Harmony in Diversity

In the last three months, I have wanted to write about something but couldn’t find a subject that is not COVID-19 related.  Everyone is writing about the pandemic and there is simply too much information and news. In some cases, information has been contradicted by the very people who released it in the first place.  In my house, one of us was designated the official Corona Virus expert.  She kept us updated and I completely stopped reading anything COVID-19 related.   

If you are used to being engaged in current affairs and find yourself disinterested in the trending topic you become very bored and lonely.  I found myself very bored in the last three months. Every newspaper, television and radio was a source of depressing news about the pandemic. I got sick and tired of it all.

God must have heard about my frustration and lamentation. Some white police officer in the US with no misgivings about killing another human being knelt over the neck of a black guy called George Floyd for about nine minutes,  Even as the poor guy called his mama gasping for breath, Mr. Monster was not letting go.  George Floyd was pronounced dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.   This was enough to start off the majority of black people and their sympathizers all over the world.  All sorts of bloggers and posters started writing about the injustices that have been meted out on black people over the last 400 years.  One particular statement by Rev. Al Shaprton caught my eye – ‘It is time for us to stand up in George’s name and say get your knee off our necks’.  It was good to see for once, the entire human race rallying about the same issue.

However, while I sat and thought about all this, I pondered over the following question, how does one kneel over another for over eight minutes even when it is clear that the other person is in danger of dying and the kneeler doesn’t even get emotionally moved.  This must be very deep-rooted hate.  How does one get this kind of hate?   Some people have argued that we acquire this hate through nurture.  'Human beings are never born hateful', the proponents of that opinion add.  In a way that argument is true.  I have come to the conclusion that the stronger we accept as true, our own political, social, cultural and religious beliefs, the more intolerant we are to those with divergent ones.

The problem is not that the police in the US are killing black people for fun; it is that all of us collectively continue to be intolerant of each other.  Yet diverse as we are, if we all lived in harmony as one human race, this world would be a great place.  I was born and raised as a Christian who is traditionally loyal to the Buganda Monarch.  Growing up, I have interacted with people of different cultures, beliefs and political persuasion.   Some of these people hold very different views from those I was brought up with, indeed some hold beliefs that I was told to despise as I grew up.  Yet, I have found some of these people to be the most beautiful human beings that ever walked this earth.  As a young man, I had problems relating with such people.  Overtime, I have learnt to be more tolerant and found it easy and beautiful to live with all kinds of people.  

I have found one of the best ways to achieve this is to let people express themselves and do what they want without the fear of being offensive.  In turn, I have learnt not to take offence over small issues that would destroy that great relationship I have with people.  I don’t have to agree with someone for them to be my friend.  We can be friends even if we hold divergent views on religion, culture and politics. Besides life would be so boring if we all had the same beliefs and did the same stuff.

Can you imagine a world with only people who believe, that after death we are all going to end in some place with only two entrances – one leading to a place with heat of a furnace and another to paradise with all the good things like we have never imagined.   Or can you imagine if we were all gays, or only traditional loyalists who believe that monarchs should have the ultimate authority over every person, or people who think that there is a race that is superior and meant to rule over others?  It would not only be boring but dangerous.  We should all be happy with the diversity amongst us and instead celebrate the fact that we are one human race.  We should live in harmony.

If you are reading this, start accepting that not every one sees things the way you see them or agrees with the opinions you have about everything.  Resist the temptation to impose your thoughts and opinions on other people. Having our own minds is what makes us individual and beautiful.  If you cannot handle a fact that as an NRM supporter you can have a friend supporting Bobi Wine or that as straight person you can share a professional life with a person who is gay, you are no better than the racists and police who kill black people just because they are. 

People don’t have to agree with everything you do or believe for them to be decent human beings.