The aspect of problems and solutions.

Problems appear as created by humans, just as solutions are presented by humans. The same humans, known to be creating problems, can be relied upon to create solutions, in other areas. This describes the nature of humanity, from time immemorial.

There is no easy solution to problem-handling, when clear in that humans are necessary for problem handling. This is just as all known problems affecting humanity, are caused by humans.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” (Genesis 1:26) (NIV).

A description of any problem in this world is a clear violation of the above Scripture. There is nothing ever created by God, found to be problematic, as affecting humanity. The answer to all problems in this world points to a failure to be effective in controlling the environment.

For instance, humans use pesticides, as an answer to quell the seemingly uncontrollable pests and rodents. The eradication of such pests is the quickest way, revealing failure to be in charge of what was dully placed under human’s responsibility.

Vanquishing other species is not controlling, but failure to exercise responsibility. Jesus said His disciples could control everything if having faith as little as a mustard seed.

Jesus displayed abilities, showing that there was nothing impossible with human beings. He easily healed the sick and controlled the raging seawaters. He also managed to feed thousands with a few loaves of bread and fish. Let us unpack reasons for failure, laying bare that failure is not associated with humans.

Many discoveries have shown the uniqueness of humanity, even without the import of the miracles of Jesus. This article can be accessed by thousands of people worldwide, being a miracle that did not manifest in Jesus’s time. The unprecedented speed of a jet, traveling across the world in few hours is another miracle, not having manifested during Jesus’s time.

In the area of medicine, gigantic strides have been made, as well, albeit with some corruption. There is no secret that the pharmaceutical industry, booms, but with corruption attached to it.

Diseases like High Blood Pressure, Diabetics and many others, are sustained by the ignorance of those patronizing the so-called medical experts. The Prophet Hosea lamented on behalf of God:

“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. ‘Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful” (Hosea 4:6-7) (NIV).

Strange as it may sound to most people, humans always carry the propensity of rejecting knowledge, adopting ignorance in its place. For most people, ignorance has always appealed ahead of knowledge. While ignorance can be accessed by anyone, knowledge does not appeal for trial by most people.

Sadly, it is God who becomes blamed for the effects of using ignorance, at the expense of knowledge. Humans rarely take responsibility for the cause of troubles in their environments, blaming God, instead. This is done by pretending to express reverence to God, assuming that God is impressed by that hypocrisy.

All solutions to problems hang on the Scripture: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12) (NIV). Clinically, a human being is not different from another person, next door.

Therefore, all problems start with not appreciating the idea that other people would not be different from one to the other. Structurally, humans may look different, but they are as one as God is one, according to their original purpose at creation.

If there is anything difficult, yet without any basis, it is convincing people that they are not different from each other. Everyone is aware of not having contributed anything to existence. Yet every human seeks to jealously protect what he or she considers to exclusively belong to him or her.

The idea of assuming being different from other humans is systematic ignorance, yet most favorable to most people. The application of ignorance starts with holding on to cultural diversities. There is no value in culture. But humanity is unwilling to question its own cultural identity, as compared to others.

The assumption of being different, is systematic ignorance, requiring a systematic overhaul of all cultural identities. Whether true or false, there is the insinuation that some Asian cultures would rather terminate the lives of children crossed with African races, for instance.

Such strictness is intended to preserve cultural identities and racial purity. But based on ignorance. Humans are the same. Cultural identities make other races appear superior to others. However, there is nothing as stupid as putting value in racial or cultural identity.

In more primitive areas, such cultural identities include tribalism, which leads to unnecessary feuds. The bottom line is that those cultural identities are driven by ignorance.

Regardless of racial outlook, the other person is not different from other humans. Even the gender of the other person should not generate reasons for assuming being different.

There is no difference among humans, required to exercise empathy towards one another. This is the datum that controlled the behavior of the Good Samaritan. Obviously, the Good Samaritan had his own culture that distinguished him from other humans.

He may have also appreciated the fact that the robbery victim had his own culture. But such cultural differences did not constitute what prompted his decision to attend to the injured, viewed as not different from himself.

He simply applied the principle of doing to others as wishing them to do to him. There is no problem without an answer in this world. While there are many people struggling with a lack of food for survival, others have trouble with excess food leftovers.

This is abnormal, but displaying what others view as cultural superiorities. You are considered wiser, when able to feed your own children, although surrounded by hungry children in your environment.

It takes only the wise to know that the other person’s stupidity displays the considered wise one’s own stupidity. One’s own wisdom can be measured by the general application of wisdom in one’s environment. In an ignorant society, one uses the other person’s stupidity to measure the level of his own wisdom.

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14) (NIV).

The above Scripture is typical of using another person’s stupidity for measuring one’s own wisdom. Jesus used this to reveal folly, as premised on ignorance. There is no difference between you and other humans, regardless of how stupid or uninformed they may appear to be.

The correct mindset is stuck in that each person is another person’s keeper. Nothing makes one different from the other person, who might be viewed as unwise.

All answers to the problems of humanity lie in not appreciating being keepers of their fellow men next door. The cultural differences carry no value, and only fools make judgments based on cultural differences.

Japan is admirably known for caring for its own people. Indians also cater to those of their race, wherever they congregate across the world. Of course, such races are considered better than Africans, neglecting the plight of their fellow Africans.

Most Africans prefer dissociating with their unwise Africans, and instead, adopting the cultures of other races. Nevertheless, one is better off, when catering for his own people, like the Japanese and Indians. Although, maximum wisdom lies in considering all humans as not different from oneself, regardless of race.

Nothing is better than appreciating being not different from others, whether white or black, deformed or mentally deranged. The other person cannot be different from other humans. Only those totally deficient in knowledge, consider themselves as better as or worse than others.

However, if one considered oneself worse than others, there might be some hope towards changing for the better. The wrong thing would be applying envy. When the other person appears better, the best thing is to approach him, desiring to learn from him.

With such a mindset, one could, actually, turn out to be much better than the person viewed as better. Wise people think in terms of adopting what is good, more than envying the considered wise people.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9) (NIV).

The white setters could have been adjudged as wiser than Africans, although they also carried stupidity in treating Africans as subhumans. But it is wrong to assume that everything about colonization was wrong.

The only wrong thing, as adopted by Africans, in their relationship with former colonizers was adopting the stupidity of selfishness. Africans would have done well, applying what Paul said in the above Scripture.

Ignorance cannot be descriptive of racial identity, just as wisdom carries no racial identity. Nevertheless, we live in a world that categorizes people according to race, where Africans are despised, and Europeans are adulated.

This is the stupidity of all time, as premised on the assumption that other people are different from others. Such differences are wrongly judged, based on cultural or racial identities.

There is no other truth, surpassing knowledge that humans are not different from each other, regardless of their racial outlook. Separation can even be found among those of the same household. Let alone those known to kill one another, based on different spoken languages, mistaken for tribalism.

As humans, we are as one, as God is one. Having been created in God’s image, humans should behave similarly to how God is. On the day that humans regard other fellow humans as themselves, all problems would automatically be vanquished. There is nothing inaccessible to humans, as long as relating well with other fellow humans.

While communism appears as having sought to advance altruism, its failure was due to hypocrisy. Communism sought to control, thereby nullifying ideas of treating other people as self. Each person carries the conscience of knowing what is good and what is bad.

No sane person opposes the idea of doing unto others what one likes them to do to him. Such behaviors are viewed as noble. But communism’s failure was caused by hypocrisy, whose basis is pride.

The long and short of it is that all problems of humanity appear as unsolvable, as a result of pride. Without pride, it is not difficult to apply the principle of doing unto others as desiring others to also do the same to oneself.

One cannot travel the length and breadth of the entire world, without finding humans in need of basic necessities. Food, shelter, fresh air to breathe, and other basic survival requirements, reveal that the physical needs are the same for all people.

What has always been wrong is desiring to be viewed as better than others. Humans are driven by ego, rather than the desire to serve fellow mankind. The non-survival idea drives humanity to desire to live a better life than others.

This is different from seeking to address challenges faced by others in one’s environment. “In all my toiling on this planet, have most people been glad that I live?” Has always been a question that carries life in abundance, yet having no takers.

However, “In all my toiling on this planet, have I been happy that I live?” Has also always sustained all problems of humanity. All problems of humanity are embraced in self-centeredness. Yet all solutions to human problems are embraced in altruism. While not appealing to most people, as having led to Jesus’s death, no other convincing answer prevails.

Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those having witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. In a simple conversational tone, most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope.

The Print copy is now available at Amazon.com for $13.99

Also available as an e-copy at Lulu.com  for $6.99