America is different things to different people

By PETER GAITHO
Published June 21, 2010

This morning, I was staring at the white screen of my laptop, suffering from a writer’s mental block. Then an e-mail I received from Baba Mose, an old friend, awoke me from the daylight slumber.

In the e-mail, Baba Mose needed information on how America is like, since, as he put it, his son had been admitted to a university stateside. Before I answered him, I recalled a fable I once read about six blind men, who were handed an elephant, and told to describe what they thought it looked like.

The first blind man touched the side of the elephant and said, “How smooth! An elephant is like a wall.” The second one touched the trunk. “How round! An elephant is like a snake,” he said. The third person touched the tusk and said, “How sharp! An elephant is like a spear.” The fourth man touched the leg. “How tall! An elephant is like a tree,” he said. The fifth man touched the ear. He said, “How wide! An elephant is like a fan.” The sixth blind man touched the tail. “How thin! An elephant is like a rope,” he said.

America is like a wall. Some people come, and create a giant wall between them and their past, childhood friends, family members, and their country. Once in Uncle Sam’s place, whatever link they had back home is severed. No e-mails, calls, or any form of communication exists with people back home. Some forget that it took the whole village to raise them, and the same villagers gathered one Sunday afternoon, to raise funds for their air ticket to America.

Like a snake, America lures you with promises of heaven on earth. Before you came to America, you heard of wonderful dreams, and opportunities awaiting discovery. But lo and behold! After a while, you discover that the American dream, is a very bad nightmare. America is as cunning as the snake, not forgiving to idlers. Social life disappears, once you make the capital of capitalism your abode. Before you know it, bills pile up by their dozens, and living from pay check to pay check, becomes a reality. Look around, majority of the people are a pay check away from bankruptcy, and homelessness.

The snake quality of America is, scary and unbelievable. This past year, I have received over 10 offers from various credit card vendors, with a pre-qualification for amounts in dollars, that make my Kikuyu mind go gaga. Of course, I shred the letters, as soon as they land on my mailbox.

America is like a spear with which to fight ignorance, poverty and disease; the unholy trinity, bedeviling third world countries. The successful, used the spear to their benefit, and have a lot of good to say about America. But all weapons can also harm the bearer. The spear in America has penetrated some category of people, and cultural conflict thrust them in doldrums. They used the spear to kill their pasts, and are busy killing their future.

America is a giant tree. It is like the Tree of Souls in the movie “Avatar” where humanity from all corners of the globe, have merged and made it their home. From this giant tree are numerous branches, and succulent fruits for all to enjoy. There is an excellent health care system, wonderful communication system- corruption, if there,- is not as endemic, impunity is unheard of, and there is a system that works.

However, because of the intricate web of the branches and twigs, it is very easy to get confused and lost in the land of opportunities. With so many choices to select from, I have met with people who have chosen the way of the unrighteous. Finding freedom they did not have at home, young immigrants have immersed themselves in the dark world of drug use, and gang life, to find themselves on the wrong side of the law. The same tree that has brought joy and fulfillment to many, has been a source of agony and anguish, for parents and relatives back home.

The elephant uses its ears to cool off, in times of intense heat. The great uncle Sam is, used by the world over, to fan off troubled spots. With military bases from Okinawa to Germany, Afghanistan to Korea, America has come in aid of numerous global citizens, caught between conflicts and civil wars.

The philanthropic nature of Americans, has seen the growth and development of global NGOs such as the United Nations, The Red Cross, and Plan International, to name but a few. These organizations in developing world, ward off calamities, like an elephant using its ears as a fan.

One can use a rope either to climb a high place, or hang himself. America offers both a rope to climb to a higher place, or hang one’s dreams. Many people have used the hidden opportunities available to advance their careers, and climb the ladder of success.

The moral of the six blind men and the elephant, is that all the six were right and wrong. By viewing the elephant from a narrow point, they did not have the advantage of looking at the big picture, to see that the whole is larger than the parts that make it.

As it were, America is so vast, that almost everything said about it is likely to be true, and the opposite is probably equally true, so said James T. Farrell. I rest my case, Baba Mose.

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