As you know, I started this blog to share my experiences in writing, the good, the bad and the ugly.
I was thinking the other day, that in light of the pandemic, that while I've had a really good season of paid work, my own books have suffered from lack of attention. So today, instead of finishing my allotted word count, I hopped over to Canva and made some videos.
Here is one, reintroducing my books and my writing to you.
Enjoy.
Also, feel free to visit my author page and browse.
Well, dear reader, what it means is 'little by little'. It's taken from a Kiswahili saying, "Haba na Haba hujaza Kibaba." which means Little by Little and the Gourd is Filled or something like that. Basically every little helps guys.
This is the little that I, Annemarie am adding to the pot of global uprising and the search for equality. You see I was watching the zoom call between Harry, Meghan and some QCT members (video below for your edification) and it inspired me because it opened my mind a little more.
Meghan asked a pertinent question: 'within all the contexts of all the related uprisings taking place in the world, what can I do on an individual basis to move the needle?'
The main answer - though I urge you to watch your yourself - is to listen to those with the lived experience and find out what they need.
To bring that right to my own neighbourhood, and my very small tight community, I think that we are doing well in supporting each other in every way we can. But the world is not made out of my small tight community.
So a little outward, what can I do?
Well, I have been listening, I have been following various protests from various parts of the world, at home, and abroad. And the truth is that it's the same system of oppression that has us all under it's thumb and if we are to build a better, more sustainable worlds, then we must tear down these systems.
A few months ago, a close relative told us that his firm was building a COVID hospital in an exclusive neighbourhood, for a very specific group of people.
The Elite.
Because they always build their bunkers don't they? Don't ever think that we are all in the same boat. The system is always and forever skewered. So here's a list of things that I am hearing come up again and again in all the uprisings.
1. Dismantle the oppressive systems and their enforcers - the police.
2. Access to Healthcare for all - preferably Free.
3. Social safety nets especially for the most vulnerable. I've seen Kenyans come together, again and again, to help the less fortunate because you can't rely on the government to do it. That very same generosity that exists for each other, needs to be embedded in policy and spread wide and long, to include everyone.
4. Value Black Lives because in every system, including our own, we are the least valued.
5. Value the lives of the other "others" that exist: the disabled, transgender people, native peoples of various lands, the LGBTQIA community as a whole. Their lives matter too.
6. We want to not just survive anymore. We want to thrive.
The thing is that it's never the what, that's the problem, it's the how.
How will we bring this apart? Once we are done throwing our hands up in salute, how will we open them, to receive the grace we long for? What about opposing forces from all sides, those who are satisfied with the status quo, who will do anything to maintain it?
A look at history shows that these murky forces always penetrate, distract and dismantle any efforts that look like it might succeed. They're willing to kill, to do absolutely anything to hang onto this system that has served them for so long. And then there are those (Terry Crews, I'm looking at you) who are afraid of the revolution.
The Unknown looms too large for them. They'd rather hide in the familiar and say, "I'm doing fine. I don't need change."
They don't see that it doesn't matter because even if you're doing fine, now, it might take one major disaster, one misstep and you're out in the streets relying on the kindness of strangers like that Alan Love guy.
So instead of thinking of just what's right in front of you, you have to think about generations to come. If we go on the way we are, there will be no generations, because there will be no planet.
Let us be solution-oriented and unafraid. We could start by acknowledging that these systems were built to oppress, and not to be of service to the majority of us. Once we acknowledge that, it naturally follows that we will replace these systems with others that work for us.
