After
a long argument, on whatsapp with a friend who study abroad, it dawned on me to
write this piece. She believes there are more of young entrepreneurs, CEOs,
researchers etc. in developed nations not because their countries are
developed; providing ALL they need to achieve success at tender ages, but
because they read more and act almost instantly, and she argues that we read
less and don’t act! You may want to disagree with her. That’s fine, but prove
her wrong by reading this article completely, and, of course, act instantly
where you’re convinced truth is stated. Then you can make your comments and
arguments.
Often
times, people in large gatherings fragment themselves into small close-group of
friends. Interestly, I found out that people do this fragmentation into smaller
cliques unconsciously. Though I believe we should be intentional about who
becomes a friend, I’ve found myself in group of friends, not knowing how
exactly we became friends or even acquaintances. Some till this moment we can’t
figure it out. It’s what we do instinctively. Obviously, people within our
inner circles of influence are those we share some basic things in common. No
matter how little those things we share are, they form the binding-covalent
bonds amongst us. I remember a good friend telling me that, ‘you’re my friend
today because of the genre of songs we love listening to.’ That would have been
the least reason I could imagine.
If you’ve read the above paragraph properly and you
lift your eyes to read the title of this article again, you’re likely going to
say “this is a wrong title for the article.” Maybe because I’m now discussing
similarities not differences. To have you not make that judgment lets consider
other cases. In a market, two people leave their homes in the morning to join
the crowded environment, both have something to offer, but the two people have
different interests at heart. One is the seller; who prays to make good sales
each day. The second party is the buyer; whose hope is to buy nothing but
quality. The differences between the two fellows create a stable
self-sustaining environment, the market. Imagine the two parties are either
sellers or buyers. It doesn’t make any sense! Here’s the point if you’ve not
puzzled it out; the seller owns the particular product needed by the buyer to
satisfy his urgent/pleasurable needs. The buyer has in possession what the
seller need to sustain and prosper his business, and of course meet his human
needs, the buyer has money. In other words, they have the solution to each
other’s problems. The difference in
their needs create a platform of solution to their problems reciprocally. It’s
no exception with the academic environment; where someone gets paid to generously
give a fraction of what he/she has learnt, experienced or discovered. Another
person (probably me) has to pay a meager sum of bucks to be imparted with some
world-changing knowledge. These differences
make up a school anywhere in the world. Beside, if I don’t perceive I have a need, which is different from
that of the person imparting me with knowledge, I wouldn’t have used the
opportunity cost of coming to school instead of doing something else – like
doing business, which it too, will only prosper if I can figure out the needs
of the society. Societal needs could be different from my personal needs, but
my personal needs will be met after meeting someone’s different needs. This
sounds like the principle of the golden rule.
Now, let’s have a gross mental picture of the world,
where you see different people with different skin colors, ascents, beliefs,
social norms and values, ethics, ethnicity,
religion, political views,
ambitions, principles, policies and philosophies. These differences are aimed
at making the world a neutral, stable whole. An atom is believed to be
neutral/stable because of the existence of this difference we’ve been talking
about. The sum of the negative charges (electrons) equals the sum of the total
opposite positive charges (protons). The two charges neutralize to create
stability. How about the law of electrostatics in physics; unlike attract, like
repel. Ultimately, we can’t live life without the existence of difference among
us. If the forces of our human differences are not recognized and valued, we’re
never going to make a world of stability and unity with peaceful atmosphere for
the human family to breathe in and out love.
I believe God who created nature, and nature imposing
these differences, did it for good; for the human creatures to see the
importance of each other. If we all look alike facially, folks, it’s going to
be a disaster; crimes will not be easily detected. Think of more disasters
yourself. How about if we all have interest in the same things; career,
wife/husband, lifestyle, inclinations etc.? Some people can’t travel except by
air. I never blame them; they create job opportunities for pilots and aeronautic
engineers. Others prefer to travel by road, thus, the road transport union form
an employing body to millions of people out there. Our differences create great
opportunities for us. That’s the uniting power of our differences, to glue the
different human societies into a single whole, a single world. Our differences
basically are stuffs that spice up life. It makes me want to dive deeper into
life and explore more of the commonly neglected opportunities which only the
understanding of human differences can offer. Let’s value the differences.
If you can’t tolerate other people because of ethnic or religious differences (unfortunately even the educated fail in this
aspect!), you’ve got some really big problems understanding why these
differences must exist. You can’t change
it. It’s a historic, life-long and forever-constant principle. No one man sat
down under an apple tree to make this great discovery, like Isaac Newton did. It
manifested itself naturally. It’s said that, ‘it’s a sign of maturity to accept
and be at peace with things you can’t change.’ The existence of these
differences in our world is what nobody, not even a sect or gang, can
exterminate. Accept it, tolerate it and enjoy its existence. Respect all
people, irrespective of their individual school of thought, religion and ethnicity.
Love people, add value to humanity. The world is all we’ve got, and as the now
late Michael Jackson sang it melodiously, ‘lets make it a better place for you
and me.’
WRITTEN BY: Adamu Musa Taimako
nice one
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