here, they are the true owners of this land”, says the traveller, if you too are not a foreigner then your parents might have been, if not your parents, then it's your grandparents. I love cities where the majority of dwellers are foreigners or have some sort of foreign origin, say Port Louis, Mauritius, and Dubai, UAE, so that no single group of people can openly discriminate against another, saying, "You termites, go back to your country."

I can never tolerate the thought of someone calling me a lost traveller in Gotham, or Windy City, NEVER!

Have you got native blood flowing through your veins? Did you descend from the great chief Eagle Horn that you should be bragging about?

I hear stories that your forefathers mercilessly butchered the natives so cruelly that the mighty Colorado River flowed with blood for ten months on. But I am not going to put guilt upon you for the faults of your forefathers, you are a separate being. Some natives were equally violent I believe.

You have inherited the genes of your forefathers, the reason you are so aggressive and so much against me a foreigner. You attacked me from the very moment I set foot at the airport. You have been antisocial towards me ever since, you can't even give time to settle and learn the ways of the plains.

Neighbourhood -11-love of mother land.

Patriotism creates a sense of national unity, the citizens get to feel a sense of oneness and a belonging, so they join hands to raise their nation’s flag. On the other hand, it creates external disputes, cross border tensions rise. "What about those on the other side of the barbed wire? They certainly do not belong to our group, do they?” For security concerns the border patrol advices they stay away from the fence or else they would be charged with human trafficking.

The act of forcing people back into their motherland is a just and very precautionary measure according to the citizens, they give their governments full support in ridding themselves of potential dangers but on the other hand the nations which receive back their citizens see their neighbours as selfish hypocritical partners, "you call yourself great and wonderful yet you are unable to provide for the needy, the beggars that come to you, to eat from the food droppings on your table you send them away with your fierce dogs," then the neighbours answers, "if you have failed to provide basic needs for your citizens why do you send them across the barbed wire to my homestead?

There is hardly enough for my own family let alone add more mouths to the table, we tried to reason with you a while ago about how to harvest crops properly so that you will not lose precious grain and starve your citizens, but you refused to pay us any attention and went on with your idle life, now that you are faced with calamity you try to cast blame upon us, didn’t we offer our hand to help but you refused to accept it?"

Neighbourhood -12-A cruel Master.

A field commander once asked this his detainees,

“This master of yours you have so highly exalted, did he command you to drown suspects up in the rivers, and to kick the bellies of pregnant women making them loose their babies or did he ask you to slaughter infants like chicken then enjoy the feel of it, as you stand back to gloat over their misery?

There is something I still do not understand, do you enjoy to watch the suffering of your neighbours, does it give you enormous pleasure to see them go through pain, the ones you previously ate, drank and laughed with, the ones you attended their weddings and even danced with them at their venues, now shortly afterwards you have turned your backs on them and have refused to listen to their pleas for mercy.

The general continues to ask the detainees, but there are others with the same believes as you who are not doing the things you are doing or is it that you serve another master different from the one your country men serve.

You act so cruelly in our face, how worse could he be, you use your master's name to torture, rape and steal, if your master you so boldly and proudly represent was here to witness your actions, would he be pleased, would he be happy to say congratulations my servants you have been faithful to me & have done a great job for many generations, now I shall reward you richly, will he deliver to you many gifts?

I wish I could meet your master,” says the Commander, “and talk to him face to face, I will ask him whether it's true he really commanded you to do these heinous offences you are carrying out, or could it be works of your own creation, your own self exaltations and gratifications.

There are some of your country men who are doing things totally opposite of what you did, they are erecting magnificent cities, turning sand into gold, and transforming the face of the planet. With their laborious work they have improved the livelihoods of many.

If vengeance, Violence and cruelty are the fruits of your faith, then it appears that indeed you serve a cruel sad master, if you ever had any in the first place. Like a stone about to fall off a cliff, it tries to drag others along.

Little did I know that you had your own plans of violence and destruction in mind, then you used your master’s name to justify your actions.

Neighbourhood -13-Land Bottlenecks

International corporations do face a tough challenge when investing in many foreign countries outside their home, they face many difficulties especially when it comes to acquiring land from which they are to erect their premise headquarters, an industrial plant or any of the company’s structures. They often end up in confrontation with the local communities.

Forcing people out of their indigenous territories is a painful scenario to watch, the argument they have is that this is their ancestral homeland, which often proves a problem for many governments to solve, they don’t have legal documents to prove they are the real owners of this property but their evidence as they put it is that they have been here for a thousand generations and some villages still do not acknowledge modern systems of governments which are of European origins.

Long before colonial settlers arrived, they ploughed these fields and after they got their independence all land was annexed by the government now completely owned by it including that which belonged to indigenous communities. For one to get a share of it you needed to have paper money which means you go to the big city, labour for many years before you can come back and purchase a piece of land. But Since governments desperately needs foreign currency to run its activities and there are companies willing to pump zillions money into the economy, they have no choice but to push those few communities out of the land for a greater benefit of the entire country, they become squatters in the city and flock up in unplanned settlements, slums grow larger and larger each year with no sign of reducing or simply stopping. This has continued to remain a great challenge for many countries around the globe, as the question remains for the governments, should they let the people who have no viable economic use for the land keep it as this would deny investors a chance to benefit the country or should they sell them to foreign companies and try to find a way to soothe the anger of the locals?

Neighbourhood -14-somebody’s watching you.

“Fear the evil eye that stands upon that tower,” says Malcom to his activist uncle, the dark lord who sits upon the realm of Sarong sends out his spies to fly across all the land of Mildew earth, anyone who is against him will feel the full force of his wrath, there is nowhere you can gather in secret to conspire against him. Those who tried to oppose him in public had their families hanged in the city squares and their bodies torn apart by horses. There is nowhere in all the earth he doesn’t have his ears listening, and eyes frowning at. Fear the eye that stands on the dark tower, it can see everyone and everywhere, it knows everything, what is happening and what is about to come, it can catch anyone from any distance far away, dare not turn against them for you might find yourself turned into a piece of minced meat.

Neighbourhood -15-The 21st Century crusaders.

A cluster of youths have been gathered in a huge stadium, young recently from school, physically fit and mentally clear. They have been recruited from every known continent. In their thousands, they line up, they have successfully endured many months of gruesome training, now they are ready for the field, and they are here to listen to the final instructions of their trainer.

Now it's time for the Marshall to speak, all are in silence, "go out pistons to deliver our message to the world. Dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Deliver the world from tyranny and oppression, fight for freedom, justice, conscience, and order. Do not let anyone talk you down. Or make you think otherwise, for this is your day, it shall be remembered for all time."

The new recruits after having been made to believe that they are the saviours of the world, match out with full confidence, their gadgets full loaded, they are ready to strike at any time, all they are waiting for is an instruction from their commandos.

Upon reaching their destinations, they receive a handful of cheers form the locals. Some distasted them so much, when they heard they were coming they decided to hide themselves from their presence, and attacked them from the first instance they meet.

Savage brutality ensues, the first casualties start flowing back to base. Victims of the aftermath begin to be flown back home in their hundreds. When the push and pull game stays on longer than planned, days turn into weeks, weeks into months and months become years. Soon the perception of the locals starts to change, they switch their loyalty back to their oppressors, those they once bitterly demonstrated against, and reveal lots of secrets about the newcomers to them. "they oppress us, yes we know that, but at least they are our own flesh and blood, they live with us, and go through the same sufferings as we do, send these invaders back to where they came from, they have made our lives more miserable." they say, "we were being oppressed but at least we had plenty of food and clean water, we had nice jobs and our children went to school. Now we live a living death."

Eleventh century crusaders with the blessings of cardinals marched out to reclaim the holy city of Jerusalem, the twenty first century crusaders are now matching out to save the world from tyranny and oppression.

The sons of the republic have gone deep into the world and the world has come deep into them.

It's ironic to hear the people you have come to save are the ones who wish to see you vanquished, you have risked your life all along for them, now they are asking for your head on a silver plate, was the effort well worth it? The people you have sacrificed so much for won’t even give a token of appreciation. Instead of perceiving them as their saviours they begin to see them as their oppressors.

Neighbourhood -16-ideological warfare.

There is more ideological warfare going on around the world than the physical one. The globe divided into many distinct groups based on their beliefs and ways of doing things. Each one is trying very hard to convert all the others to their way of thinking. The major regions of the world might then in the future divide themselves into groups of four, and members of the same group will live cohesively among one another, nationality and places of origin will be of very little importance to them, national boundaries will literally disappear between these lines.

Categories namely;

Augustians,

These are liberals and free thinkers, they are full of ideas, and have many possessions. They emphasize free thinking and believe the world is going to be a better place if people are allowed to assemble freely to share ideas between one another.

Ghengians,

These are the victors through labour, they have a lot of work waiting for them at the concrete hall. Free labour as they believe it to be the solution to many of the problems the world is facing, every citizen should work hard for their life’s sustenance and simply stop pestering others with their endless problems

Saladians

These are fellows that are strict with their origins and cultural beliefs, all the success they make they thank their ancestors for everything they have acquired so far, everything they might need in the future they always refer to their cultural beliefs.

Madibians & Ghandhians

These are the peacemakers, they want no trouble with anyone, and will not take part on any side of any conflict. They are willing to interact happily with anyone that wishes so, but as soon as they realise that trouble is brewing, they quickly withdraw from the gathering and attend to their own personal matters.

Neighbourhood -17-government business.

An applicant once went into a renowned state office to apply for a job. The wing operates locally and does some activities internationally. Some in the open eyes of the public while others go on confidentially. The first question to the applicant was, "why do want to work for the government? Don’t you have other more important things to do?" when the applicant said that it was his passion and not a lack of job that drives him, he is allowed to proceed to the second question. If there is a family history of government workers, that’s well and fine too, it might speed up your application process. The interviewee is then revealed to him in plain sight all the dangers he might be putting his life into and asked to review his application before he makes up his mind.

"Are you sure you want to do government business? I know you are a good kid, but working around this place is not for the holy Joes, a time comes when circumstances force you to do things you could not have done otherwise, and neither shall you blame yourself nor anyone else for the results of your actions. We put up perfect plans, but you know there are also many other variables involved in the arena, there are many players in the field. Things might turn out sour."

If an application is approved the recruit then proceeds to another room where they sign hundreds of documents and perform dozens of pledges, they are then given a pair of surgical gloves, should they refrain from taking them or ask what they are for, then the recruiters tell them, "they are to keep your hands tidy and not be stained by either mud, soot or blood in the course of your duty, put them on, you really need them." they are taught many things, they are taught how to survive a jungle with no food and water, how to fly a shuttle, how to strangle a puma in the thickets just in case they have nothing in hands to protect themselves, how to swim across lakes and seas in case of a shipwreck, and many more things. "Come on son," he beckons him, "I will show you how to make deal with governments, how to trade with the distant nations of the earth.”

Every government around the world has its own dark secrets which it keeps locked away from its citizens, if it doesn’t do so, word might get out and may lead to a major civil unrest, and in worse cases, civil wars with the potential collapse of the society.

“Before you can undertake any government business you must prepare yourself extensively, it's not for the faint heart,” said the interviewer.

Neighbourhood -18-conspiracy kings.

There are these fellows that are displeased with the alleged inner workings of their governments. They then place lots of posters onto many places of public gatherings details of their grievances, which find their way into worldwide circulations, other forks from the farthest ends of the earth happen to get their hands onto them.

Conspiracy theorists thrive to expose alleged government secret operations and eventually spread all over the world and anybody who can gets their hands onto them believes them to be true. The visitors’ nations get to learn the language of the hosts, watch their politics and get to know more about them than the host knows about them.

Where there is lack of knowledge among the people, superstition takes a stronghold.

Neighbourhood -19-Mono planet.

There is a group of policymakers & lawmakers who are fooling themselves that someday there is going to be a global system of laws that will bring every nation under the umbrella of a single government, so from there on instability and chaos shall be no more. Such a statement would sound more like a threat of slavery rather than a message of hope to many nations, they feel that submission to the will of other nations would be a threat to their liberty and national security.

With the globe so huge and so diverse with its countries, histories, cultures and religions will be nearly an impossible task. Such dreams are worthless, they bear no fruits and those who fathom them live in a world of their own.

“We can do business, yes that we accept, we can exchange ideas among one another, yes that we accept also, we can share our cultures between each other, yes that we accept too, but one government? NEVER! We will defend our motherland down to every single last man,” they say and dispute sparks on from then.

I am not being pessimistic by saying this, it’s just that the facts say otherwise, such a huge enterprise will not be possible, let them do the math and they’ll discover that I am not for from the notion. A man can exert great influence upon others (his fellow countrymen) but he can never have absolute control over them, their thoughts, their feelings, their actions etc.

Many kings in the past have tried to do this very same thing and it ended up in disaster, they brought doom upon their own heads and sending their once prosperous kingdom into an irreversible state of decline, all the beautiful castles, places, courtyards collapsed into the soil. Never to be seen or heard from again. Blinded by greed they plundered the royal treasury, armed every able-bodied man with swords, spears and arrows. Fastened their body armour, held their shields tightly close to their chests, the horns are blown and they march out north, deep into treacherous forests they marched, crossed swollen river banks tearing down every fortress on their way and annihilating their inhabitants.

They pillaged and plundered every city they passed, soon news spread far and wide of their actions and their ruthlessness, some cities that were once their friends became their foes, soon they were surrounded by enemies on all sides, from every front a siege was laid. Then their opponents came up with a brilliant plan, they tricked them into crossing the sea of tall grass where they lost most of their troops due to malnutrition and disease, others were attacked by fearsome panthers. This has been the fate of hundreds of foolish kings who tore their homes into pieces. All great and small alike fell to the trap laid by the king of the yellow mountain.

If such a feat never happened in thousands of years how likely it’s going to successfully take place sometime in the future?

How can one man rule over a thousand nations? Not unless he has some divine authority and can be in many places at the same time. And have dominion on all mankind.

We were rowing a boat one day over a shallow ocean when all of a sudden a huge wave of water rose from underneath us shaking the boat violently, thence appeared a huge grey monster, and it tipped its head slightly above the surface then squirted water from its head as it breathed, "BOOM! there goes a whale,” says the mariners, the water fountained so far and wide that it fell onto us in the boat like hailstones , the experience as for me was so astonishing , it rumbled and thundered loud, we felt as if we were in a violent storm.

It’s a giant of the sea indeed, what a beautiful thing to watch? I have never seen one in the open, and it appeared to us so close and so quickly we were caught off-guard. Alongside it were some other fish and sea creatures relatively smaller to it in size enjoying its company as they swam alongside it, a really moving scene to watch. It continually raised its head slightly above the water jetting out thousands of litres of water from its breathing hole then softly descends back into the water causing a great loud splash and generating a huge wave that shook our boat sideways.

As we watched, we saw dozens of other wales emerge from the depths of the waters equally large and more terrifying in appearance than the first one, we saw hunchbacks, belugas, shark whales and other flesh eaters, they appeared to be gathering in a park, forming a circle around the first one, slowly encroaching on its space, they were after the huge shoal of fish around the first one, trillions of tones of planktons also floated nearby, a fresh food for the gang, when the first whale tried to resist they nearly tore it into pieces, they bit its back, its tail and was torn into pieces and fins were seriously injured almost crippling it, they almost killed cute little calf it was travelling with, the first whale had no choice but to leave the wolves of the sea in their feeding frenzy, and took a deep dive down below lasting almost an hour, it emerged later at a safe distance away from the pack, what a treacherous sea? We sighed. What can challenge a whale is another whale equally large and more aggressive.

Such an enterprise would be too large to administer and too expensive to sustain, a problem in a single state can wreak havoc on the entire globe which has now been interconnected and interdependent to one another with the wealthiest states having the most to lose.

Can any single leader deliver his message in a thousand languages across the globe, such an ambitious project is technically, socially, structurally, culturally, geographically, linguistically, religiously and politically impossible.

Nations of the world will always be divided into two or more distinct groups that conflict on ideas and ways of doing things, no king can be loved by all other kings, and no king on earth can become king of all kings, maybe in some fantasy world somewhere in the skies that would be possible, but not the one we live in, anyone who fathoms such a thought is chasing a false dream that’s directing him straight into a trap that may claim his life.

The one that tries to unite others under a common dream or goal is quickly branded as an oppressor by others, a tyrant, a manipulator and worst of all a threat to liberty of mankind.

Influence will remain paramount of course but absolute control is a thing that will never happen, for the world will always be divided. There will always be conflict of interests.

The blade of a sword can strike fear into the hearts of men, but does not win hearts.

Neighbourhood -20- nothing to lose.

An old tycoon was asked by his friends to run for the seat of the governor, "you are very popular around here and the people like you very much, why don’t you run for a public office, I am sure you are going to do a lot of wonderful things for our constituency, people know how very honest you are in your business dealings," they told him.

"No way!” he exclaims, “I have made a solemn promise that as long as I live, I'd never hold a public office, trading is one thing I have been very good at you may say, politics is another thing. Many of those who engage in politics are fellows who have got nothing to lose. If I engage myself in political affairs at this moment my opponents may find a chance to rob me.

If I venture into politics, I will soon create enemies who might easily target my account, to drain it of cash. They might accuse me of engaging in illegal activities, smuggling, funding of criminal organisations, the state then seizes my assets in the name of investigation and legitimate enquiries, in short, I may lose my property.

If not that, they may take you to court, you go through court battles for several years, even if they find out that you are innocent later on, the damage has already been done, you lose your customers trust, your cash flows and profits shrink, you are forced to chop off some of your assets for a sale at a throw away price.

That to me is enough reason to prevent me from going through all this trouble."

Its politics that always gets into the way of business, not business that mixes itself with politics.

“Politicians have nothing to lose,” said the entrepreneur that’s why many of them act impulsively without a second thought, after wreaking havoc and putting many entrepreneurs out of business, they simply walk back to their sweet homes to enjoy a hot tea.

If you have a chance not to involve yourself in politics then go for it, unless you have to, you don’t need to involve yourself in any way.

Neighbourhood -21-citizen Samuel.

you hear every day of citizens of a given country complaining bitterly how deeply flawed their leadership is structured, disorganization in the highest of ranks having brought calamities upon the peoples, systems that have been diseased, corrupt, inconclusive etc.

If they find or see their leaders as incompetent then it is the responsibility of every citizen to intercede for their leaders, what else can they do? Their time in office is not over yet, instead of casting blame upon them, pointing fingers, it would be better if they are complemented for the so called, "little good they have done at the time of their reign."

Neighbourhood -22-the last buffalo.

Chief Okalavou the ruler of the left western Indian tribe is fearing loss of his chiefdom, so he calls Bundokishva, one of his youngest sons, he tells him, last night I had a dream, the most terrifying nightmare I have ever had since the day I was born.

“In my dream”, he went on. "I saw a mighty buffalo of the great plains, it was huge & ferocious, it was covered with beautiful hairy coating around his body, on the neck, shoulders and the hind quarters, his hooves stamped the ground with a thud as it ran, and the rocks would crack under its feet, his snorting terrified all the animals of the plains, and wherever he walked, a way was cleared by the smaller creatures of the grasslands, its entire body was covered with pure muscle.

On a hill it appeared as if no arrow or spear could go through its skin, as I was standing on the other side of the side of the hilltop, I said to one of my hunting men, can’t one of you go and kill that beast for us? Its skin looks good, and will also provide a lot of meat for our people too. But they said no, in protest they shrieked back in terror, saying no one has ever touched that beast, many people who have tried have been victims of its aggression, and they ended up either losing their limbs or their lives. As we were speaking, I saw a huge axe, a double headed axe used by the wood choppers flying and rolling about in mid-air, it came from somewhere behind us, passed on top of us rolling many times and hit the buffalo on the shoulders, the buffalo was split into two and fell with a thud that shook the ground.

Then I heard war cries that sounded like horror with mixed celebrations, I saw all our tribe’s men coming from every direction waving their spears and clubs in the air in jubilation and rushed to the scene, they quickly slashed the beast and divided the loot amongst themselves. "

This is the message of interpretation I heard from Okaan the wise medicine man says there shall come a ruthless society , they shall sail in through the seas and make camps on our land, then chaos will spill out onto our people and divide them into two, with some on our side and with those supporting the intruders, many villagers will try and put up a resistance, they will fight to the last man, but they will all be defeated because they shall be greatly outnumbered, then they will take away our ancestral land and divide it amongst themselves, our tribe will be completely be wiped out and you shall never hear anything from them again.

I am just telling you this so that you can remember when the right time comes,” his son then painted all this story on a buffalo hide and some other leather skins so that the future generations will read them and know what has happened to them was not an accident, it was a calamity destined to take place. Our tribe, the mighty buffalo of the Great Plains will fall soon.

Neighbourhood -23- Solvable conflicts.

There is a list of conflicts that can be solved while there is another category that cannot be, one can be settled speedily and without qualms while the other can drag on for thousands of years.

Take for instances when two communities are fighting over a resource, a recent discovery let's say has revealed vast quantities of untapped underground gold in an area where the two communities border one another and has created viscous fighting between them each claiming to own the land, when the dispute goes on for a long time a great loss of life ensues, the national government comes in to mediate, leaders get to be chosen from both sides of the group and are given a chance to make peace, when the mineral is sold and the state has taken its share the remaining amount will be reinvested equally on both sides, or else the state should take everything and give nothing back to any of them.

If two countries get into dispute over a natural resource that borders the two nations say a river, a mineral deposit or a wildlife reserve, then a third-party nation can come in to mediate. "Brethren there is no need to pick up arms, is it gold and silver mines you are fighting about? Why not divide the treasure and each one of you goes with a half of the share, instead of causing unnecessary damage to one another." if the two countries come to fair terms with one another, then piece is restored once more.

The conflicts that cannot be solved are those that arise from ideological and religious differences, not unless you have better ways of thinking, what can you replace their beliefs with? It's nearly impossible to change other people’s thoughts and opinions, so anyone else around who does not share your ideas definitely becomes an enemy and should be eliminated, men have continued to hack down one another just they have always done for millennia. Such a conflict has no hope of resolution, it’s forever entangled with bloodbath, like a soil forever barren, where nothing ever grows.

The dwellers of Saalkon city massacred each other down to every single man. Only a blade of grass was left, and the animals came out of their holes to celebrate the sight of humanity destroying itself.

Neighbourhood -24- world in a turmoil.

Many people today live in countries torn apart by vicious civil conflicts, they are about one third, the other third lives in countries that constantly attacked by different types of feral groups and the remaining third live in ones that witness daily acts of violent crime, these are the three devils that have plagued our planet since the beginning of time and it appears to be no sign of improvement, even though there are exceptions, its quiet clear that we live in a small dark world as the pilgrim puts it, where everyone is trying to grab a piece of it.

Neighbourhood -25- the king and queen of hearts.

Victory in politics as it has always been is all about winning more hearts than your opponent’s side, the more hearts they win the stronger their poles are. Others have tried to bring down their opponents and were astonished by the results, they thought they could smear them with mud, so their supporters would be disgusted with their looks, and turned away from their side, to switch support to them. It unfortunately did the opposite, people looked at their favourite candidate covered with dirt all over the face and were disappointed, but they didn’t lose faith in them yet.

"Look, who has mud on his hands, isn't it that evil candidate? Look clearly, he has smeared all the other candidates on their faces with mud except himself, that’s why he's got mud in his hands." the crowd said, with such a crushing exposé, even the few supporters on his side left him to join the others whose names and identities have been defiled.

The game of winning hearts, political wings drawing attraction from as many parties as they can with the one that gets the most support becoming the strongest,

Kings also lure other kings far away to join their side of the heated debate or dispute, the one that acquires the most supporters gains supremacy.

The secret to a successful campaign is to outshine your opponents in every aspect, not smear them with mud so that you look cleaner and more attractive, if ye can outshine them ten times over, then ye are the undisputed champion of the forthcoming race.

When candidates are smeared with mud by their opponents all over their body including their faces, yet their supporters still loved them, in fact, even more, others form the outside joined the group which grew larger and dominated the race, to the end.

The voters are old enough to see the difference in candidates’ character, if they can distinguish day from night, and a man wearing yellow shirt to that who has put on a red shirt, then they can distinguish the differences between candidates, it doesn’t need to be drummed into them by their fellow competing candidates.

“If you see the brightness of your clothing is deeming, then take off your clock, leave the white linen clothing, and then shine three times better.

One thing that most politicians often forget is that you should never say anything evil about your opponent no matter how bad they are, lest it might be used to move the masses against you must remain the beacon of hope,” says, Ashdod.

Neighbourhood -26- For Better or for Worse.

There are no good governments, only bad and worse, if citizens are complaining that their government is not doing enough for them, then they should try another that is worse, they will remember that their previous government never gave them everything they ever wanted, but at least had everything they ever needed.

How can man create perfect governments when he himself his crooked? Impatience and greed blackens his heart, and arrogance puts dark cloud on his face, if the blind can mould a perfect statue, then can man build excellent governments that have no errors.

The behaviours and actions of governments are just a replica of what the society is like, difficult governments, means a difficult people to rule, calm governments represent a calm people. Where do those officials that work in the governments come from anyway? Isn't it from the same society they rule over? They did not fall from the stars, neither did they descend from another planet, but were born and raised in their motherland and have witnessed all its trials and tribulations, but when they got into office, they are suddenly changed, they turned into hyenas that chewed the bones of their citizens. Is this what they have become or could this be what they were before but kept it a total secret from others till when they sat upon the throne?

Imagine oneself staying on a tiny peaceful Island adrift the pacific or Indian ocean you'd not expect state officials there to be very harsh or handle the immigrants roughly because many of the dwellers are peaceful vacationers.

Government structures are a reflection of the society's beliefs, customs, and accepted codes of conducts. For a significant changes to take place at the top state level, major changes have to take root at the base level of common man, be it social, economic, cultural or religious change, it always starts with the common man before crawling up the ladder. The real question is why waste time and resources trying to change a society that may not appreciate you in the long run?

“It’s a wild Wild West out there”, says they cowboys, but we have never heard of putschists. Rarely heard of savage governments since the end of Napoleonic wars, several centuries ago. But when you visit Arigongo on the central mantle, you will often hear of putschists on a daily basis, no wonder the governments there are so suspicious of their citizens, they hire an agent for each one of them, to spy on their assigned individual day and night.

If the shepherd lowers his guard, even for a minute, the wolves will attack his flock, and eat the little lambs barely days old. There is a reason behind every leader’s action, whatever it is that motivates them, be it fear, pride, a show of self-worth, it was obviously influenced by a trend that pre-existed in the society before they came,

Neighbourhood -27-Machiavellian minds.

Every leader around the world has envisioned a prosperous nation ahead of them, they want their nation to become an industrial giant an economic superpower, and join the world’s super league. Even tiny island nations have big dreams too. “After all that’s why you elected us into office. What would our purpose be if we do not bring you greatness? What would we have done if we don’t turn this country into a healthy self-reliant population?” Many of these seemingly positive ambitions inversely fuel more international tensions.

Neighbourhood -28-Professor Tukkon's manual for young nations.

A young nation is one that is less than fifty years old, a middle aged one is between 50 and 100, any nation more than a hundred years old is considered old, and that above 500 is an elder and those that lived for over a thousand are living ancestors.

Neighbourhood -29-Enemy at your door.

Some travellers walked into the entrance of a castle with what looked like a suspicious cargo, a huge sack on their backs, the king quickly ordered them to be taken to a tightly locked dungeon and be inspected thoroughly before being allowed into the inner city. Some nobles and the people began to protest demanding justice for the visitors they remarked that the king was acting too cruelly on them, what evidence did he have? For what good reason there is that he should treat them that way?

The king then had to accept their plea and as the people wished the travellers were released and allowed to freely mingle with the local population. On the night of the second day, two large rats crawled out of their sacs and ventured into the neighbouring marketplace infecting everything, food, drinks, beddings etc. in the blink of an eye an unknown plague was spreading in the castle infecting thousands a day, it spread far and wide into the neighbouring villages killing important people, nobles and commoners alike, even the king’s son, an heir to the throne succumbed to the plague.

The king in pain and grief watched helplessly as his people perished, "had they listened to me, maybe none of this would have happened, now our castle has no future?" he wept

The monks came to give him some advice saying that he had nothing to do with this, this was a work of divine intervention. “When I tried to conduct thorough inspection on the visitors", says the king, “the people said that I was being cruel now let them enjoy the fruits of their stubbornness.

There is a very thin line between toughness and cruelty, it’s hard to distinguish the two either, and it’s also very easy to fall on either side of the tight rope. People do not like leaders that happen to be too soft that would allow an enemy to penetrate their protective barriers, they want their leaders to be tough enough so as to protect them from externally perceived threats, tough leaders carefully examine a problem and try to resolve it with the most extreme caution and the least possible damage, the way a surgeon tries to remove a foreign object from inside the body that is very close to vital organs, then proceeds to gracefully neutralise it.

A cruel king on the other hand acts impulsively, blinded by vengeance and rage, he wreaks enormous havoc for no apparent reason or by ideals some of his subjects see as rather foolish, a tough king knows when to take quick action and when to proceed with moderation, tough kings are feared and loved by their subjects, cruel kings are feared and loathed, like the sight of a lone wolf appearing on a hilltop, strikes fear among the herds of cattle and sheep in the valley below, they suddenly scatter.

Neighbourhood -30-Exile a new home.

Ninety percent of citizens in many countries don’t trust their governments, ninety nine percent of those governments don’t trust their citizens, and a keen eye must therefore be kept behind every citizen’s back just to make sure he doesn’t do anything that may endanger the lives of his fellow citizens.

What started as a simple disagreement and condemnation against the brutality of the state later turned out to be a war between two men, one is sitting in office running the country while the other has been exiled into a cast away island where he seeks refuge, he asks the natives to cover him with banana leaves so that the spy cranes sent by the evil king do not see him from the skies.

The fugitive claims that the king is mean and is using royal treasury to fund his evil campaigns, in return he is obliged to attack the nations supplies to weaken the king, the king on the other hand mobilises the nation in an attempt to put this man wondering the planet in chains. Both say they love their motherland and their people. Conflict between these two giants brings suffering to the common man.

These men are simply torturing ordinary citizens to settle their personal disputes.

After conquering most part of the known world, Alejandro was sitting in the palace quarters in the beautiful city of babylos, when a hill girl came to him, asked him, "Why do you still continue to fight when you have gained everything you have ever desired for? Please turn back home and enjoy a peaceful life with your newly acquired riches (with me as your wife of course)" stop this bloody campaign of yours lest it should cast shadow upon your own life." Alejandro then raised his head from his pillow and barked, "this isn’t what I was after, all this treasure is a loot for my people, spoils of war, none of my countrymen ever worked for it anyway, neither will you find any of these treasures in my kingdom, back at home, some of these cities are ten times richer than our own. What I am after is not wealth of our foes, but influence, I would want my name to be known in all parts of the habitable world. It’s hard to build an empire, and much harder to maintain it."

END OF NEIGHBOURHOODS.

##

Final Clause

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Footnotes.

My most used/favourite stylistic features

Sharp contrast

Heavy metaphor

Extravagant exaggeration.

The reference to masculine characters In the above stories is not a biased motive to discriminate against any gender, it's just for the purposes of description, the authors repeated use of words such as he/him/man/king are just for the purposes of enchanting the narrative, if you feel offended by them then feel free to replace them with whatever words you choose as you read along, these pronouns are NOT put in place to intimidate, you can also contact the author directly and specify which part should changes be made to and to what particular effect, the author respects all readers and will not misrepresent members of any class, age, status or gender. All readers are precious.

I am trying to avoid the inconvenience of having to jump from one side of the group to another as it easily puts the readers off, jumping from side to side, back and forth, here and there is really irritating, take for instance it's better to say, "the king came out of his castle, called the knights and asked him to take him out on a ride through the royal forests and left his son in charge of the castle," than to say, "the king/queen came out of his/her castle, called the knight/knightess and asked him/her to take him/her out on a ride through the royal forest and left his/her son/daughter in charge of the castle"

Textual homogeneity- some aspects of the words, phrases and stories share lots of similarities with one another, the keen reader who repeatedly crosscheck between different tittles will definitely notice this trend, if characters are portrayed in such a sluggish manner that makes the text boring to the reader, then reader please remember to inform the author as soon as possible.

Cover image: two next-door neighbours arm themselves to the tooth with deadly weapons as each person waits the other to launch the first attack.; theme by the Author