Re: A Nation’s Identity Crisis

Identity crisis– a disorientation concern­ing one’s sense of self, val­ues, and role in soci­ety, often of acute onset and related to a par­tic­u­lar and sig­nif­i­cant event in one’s life. Stedman’s Med­ical Dic­tio­nary 28th Edi­tion, Copy­right© 2006_Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. I read Reuben Abati’s arti­cle, titled A Nation’s Iden­tity Cri­sis and I tried very hard to get the point. I can­not dis­re­spect Flora Shaw, any less the name ‘Nige­ria’ but I find it dif­fi­cult to diag­nose ‘iden­tity cri­sis’ by the fac­tors men­tioned by Reuben. Based on Reuben’s diag­no­sis, the USSR had an iden­tity cri­sis in 1991, hence the name Rus­sia. The Ghana­ian Cedi had an iden­tity cri­sis hence its rede­nom­i­na­tion. So also, Per­sia, Rhode­sia, Abyssia, East Pak­istan, Gold Coast and Upper Volta. Now we must be liv­ing in a pathetic world, even worse now with the global reces­sion. Prob­a­bly the United King­dom might become ‘Greater United King­dom’ by the time the world econ­omy picks up again. I can almost hear Reuben say­ing, ‘Iden­tity Crisis’. The arti­cle did make me think. Yes, I won­dered if the out-going old gen­er­a­tion has the dis­ci­pline or the patience to write com­plete sen­tences or think through a sub­ject to its log­i­cal end. And if they do, how much virtue is there in keep­ing this ‘good’ to them­selves and to the grave. Where did the younger ones go wrong? Was it in try­ing to improve what they met or liv­ing the life that they met. Can I blame my five year old neigh­bor for not know­ing what a pedes­trian cross­ing is when there are none on the roads or would I rather blame the town plan­ners for not enforc­ing some cer­tain road signs? No, I would rather blame the painter for not spar­ing some excess white paint for the ‘Pedes­trian Cross­ing’ noble cause. Think about it. The cre­ation, per­for­mance, sig­nif­i­cance, and even the def­i­n­i­tion of music vary accord­ing to cul­ture and social con­text. Social envi­ron­ment is the cul­ture that he or she was edu­cated and/or lives in, and the peo­ple and insti­tu­tions with whom the per­son inter­acts. With the world being a global vil­lage, the envi­ron­ment is infi­nitely exten­sive. For instance, if you con­sider the evo­lu­tion of Mambo, salsa and any of the Cuban dances, you would real­ize how much exter­nal influ­ence defined those dances today. This might be because I’m not the Chief Edi­tor of Guardian news­pa­pers, but I would rather dance away my frus­tra­tions than write them. Posted by Olufunmike @ 22 June 2009