imagine

Imagine if the answer has been found. 

    Just imagine. 

Imagine if an accessible, practical and achievable answer to our suffering existed. An answer that breaks through political and religious tribalism, diminishes ego and opinion, and stomps out the corruption, war and poverty we live with. 

The answer exists. Actually.

But why should you believe me, when so many on the web jostle for your attention with flashy videos, loud opinions and influencer-size audiences, all making fantastical promises? 

Simple. I crossed the lines that I had been taught to fear, lines taught to me by apartheid, by the politicians of my youth, and found, on the other side of the manufactured divides, the most beautiful people. I found the answer while I served in the army that practices Ubuntu, alongside thousands of other South Africans. I slowly uncovered the answer, to the black and white, in the tears and the rubble of South Africa’s poverty. I have done the heavy lifting. I have done the digging. I have done the work, and I found the answer. It’s so simple.

The answer lies within YOU. Literally within YOU. If you are tired of the corruption, the war and the poverty, then YOU must do something about it. A bold statement. Perhaps fantastical? How do you stop a war? Or end poverty?

Simple.

You connect with the people you have been taught to fear, with the people on the other side of your beliefs, on the other side of your tribe, your color, your god. Reach across the divides taught to you, reach out of your comfort, out of your resignation and connect with the people on the other side of your fears.

Create beige where black and white once lived. Beige is a singularity. Create a single voice and hold the politicians, the “leaders”, the elite, in whom you have always placed your trust to find the answer, to account. As one voice. One united voice. Different, diverse but united. Connected and clear in purpose.

Connection creates policy. It lights a fire under the politicians. It brings the politicians to-heel, where they belong, as servants to the beige, as servants to the diverse, united people of South Africa. This will deliver peace and equality. This will deliver schools, jobs and safe neighborhoods. This will deliver justice. Justice for all. Irrespective. This, and this alone, will end the corruption, the war and the poverty.

We have done a pretty good job of this in South Africa over the past 30 years. In fact, on so many levels, I believe that post-Apartheid South Africa stands as an example, in all its imperfection, corruption and failure, as an example to the world of what forgiveness, growth and diversity looks like. We have done 30 years of national rehab. Not many countries can say that.

Well done to those who stayed. We have met and talked and cried and opened to the others. There was no genocide. There might have been, but there wasn’t. South Africa is a beacon for diversity, and I am so proud to be part of it. There is still so much to do, but we have incredible people in our country, and if anyone can do the work, we can. They don’t know what we know. Ubuntu.

And to our neighbors to the far North West, to the US, where division is mounting and your nation stands divided, I hope you can learn something from South Africa. I hope you have the courage to reach across the divides that separate you and connect with the people on the other side of your beliefs. To create purple where red and blue once lived. A purple singularity. This will bring healing. And policy. Policy that represents all, irrespective of color, wealth and denomination. Connect. This is the answer. I promise you. You need look no further.

The heavy lifting has been done. The answer has been found. It's simple. Connect. Create beige and purple in your own lives. And then, make it trendy. Take it viral. #connection. Talk about it, spread it, advocate and argue for it, create flashy content about it, influencer-audience it. Get it out there. Share it. Aggressively. Convert and convict in the name of connection.

It is time to play a role in your own future. Reclaim your agency. Reclaim your say. Reclaim your humanity. Accept your responsibility for driving change. Accepting your role in a compassion revolution is a much better option then pinning your hopes for peace, equality and transparency on a corruption of politicians that divide you and consistently fail to deliver on any of their words.

And if you do believe me, and you take the opportunity to connect, remember, that when you meet those, you have been trained to fear, don’t be kind. Yes, don’t be kind. Do Kind.