nationalism

The old exhortations to nationalist fervor and jingoist pride have begun to lose their appeal. Perhaps because of rising standards of living, children are being treated better worldwide. In only a few decades, sweeping global changes have begun to move in precisely the directions needed for human survival. A new consciousness is developing which recognizes that we are one species.

The existence of excessive nationalism is a symptom of a deeper problem in the collective consciousness, which is continually being exploited.

I am not posing these questions only to the world at large. I query us who own Christ as our life. Can God be pleased by the vast and increasing inequities among us? Is he not grieved by our arrogant accumulation, while Christian brothers and sisters elsewhere languish and die? Is it not obligatory upon us to see beyond the nose of our own national interest, so that justice may roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream? Is there not an obligation upon us to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God is we want to live in his wonderful peace?

We have not noticed how fast the rest has risen. Most of the industrialized world--and a good part of the nonindustrialized world as well--has better cell phone service than the United States. Broadband is faster and cheaper across the industrial world, from Canada to France to Japan, and the United States now stands sixteenth in the world in broadband penetration per capita. Americans are constantly told by their politicians that the only thing we have to learn from other countries' health care systems is to be thankful for ours. Most Americans ignore the fact that a third of the country's public schools are totally dysfunctional (because their children go to the other two-thirds). The American litigation system is now routinely referred to as a huge cost to doing business, but no one dares propose any reform of it. Our mortgage deduction for housing costs a staggering $80 billion a year, and we are told it is crucial to support home ownership, except that Margaret Thatcher eliminated it in Britain, and yet that country has the same rate of home ownership as the United States. We rarely look around and notice other options and alternatives, convinced that "we're number one.

Thanks to Lana Turner, Eleven Eleven, The Nation, LIT Magazine (USA), Critical Quarterly (UK), Beautiful Outlaw Press, no press, The Capilano Review, cv2, Rhubarb and Centre A Gallery (Canada).

Hope is soothing, but it can become deceptive if we cling to it as the last resort against reality,

...History is the key to the unity of a people. Its nostalgia pulls them together. Its gloom separates them further. Its successes make them stronger.

The good shall prevail in the end, the truth shall be the rule and the Cameroonian soul shall be free,_ Hans said in an emotion-choked voice, __owever, we should never lose our heads; we should always be prepared to forgive all the repentant souls.

The Cameroonian soul is genuine. It is noble, and it embodies humanism.

Our love for our country is worth nothing if it deprives us of our sense of humanity, if it destroys positive consensus.

Take a stand that reflects the widest horizons of your soul if you don__ want to be a slave to external powers.

What is there in this big wide world for a man to talk about with certainty besides his homeland, home and family?

Nationalism and ethnic pride, in the long run, delay human development, and the misery they cause must be recognized. If enough people saw that , maybe we wouldn't have so many wars.

True heroes don't fall. They only encounter temporary setbacks as they forge ahead towards progress.

_what else do we have to ensure our sanity except our love for something beyond ourselves__ur love for our families, our love for our fatherland?

Time alone can nourish or erode our emotions.

Having a deep sense of understanding is a huge burden for a mind that can__ directly influence things.

Don__ be afraid of those failures that do not lead to a loss of life or that do not incapacitate people.