Solomon Bakare

Friday, 2 November 2012

WHO IS YOUR ANGEL?

“All God's angels come to us disguised, and they have no philosophy but love” – Unknown.

Professor Katy Khan

Almost every religion has an angel. They might not share the same name but they share the same purpose which is to guide, protect and comfort believers (see Gen 24:7; Psalm 34: 7 and Act27:24).

According to the bible angels are created beings, non-human, spirit beings (Psalm 48:2 & Heb 1:14).

They cannot die, cannot be numbered (Luke 20:36 & Heb 12:22),are normally invisible but can take on the appearance of men when the occasion demands and manifest themselves to us (Heb 13:2).

Most references to angels in the Bible say nothing about wings

As awkward as it may sound in this 21^st century. It is my opinion that professor Khan is an angel sent into my life. She was my lecturer and a friend, but her human characteristics are like that of angels, so I call her my angel.

I am who I am because of God and her. If you ever came across a person called Professor Khatija Khan, Department of Communication Science at the University of South Africa you must know that she is an angel sent from above.

No words can fully describe this woman's humanity, generosity and good heart.

The Bible indicates that angels strengthened Jesus after His temptation and encouraged the apostles to keep preaching after releasing them from prison (Matt 4:11 & Acts 5:19-20). Professor Khatija gave me strength and encouragement when I needed it the most.

In 2002 during my undergraduate studies, I was prevented by the university from writing my 2nd-year-end exam because I could not pay my tuition. That was a low moment in my life. I could see my academic dreams coming to an end, and I prayed to God for help.

I needed money urgently and I thought that God would provide money to pay my tuition, but I was wrong. God did not send money to me, instead He sent Professor Khan into my life. It was as though a bright candle was lit in a dark ally. She gave me strength and encouraged me with the message of hope.

She provided guidance to me throughout my undergraduate and further studies. She saw possibilities in me when I was yet to discover my true self. She held my hand to my academic success and even where I stood now she has not let go of my hand.

Bible record shows that angels provide physical needs such as food for Hagar in Genesis (21:17-20). In the same way Khatija went all out to put food on my table. She ensured that I got employment after my first degree. Yes! She made it happened because she’s an angel of God sent into my life in the form of humanity.

“Angels are all around us, all the time, in the very air we breathe” - Eileen Elias Freeman.

If you are reading this post, it's possible that you never saw an angel with wings as you've read in books, but your angel may be in the person of your teacher, lecturer, friend, neighbour or a fellow student. He/she may come from tribes or races different from yours, and may speak different languages which you do not comprehend.

All you have to do is to be alert and observant to the people around you because one of them might be an angel sent into your life. Do not allow your prejudices and stereotypes to chase the person God has sent into your life as an angel away from you, because your angel may come to you as a man or woman from a tribe or race you dislike, but with a hand of help stretched out to you. It will be your decision to accept or decline based on your perception.

I accepted the hand of help and possibilities stretched out to me by Professor Khan without any hunch that she’s an angel sent to me from God Almighty.

THANK YOU PROFESSOR. INDEED YOU ARE AN ANGEL.

Sunday, 28 October 2012

SEX ON UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES

Dr. Agrippa Khathide

The allegations that some university campuses are used to hold striptease shows, pornographic movies and even brothel activities during weekend nights should not come as a surprise especially to people who interact with the students especially at tertiary level.

The painful part of the saga is that most of those students are being sustained by the meager salaries of their poor parents. The reason often offered for being involved in sex work activities is lack of money. My worry is whether poverty can be used to justify immoral behaviour. There are so many people, old and young, who live in abject poverty but who refuse to betray their values and dignity.

It could be that students who engage themselves in sex-work activities may no be in dire need but just want to cash in on a quick buck for their envisaged life of luxury other than their basic necessities. In order to maintain this lifestyle, poor parents are meant to pay through their nose. A story is told of a learner where I live who told his mother that he needed money to buy a “photosynthesis”. Because of ignorance, the poor parent had no choice but to pay the required amount.

As parents we cannot remain unconcerned by this state of affairs. Institutions of higher learning are meant to produce leaders of our society. If the rot is not stopped there we cannot hope to have a stable society.

But it would be hypocritical to say some of this questionable behavior by students is new. The difference is that modern students have become more daring and aggressive in what they do more so if it touches on morality.

A member of the SRC from one of the institutions gave a call pleading with me if I could visit their campus because their student body was sinking under the yoke of immoral behaviour. He said that as many as 50% of their student body is HIV positive. Obviously I could not independently verify those statistics. But undoubtedly this should sound an alarm to all those who are concerned not only with the moral life of younger people but of the nation as a whole. The investment of government on each university student is sufficient to jolt society into immediate action to salvage our students on various institutions.

One would hope that students at the higher institutions of learning would be intellectually independent enough to stand their ground and make decisions that would benefit country and society as a whole. But away from the watchful eye of parents, some students decide to be influenced and swayed mob thinking only to regret it later on in life.

The life of a booze, zol and jol may be attractive to those who are new to campus life but at the end it does not carry one anywhere. It leads to the route of self-destruction.

There is nothing that makes sex more interesting if it is done on a campus. Actually, it may leave a person with permanent scars. I am reminded of the words of Richard Forster who says, “sex is like a great river that is rich and deep and good as long is it stays within its proper channel”.

This post was originally written by Dr. Agrippa Khathide who is also a pastor of one of the oldest church in South Africa - the Apostolic Faith Mission.

ON THE HIGH PLACES

EXHORTATION DEDICATED TO MF 2012 TEAM

The Strong determined ibex (wild goat) scales the steepest cliffs with speed and agility, nimbly leaping up the sheer face of the rocks. Found throughout the wilderness, the ibex symbolised beauty to the people of ancient times.

It is not uncommon to see herds of graceful ibex scale and descend more than twenty mountains a day. The ibex can use only a small crack in the sheerest cliff as a foothold to leap two or three yards.

wild goat

Usually travelling in herds of thirty or more, the ibex feed on the leaves of small bushes and trees scantily dotting the mountaintops. Upon the approach of an enemy or intruding predator, the ibex will leap quickly up the side of the cliff to higher ground.

The writer of 2 Samuel 22:33-34 draws from the agility of the ibex to describe the power of God: “God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of [ibex], and sets me on my high places.”

This exhortation is dedicated to my current Midrand Flame (MF) team who are enduring unnecessary nagative criticisms from one of their lecturers for the good work they did with the last colour edition of MF. I know that the negative criticisms are tearing you down slowly, but do not be heart-broken. I believe in you and in your journalistic skills. I also believe in your future, and I know that your tomorrow is very bright.

Remember that God makes us like the ibex. When faced with a colossal problem in our daily endeavour, we can climb over it. Straight up with grace and agility, we can leap over criticisms even with the smallest footholds. Then we can stand on the high places.

When faced with a mountain, remember the ibex. Do not quit! Climb over

Saturday, 27 October 2012

ETHICS OF LOVE

The well known Judeo-Christian principle of loving one’s neighbour is also found in similar forms in Islamic and Chinese tenets. In media ethical scholarship, love-based ethics have been developed around central concepts of nurturing, caring, affection, empathy and inclusiveness. The greatest of them all is love.

The Ten Commandments of the Old Testament constitute one of the main areas where Christians look for God’s will. What people should do (i.e. what is ethical) is contained in the commandments, and, provided people follow them, they behave ethically.

Judeo-Christian books of life

For journalists, applying the ethics of love, or taking care of people, implies that he or she should provide news that is timely, reliable, undistorted, accurate, understandable and captivating because this will show the ethical standpoints of such media worker.

The basics

In terms of ethics of love, journalists are supposed to show empathy when there is tragedy. They should not treat the victims as another human story the public must read.

If journalists can embrace the ethics of love, it would therefore become mandatory for them to demonstrate some level of care in terms of tragedy, and how they report their stories as a sign of duty to the public.

One would say ethics of care is especially appropriate in those times when journalists deal with disaster, suffering and pain. Unfortunately, the mantra of journalistic objectivity and independence sometimes harden into callous attitudes, where journalists do not allow themselves to empathise with victims of disease, crime or trauma.

Show your humanity to victims of tragedy

Ethics of care would allow journalists to not see compassion, engagement and sympathy as flaw in their professional make-up, but in fact as the appropriate and best ethical response when confronted with the pain of those they report about. I would say that being a good reporter is not being emptied of humanity.

In a country such as South Africa, with more than average share of trauma, an ethics of care may lead journalists to extend their social responsibility beyond the enumeration of the statistics of poverty, the political debates around HIV/AIDS or the horror stories of crime to delve deeper and provide contextually relevant stories that open up possibilities for greater understanding and compassionate action.

Show some love on your next beat

I would like to distinguish between ‘pity,’ associated with condescension, and ‘compassion,’ which refers to the desire to relive another’s suffering by supplying what they need. Compassion can be considered the emotion associated with an ethics of care that sees the media’s role as one of engagement rather than distance and detachment; a lack of compassion can be ‘at the heart of some of the more unsavoury journalistic practices like ambush interviews and pack journalism.

Pity, on the other hand, even when sincere, can construct a kind of spectatorship suffering that merely confronts audiences with images of distant hunger, disease and death – without enabling them to do anything about it”.

Such simplistic reporting leads at best to a kind of ‘compassion fatigue,’ and at worst at a kind of voyeurism which makes it acceptable and even predictable for audiences to consume images and narratives of a suffering ‘other’. Audiences are then turned into morally ambivalent or neutral spectators, with no moral compulsion to imagine themselves in a relationship of care and responsibility towards another.

Ethics of love and care protects the individual rights and interests based on shared virtues. Ethical responsibility of journalist in this case would be concerned primarily on how the media can build, heal, and protect rather than attack. This is what we need in our beloved country, the ethics of love and care. It will go a long way to heal our racial wounds, and there will be smile on our faces again.