"Pompiterre mo ma genal patat" jarul hullo.

David J. Pollay wrote a story portrayed in a short film on YouTube that some of you perhaps saw. It speaks to positive and healthier ways to react when negativity comes your way, featuring some driver who almost bumped into another car, presumably an Uber, yet went berserk as if he did nothing, or that the man just killed his cat.

I share because I found the film inspiring, and the Uber driver’s graciousness about as cool as the resulting conversation he had with his passenger. I will attempt to transcribe as follows:

The passenger asked him: “how are you so calm and so friendly; this guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital?” He replied: “well, I’ll tell you something, man... people are like garbage trucks.” The passenger couldn’t get it, so he asked: “really, now... how, how’s that?”

Then he went on: “well, they run around with garbage – and they’re full of disappointment, full of frustration, full of anger, and when the garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And sometimes, they’ll dump it on you... but you know what, you don’t take it personal. You just wave, smile; you wish them well, and you move on. Don’t let their garbage spread to the people at work, at home, or in the streets. You love those who treat you right and you pray for those who don’t... life is ten percent of what you make it; the other ninety, is how you take it.”

Amazing, right? Well, I’m not as cool as this Uber guy. In fact, I don’t know if his reaction is as easier done as the clip suggests, but here’s what I know: life is too short, and the amount of fucks you’re gifted to give are as limited as humankind’s finite resources are insufficient to satisfy all human wants. Therefore, due to the scarcity of resources, or in my analogy, of the fucks available to you, a problem of choice and of efficient allocation arises.

Perhaps the moral of the video isn’t too fitting a reference to I want to say, but what I want to say is that I don’t think it’s even good for anyone’s health to belabour motives as to why people don’t like what you do. I think it’s best to keep building up a reputation that no one can overlook even if unacknowledged. Remember, the fox didn’t argue the grape's nature as being a grape; he only said grapes are sour, and that’s his problem.

But this suggestion is if you don’t want to end up with imaginary discoveries, or the conclusion that people just don’t like you because it's you - and that’s the part I’d act Dr. Phil and ask: did you care to find out why? Can you do something about it? Then why worry? What if you aren’t all that? What have you done to resonate with their interests or feelings? If you tick all the boxes to spark appreciation of the fact that you’re onto something, and still in some bad books, don’t sweat it; pompiterre mo ma genal patat jarul hullo.

The Relegation of Truth

The only one who derives advantage from your gullibility is the conman, if the shoe fits politicians too, or just anyone you allow to get into your head, for in understanding how you think, they may find a way to your heart, undermine your focus, even the values you rep, leaving you heartbroken, but that’s after realising that you’re perhaps one of the few people left in this world who mean what they say.

I guess that’s why I admire people who go through the discomfort of thought before passing an opinion or accepting a narrative, and people with the spine to question absurdities, even if it means failing to corroborate a prefabricated construal of the people or sect they seem affiliated to.

It just sucks that that trait is getting gradually few, and that’s why today, the greatest enemy of the truth we all seek is our unthinking attachment of credibility to whatever the day’s trending topic is, especially one initiated by someone we idolise.

Even journalists that you’d expect to ascertain the truth are increasingly tending to act on such impulse, and all it now takes to build a story is a catchy sound-bite from some page, without regard to it being possibly altered not for concision, but to mislead. So, usually, it’s either the headline and story don’t agree, or the story is incorrect and someone is demanding a retraction, or an apology, or both.

Mali

I don’t think there’s ever been a crisis within this bloc that just came out of the blue. Tell me, but I believe all budding crises have always been signalled by grievances aired by the citizenry, if only Ecowas was as driven before the fact. And I think Mali’s situation is yet another such lost opportunity to nip a problem in the bud.

I think, just as the way we in this part of the world build infrastructure for political points and no preventive maintenance thereafter, is the same way we create all the fine democratic structures, Unions and institutions but don’t use the summits to reinvigorate the values.

In fact, if the saying that “development is maintenance” is anything to go by like I think it is, our underdevelopment is because of the lack thereof.

So, like a once overvalued power station soon suffers power cuts, or a barely inaugurated work is soon in disrepair, just like relationships lack remediation, even renewal of vows for some, resulting in avoidable divorces, infidelity, and unaffordable polygamy, so can the consequences of the infuriating inefficiency and questionable ethics of politicians be linked to the lack of maintenance of the values they represent.

Maintenance is important, and that’s why in my opinion, that Extraordinary Ecowas Summit and the ordinary measures thereof was all yesterday's work... which meeting, by the way, consisting of some delegates who are as scheming as the root cause of the crisis, I never expected the civilian demonstrators nor the military to be understood, and I'm not saying justified.

A Person's First Responsibility is a Person’s Self

I don’t think our problem is lack of references to model our solutions on, but pinpointing the problems to fix, if everyone’s as unique as every child’s mother on Mother’s Day - a classic antithesis of growth, because nobody wants to swallow their pride when it comes to accepting their own wrongs.

Apparently, we all want to shape this country as considered necessary, just about as much as we all know we are largely the source of our own problems, yet everybody’s the outlier, because everybody wants to remember and retell events in a light most favourable to them..

That’s why everybody is suggesting “attitudinal change,” but always with somebody else in mind, and everybody has one such usual suspect, inviting the obvious question: how can anybody change when nobody feels flawed?

Now, "Gambian bi defa...” has become the clichéd lead-up to setting a stage from where anybody can venture beyond all bounds of respect and still justify their aggression as just an honest conversation, forgetting that a person's first responsibility is a person’s self, failing which trashes one’s impact.

The Gambia and the Politics of the Young

It’s encouraging to see our young people being painfully desirous of becoming political figures, but I wish the resilience thereto, was as remarkable as I love the ambition, for it sucks that each time they’re reminded to “earn” their spot as would every political participant, they suddenly feel “excluded” or “overlooked.”

I don’t think that’s a reasonable assumption, because just as some young people think it's unprogressive to elect veterans to captain our ship, settling for a novice who intends to learn on the job is a stake some of us wouldn’t lay our bets on, especially sailing in unsafe waters.

But here’s what’s never too early to do: start getting involved, volunteer for a party whose values match yours, help further their cause, build a reputation that evinces the influential young leader you want us to see, and by “us’ I mean communities beyond your comfort zone, so that your name will require no introduction when it’s time to seek endorsement.

As far as I’m concerned, anything less is a shortcut and shortcuts cut short – it’d take only one conscious old lady to grill your insight into the realities of, say: Sarreh Dompho, or Touba Wapa, or Foday Kunda, or the Karantabas in Kiang and Sami, and the credibility of your specious platform and depressing slogans are done for, if relatively, your book-knowledge is a contrast with the serious issues experienced only beyond Brikama.