Date: Saturday, 03-Feb-96 10:01 PM
From: Saffa J. Kemokai \ PRODIGY: (GUGP07A)
To: Leonenet \ Internet: (leonenet@mitvma.bitnet)

Subject: David Keili and Maslow/security needs

 On Saturday, 03-Feb-96 01:40 AM Mr. Davin Bremner wrote:

>Mr Kemokai, Thank you for the invitation to come out from peeping for a minute.
>I will dip my toe in the river. But with a smile, ;-), and a wink, I ask you if
>you see me hanging on the vine...one crocodile is saying to me "come down
>here and enlighten us with some of your findings (before we eat you)", and
>the other crocodile is saying, "academics, we can leave them for awhile
>(before we eat them).

Davin, your trade has taught you kind humor and you are a gentleman. To tell you the truth, I know a lot about crocodiles and most of them do not eat flesh not covered by scales. In fact this creature is a family pet as mother used to tell me. She told me that they used to surf the ocean, river Moa and Malel (Mano River) on the backs of crocodiles. The crocodiles would graciously crawl into Jurin, Foolu, Malelaa, and Sulima and they young ones would climb on them and into the water they go while the elders watch. The thing you need to know about these crocodiles in Soro-Gebma though, is that they chase and kill the visiting crocodiles that go after the flesh. ... : ) but true.

Mr. Davin Bremner wrote:

>My colleagues at the Institute for the Study and Resolution of Conflict
>(ICAR) are not currently working on Salone issues specifically. My trips
>and work to Salone were at the invitation of various NGOs there. Anway, I
>hear you saying that the paiting might be an interpretation of what has
>happened and what is happening to Salone. And at the moment, you are more
>interested in how to help the man on the vine, than you are in whatever
>story is told of how he got there.

Thanks for the info above and I am hopeful that at some point, your institution would begin to include SL on its agenda of concerns. I didn't know there were NGOs in SL with the capacity to invite you. The last sentence above has been watered down a bit.

Actually, I am not just interested in getting this guy out of the mess. I had in many occasions showed how he got on to the vine. That being the case, I am willing to look for a way out for him at this time. At the back ofmy mind, I had planned to go back and narrate in my own way how he got there but interestingly as luck would have it, PK on 2/2/96 in "The RUF Insurrection: The basis for a new Sierra Leone" did a synapses of the situation that I think wouldanswer some aspects of your question. I was going to call your attention to it ina separate email.

Mr. Davin Bremner wrote:

>Most academics I know, the historians, the sociolgists, the anthropologists,
>the psychologists (is the painting a representation of a dream?), may do
>what I think you worry about...study and theorize and document and teach
>about the man and his culture. Meanwhile the crocodiles get what they want.
>But most of the "conflict resolution practioners", even the conflict
>resolution academics, and anyone from "outside" of the man's culture or
>community, cannot really come and tell the man what to do, or his family how
>to help him (not the responsible or ethical thing to do). If the "experts"
>from ICAR or other big international conflict resolution organizations come
>and try to give answers to problems...I'm sure that the crocodiles will eat
>more, and sooner!

I think so and actually, this may also be one of the reasons why this guy is hanging. I have deep respect for the disciplines you mentioned and how they have helped to shape or unshape societies distances apart. I see the roles of these experts with respect to SL at this moment quite tormenting and an outright display of immoral judgments regarding elections as a solution, scrambling for the minerals as a way of solving foreign exchange problems and all the goodies that come with democracy and the individuality of the man.

In your paragraph above, you would find reasons why some of us are religiously opposed to elections now because morally, SL should know that it is not the answer and I also believe that the donor communities that are calling for it, know that it will not solve the problem. If it would, all of these troubling nations would simply say 'hay guys, let's park the guns and go to the polls'. Why didn't they simply ask Bosnia to go the polls and end the destruction there..? What makes SL different or a test case to be subjected to a special brand of democracy ... the minerals or the color?

Mr. Davin Bremner wrote:

>Sometimes, not always, the conflict resolutionaries help people ask
>themselves...how did we get into this mess? Why are we divided from
>ourselves? Who are we fighting with and why?

Precisely. And on the LeoneNet, these questions are been asked and answered in several different ways. We are calling for the attention of the people of SL to these questions but they continue to be getting messages from the outside contrary to the purpose of these questions. This makes it very difficult for the hanging man.

Mr. Davin Bremner wrote:

>I asked my question about the painting because I am just me, Davin, and
>truly curious to know the story. But if the painting is about Salone's
>current grief and troubles, then I guess we come back to me asking you to
>share the story with me, not for my own agenda, but for the sake of the
>question itself, and what we might learn together from the answers.

Let me toy around with this Davin. It is pleasing to know that someone is just what that someone is and Davin is just Davin curious to say the least. When I was growing up, the thought would be I will be what I will be not destined to be what I was not supposed to be what I am now. A product of two nations side by side breathing the fresh air from the ocean on both sides in a town divided by the river. I start my swimming exercise with others of my age separated by crocodiles in Bubomhun on SL side and end in Bobumhun in on Liberia side without ever realizing that in my adult age, I will wake up to find out that in fact the two Bobumhuns are not the same. Am I the same..? Some guys are hanging in a whole while others like me are hanging in a whole and also in pieces. Soro-Gbema, my chiefdom has been eliminated from SL map for five years now and so also is Cape Mount county in Liberia - my other house. Am I what I am.. I envy you for being what you are.. :)

Mr. Davin Bremner wrote:

>One version that I heard of the story, is that the man is now in a hopeless
>situtation, because he chose to build a hut on the far side of the river,
>away from his village. He divided himself from his community, and now has
>no one to help him. I spent 4 years in South Africa, between 1990 and the
>election. I am still crying crocodile sized tears for comrades who became
>divided from their communities, and communities that divided themselves when
>maybe they didn't have to.

My version is that this man did not decide to build his hut away from his people; this man didn't even know that his hut is been moved away from his people; this man didn't simply participate in relocating his hut. This man's hut was moved, relocated by visitors he took so kindly to heart. The visitor is master and practitioner in hut relocation. Now we have the tremendous task of making this man to understand that he can bring back his hut while the visitor says to him "that's bloody nonsense, don't go back, move your hut further away." Our job is not easy.

Mr. Davin Bremner wrote:

>Now I've stuck in my toe. The water is warm and inviting...I don't see any
>crocodiles just now, but I'm mindful.

I told you; keep your toes in there. Our crocodiles are just pets but you have to watch out the strayed ones. They are your real concern.

Mr. Davin Bremner wrote:

>P.S. I see that you are in Rockville. I am in Fairfax. My phone #is
>703-691-8031. There is at least one ICAR student from Sierra Leone, and he
>currently is living in MD I think. At some point maybe we can speak on the
>phone, it'd be a pleasure. Davin

Thanks, I will call you. However, I do not live in Rockville, MD. You see Davin, when you are not what you are, you create illusion in people as well. I made the mistake of saying "I am willing to travel to every corner of the globe" on my job application and my employer is really making use of that. I live in NJ.

Saffa Kemokai @ Browns Mills, NJ

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