“Contemplation, Reflection, Insights and Resolutions”
It is the end of another year, tis the season to be jolly and all that jazz.
However, tis the season for something else – no not the holiday blues, though no doubt some will be suffering from this ailment. What I am referring to is far less emotional and more cerebral.
Tis (also) the season for contemplation, reflection, and insights about the out going year leading inevitably to the dreaded New Year’s resolutions to do better in the coming year. And what a year it was – good and bad.
Unfortunately many, if not most of these resolutions are never kept. And why? Is it because they lack meaningful contemplation or reflection or even insight? No, far from it. The reason why so many New Year’s resolutions fail is simple human nature.
That is to say as creatures of habit we find it difficult to change – even when it is in our best interest.
In one of my many moments of contemplative reflection, that come fast and furious especially at this time of year, I had a brief moment of clarity. It was one of those rare moments in life where you gain insight and you just feel, in whole or in part, that “it†all makes sense.
I thought about it for a bit and decided to share the moment.
The central question of this “light blub†moment was: why is there so much injustice in the world? Then I remembered a song from my youth – Bob Marley’s War.
I thought about it a little more then I remembered that the song was based on a segment of a speech given by His Imperial Majesty: Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia to the UN in 1963.
Before I reproduce the excerpt in full and without giving any thing away I would like to point out, firstly that the world has changed much since the speech was delivered and parts of it are no long applicable. Secondly, while the focus of the excerpt is racial equality, do not let that limit your thinking – the words are equally applicable, as you will see, to the struggle for equality generally.
I hope as you read the words below or enjoy them via Bob Marley you will contemplate, reflect, gain some insights but more importantly that you will make a life long rather than a New Year’s resolution, that is if you have not done so already, to fight injustice wherever found and uphold the values of equality and diversity – all proud and valued traditions of the legal profession.
Agree with me or not the words are as profound today as they were spoken in 1963. Enjoy:
That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained and until the ignoble but unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique, and in South Africa in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed; until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and goodwill; until all Africans stand and speak as free human beings, equal in the eyes of the Almighty; until that day, the African continent shall not know peace. We Africans will fight if necessary and we know that we shall win as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.