My long essay which earned me a Bachelor of Arts degree (First Class) in French Literature from the University of Port Harcourt in 1992 was a study in race relations in Le-Clezio's 1991 novel Onitsha. The late world-renowned professor of Comparative Literature, Willfried F. Feuser, supervised my work.  

J-M.G Le-Clezio tells a semi-autobiographical story in which a 12- year- old British-Italian boy and his mother travel by sea from France to meet the boy's father in Onitsha, Nigeria.  Fintan enjoys his visit to Africa where befriends Bony, a Nigerian boy who opens his eyes to new ways of seeing the world.  Fintan's mother finds out that her lover had changed after their long separation.  She has to confront the injustices of colonialism adapt to a foreign culture.  Fintan's father worked for the United Africa Company but he becomes interested in the myths and origins of the Igbo people among whom he lives.  Much of the novel describes Fintan's father's journeys in the dream world where he receives insights about the migration of the Igbo people from Egypt to Southeastern Nigeria where they now live.

J-M. G Le-Clezio's Onitsha opened my eyes to the possibilities of multi-cultural friendships, the reality of color-blind justice as well as the evocative power of language.

Congratulations, J-M.G Le-Clezio for this well-deserved honor!

I allowed myself to reflect on what a political party should do better to win elections in this country and elsewhere. I have purposefully kept this cryptic. I am only going to give hints. To read the list visit Kwami's Other Blog

Who is this teenage girl? Why are her eyes closed? Find out here what she was doing and how it is the secret of her success.

My reflection on Randall Forsberg and how she was able to organize a mass movement that influenced the course of world peace set me thinking about the unacknowledged, unappreciated and forgotten among us. Because of the law of supply and demand, it is always easy to single out rare individuals whose lives had direct impact on large numbers of people: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale, Albert Schweitzer, William Wilberforce, and you can add your own heroes and heroines to the list.

But what is equally true is that each of these famous people had parents. If for no other reason, the mere fact that a woman gave birth to any of these needs acknowledgment. And when these great individuals were kids some of them had babysitters. In the case of Gandhi, for example, his nanny taught him a powerful mantra which he used his whole life.

Many people make a lot of difference in the world without any acknowledgment, recognition or appreciation. At restaurants sometimes we see the name of the chef on the menu and he is recognized for the delicious dishes. But we never hear of the dishwashers and the cleaners. I wonder what happens to tips that servers receive. Do those who work behind the scenes share in them?

Which leads me to professions that are hidden from the public view but who make the system function properly. What happens when garbage collectors go on strike? When air traffic controllers take a break for one day? When those who work with the routers that control Internet traffic go to sleep?

Many more wonderful people do their jobs every day unacknowledged and unappreciated: those who take care of various forms of disabled people, underpaid home caregivers, the overworked nurse and the unseen hospital laundry workers as well as those who take care of the remains of the dead. They are all so important to the functioning of society.

One of these days will it not be great if we seek out someone who does the behind the scenes work and say: "Thank you."?

Sity-three years ago this month the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. Thousands of people were killed instantly. Many more died later. The psychological effects of the detonation of those weapons on the human spirit still haunt the world today.

Over the years a handful of countries have acquired nuclear weapons. Many more nations and individuals are working secretly to acquire them in the future. The genie of mass destruction is set loose into the world.

While attempts to ban nuclear weapons through UN resolutions have failed because three countries including guess which country have refused to sign the resolution there is hope for a nuclear free world.

One woman who carried that banner of hope for a peaceful war-free earth was Dr. Randall Forsberg. She founded the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies and began the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign in the eighties. She was able to organize a grassroots movement. At its height in June 1982, the movement organized a demonstration in New York where more than 700,000 people attended.

Dr. Randall Forsberg educated Americans on the dangers of nuclear proliferation and attenpted to get the government to reduce the production of these deadly weapons.

"Many people will say this is hopeless, this is too much, this is too big, it's too hard," Forsberg told the Globe in an interview in 1984. "All I'm talking about is that people understand what's being done in their name, what they're going along with. That people look at their own feelings about the way the world works, about human nature, about warfare and look around them."

As the people of Japan remember this sad history, I find consolation in the power of an individual to make a difference. Randall Forsberg's life showed us what one individual can do.   Randy died last October but her spirit lives on, encouraging each one of us to make a difference whereever we find ourselves.

 The Seventh Jewel

Transcending the great illusions of time

and personal identity.

In these words Jan writes about our need to “transcend” the great illusions of time and personal identity: “Watch the stories you tell yourself. Notice the ways you define yourself in relation to other people, to events, to ideas. Observe yourself interpreting phenomena, how you feel about them, how you behave in response to them….Each time you decline to become engaged in the workings of the storytelling mind—obsessed with past and future, with your sense of identity—you will feel an ease come into your awareness, a relaxation of whatever has had you in its grip” (pp.188-189).

These, then, are the jewels that I have found in Jan Frazier’s When Fear Falls Away. But here’s a secret. The jewels in Jan's book are countless. I have selected what I appealed most to me. I bet you will find words in When Fear Falls Away that appeal to you personally. Words I didn’t even notice. They will resonate with you as if Jan is speaking directly to you. As if she wrote the book with you in mind.

Good luck to you as you find yourself a copy of this book and similar books that bear witness to our true divine self.  

May more and more people experience what Jan Frazier has realized. Let's count our blessings!

The Sixth Jewel: Noticing

We can’t anticipate anything as the outcome of our spiritual practice: “Do not anticipate” (p. 74). No spiritual practice guarantees the shift. Yet the key to Jan’s awakening appears to be her “practice of witnessing my reactions to events in my daily life” (p. 44) which led to her noticing the subtle interplay “between outer and inner reality” p. 44

The Fifth Jewel

The Reality of A Plane of Pure Consciousnes and Peace Within

This appears to be the central idea of When Fear Falls Away : “Underlying apparent reality is a plane of pure consciousness, a condition of unwavering peacefulness...” p. 43.

Art Credit: The Peace Mandala by Susan Loy and Cathryn Hankla.

Fourth Jewel:

Skills of the Awakened

Three skills help us to adapt to the shift: the ability to function in both the outer and inner worlds like a frog in water and on land, the High Indifference, and Equanimity.

The first skill, the ability to shift focus between the inner world and the outer world, helps us to function in the world with a constant awareness of the universal consciousness in the background, (p. 59) and (p.186-187).  

The second skill is involves detached compassion for human suffering. It is  “the High Indifference” Franklin Merrell-Wolff talks about (p.60). This involves being “both serenely indifferent and deeply concerned” (p. 65).

Finally Jan Frazier reminds us that the shift makes it easy for us to be emotionally balanced and more level headed. In other words, the awakening pulls us out of our daily emotional roller-coasters. 

The Andromeda Spiral Galaxy from Astronomy Journal

Third Jewel:
Closing the Gap Between the Illusory Self-Image and the Real Essential Self

     Close the gap between who you think you are and who you actually are: Who I think I am is nothing compared to who I truly am in essence. The mind, through thinking, blocks us

     from experiencing who we truly are.
Our essential divinity is implied in the realization that “All of the universe is the manifestation of the divine.” Since we are part of the universe we are divine.

What we experience in the presence of enlightened masters is the manifestation of our own divine nature. Our moments of clarity, and peace, and awe whether in the presence of great teachers or nature remind us that “This is what is possible for you” (p.72). “When you feel this, it is your own divinity you are experiencing” (p.94).

Watch this video some time. First with eyes open. Then close your eyes and imagine the trip to outer space.

The Hubble Deep Field