The Elite

The home of the elite... lofty...

Society is built upon those who have the power, influence and wealth to be leaders. Most leaders in countries come from privileged backgrounds and project an elitist mentality. Well-educated, snobbish and likely arrogant, these individuals are given every opportunity to reach the top. Their opportunities are theirs to lose.

At the bottom of the totem-pole are those who have little other than their pride and their faith. They scrap and battle to get to where they are and have to make themselves into something to get there. Some, who do make it to the top, adopt an elitist mindset but some manage to preserve some sense of humility and respect.

Why is it that most of society is enamoured with trying to join the ranks of the so-called elite instead of trying to adopt the mentality and personalities of those who are at the bottom? From professional designations to adding little letters after people’s names such as PhD, MSc, LLP, etc. we’re looking to be elite. In some things we should try to be elite such as the need for education, growth and being all that we can be but in others, we need to adopt the mentality of the anti-elite; to be humble, sincere and true.

The world is full of too many individuals looking to increase the divide between the rich and the poor and not enough who are prepared to bridge the gap. That’s what makes people like Muhammad Yunus and Nelson Mandela good examples in today’s world… people who are prepared to bridge that gap and redefine what it means to be elite.

“He just sits, and watches the people in the boxes, everything he sees he absorbs and adopts it…”
- Lupe Fiasco (The Instrumental)

Overdrive

Warped in code within a greater world...

Many years ago, I made a terrible mistake. I entered into something that I probably shouldn’t have and I paid the consequences of it. It forced me to have to step back, reevaluate things and have to make massive course corrections to start heading in the right direction again. I really don’t know if I made all the right corrections or not but what I do know is that for where I was then and where I am today, I’ve had to operate in overdrive to get here.

This has taken a terrible mental and physical toll on me. I exhibit symptoms of a brain cancer patient nearly thirty years older than me yet there’s no discernable tumour in my head. Thanks to some weird neurological problem, I’ve developed a pinched nerve in my arm and it’s caused massive muscle damage in my hand. It doesn’t help matters that I broke my other hand while playing hockey last summer and that it hasn’t fully healed to how it was before…

What does this all mean? It means that years of operating at overdrive along with injuries and other incidents throughout life require me to take some time to rest and get well. Refresh, restart, detoxification, reboot, wind down, rest, reenergize – whatever you call it, it’s necessary now… and with so much still to do, it’ll come after I have some extended time off first.

“Can’t ever keep from falling apart at the seams…”
- Duran Duran (Come Undone)

The Stranger

A storm is brewing...

The worldwide Muslim community is in a state of perpetual weakness. After years of colonization, war, suffering and revolt, the Muslim population has become the target of many both in physicality and through the media.

In many respects the Muslim population has accepted this fate. So hard have times become for followers of the faith that they now look for acceptance from members of other faiths. Muslims are constantly having to defend their faith from those who attack it and constantly in need of some sort of poster-boy or spokesperson who can bring it mainstream validity with non-Muslims. The moment that they find out that someone famous – or even remotely-famous – is Muslim or has converted to Islam, Muslims get excited thinking that this person may just be the person to bring them respect and acceptance. An example of this: the supposed conversion to Islam of Will Smith when he was making the movie Ali a few years ago which brought about a brief media storm…

It also doesn’t help that many Muslims cut down their elevated spokespeople because of their “lack” of faith. The spokesperson doesn’t have a beard, isn’t religious enough, fraternizes with people, isn’t Muslim enough, etc. Thus, whoever gets placed into being the poster-boy suddenly gets brought down by the Muslim community due to these supposed flaws. An example of this: Muhammad Ali who is, despite being well-liked by most people, attacked by many Muslims because they feel his faith isn’t worthy enough to be in that lofty position.

In the end, these people who are elevated to becoming poster-boys so that they can be accepted by the non-Muslims are ultimately rejected by their own people. The bigger question is really why look to non-Muslims to accept Islam when Islam came as a stranger and will always be a stranger? Regardless, Muslims need to stop looking for acceptance from the mainstream because their acceptance is of no paramount value. In the end, Muslims follow Islam to please The Creator, not to please those who choose not to adhere to the faith.

“The ink of a scholar is worth a thousand times more than the blood of a martyr…”
- Lupe Fiasco (American Terrorist)