Wednesday, December 08, 2010
It Has To Happen
It is June, 2014. Themba Khumalo, a twenty five year old South African student, is on a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. The plane is awaiting clearance to take off on its way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Themba cannot only feel the excitement within him, but he can also feel that almost everybody in the huge South African Airways jet is just as excited as he is. Even the air-hostess who was now announcing the pre-take off procedures, could not disguise the high level of excitement she also felt about this particular flight.
Most of the passengers were travelling to Brazil for the FIFA 2014 World Cup. No wonder there was a lot of excitement in the air. The plane began to roll towards the runway and the captain instructed the cabin crew to take their seats, preparing for take-off.
As soon as the plane reached cruising height, Themba reached for his lap-top which he had placed beneath the seat in front of him. He switched on the computer and opened the file that had been his obsession for the past four months. The file contained Portuguese language lessons. Themba put on his head phones and started listening to the Portuguese instructor.
Themba had found the Portuguese language maddeningly difficult to learn. For the thousandth time, he expressed his dismay at the fact that there were so many languages in the world. ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everybody in the world spoke the same language,’ Themba mused. If everybody spoke the same language it would simplify a lot of things. Themba had no doubt that such a scenario would be extremely beneficial for the general development of mankind.
The South African Airways flight to Rio was on a non-stop direct route. It was going to be a long flight and before long, Themba was deeply asleep in his seat. He was woken up suddenly by screams from within the aircraft. At first, Themba thought he must be dreaming, but no, people were screaming all around the plane. They were screaming for good reason too because the plane was banking steeply to its left and literally, falling from the sky.
Themba joined the panic that permeated the Jumbo jet. The Chief Stewardess was trying to tell everybody to remain calm but her own voice was anything but calm! Within a short space of time the plane plunged into the ocean with Themba passing out at the point of impact.
When Themba regained consciousness he was somehow floating in the ocean. He was holding onto a piece of the disintegrated plane. He could not see anybody else nearby. It seemed as if he had fallen from the sky entirely on his own. There was not even any sign of debris anywhere around him.
After floating for what seemed to be an eternity, Themba finally beached on a small island. He was so relieved to be alive and on firm ground that for the better part of an hour; he just lay down on the sand at the edge of the ocean. When he decided to take a look around, he realised that he was on a very tiny island and it did not seem to be habited by human beings. Despite his obvious total isolation, all he could feel at that time was a deep gratitude to the Supreme Almighty for having spared his life.
Fast forward to June, 2054. Themba is still on the island and he is now an elderly man of sixty five. He does not know how old he is because he has lost all sense of time. He has also given up all thoughts of being rescued from the island. In his mind he can see himself eventually just dying on the island. For all intents and purposes, he was already dead because as far as the rest of the inhabited world was concerned, he no longer existed.
But on this particular June morning-Themba did not, of course, know what day it was or what year for that matter-he found himself running towards the water’s edge because he thought he could see far off on the horizon, something that could be a ship approaching. He stared at this speck of life as it continued to grow larger and larger in his sight. The ship, for it was a ship, was headed directly for Themba’s island. After all this time, Themba was possibly going to be rescued.
The ship turned out to be a Chinese oil tanker which was headed for Venezuela. Despite his total isolation from human contact for a period of forty years, Themba had not lost his keen sense of observation. When the Chinese took him on board, he noticed that they were all speaking in English, even when they were just speaking amongst themselves. Themba commented about this and it took time for the Chinese to realise what he was on about.
“Aha!” the Chinese seamen now comprehended, “this man said he floated to the island in June, 2014! That is forty years ago. No wonder he does not know that the whole world now speaks English”. Themba could not believe that the whole world was now speaking one language; this despite the fact that before the plane crash, he had wished that there was only one language in the world. He would only be convinced when they got to Venezuela or some other country where he could verify what these Chinese sailors where talking about.
As things turned out, the ship’s first stop after Themba had been rescued was Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. And indeed, here in Rio all the people were speaking in English.
“It had to happen,” Themba thought.
Just A Thought!
Sunday, December 05, 2010
We Could All Be Right
Christians are followers of Jesus of Nazareth whom they believe to be the Son of God. Although most Christians believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, a description of God as Father, as Son and as Holy Spirit, Christianity is a monotheistic religion with the belief of the existence of only one GOD.
There is some evidence that unquestionable faith in the power of an Almighty God has enabled some Christians to perform some extra-ordinary things, undertaking some tasks which otherwise one would not attempt to tackle without total belief in the power of GOD.
Muslims, adherents of Islam, also believe that there is only one GOD. Muslims follow the teachings of Muhammad, the last Prophet of Islam.
There is also evidence which suggests that faith in the power of Allah (GOD) has enabled some Muslims to undertake extra-ordinary tasks on the total belief that God is on their side.
Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. Jews also believe in the existence of one GOD.
The belief that Jews are the Chosen Children of God has enabled some Jewish people to perform extra-ordinary tasks, also truly believing that the one GOD is on their side.
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities and can be found in religions such as Hinduism and Shintoism.
Needless to say, some people have been spurred on to perform extra-ordinary acts under the support of their beliefs in Hinduism or Shintoism.
African Traditional Religious practices, although sometimes not well documented, also have evidence of people performing extra-ordinary acts under the belief that they are fully supported by a Supreme Power.
Stories have also been told of people managing to go through some extreme hardships on the belief that some inanimate object, such as a ring or some special stone has magical powers that help these people.
From the above, it could be inferred that, total unquestionable faith in the power of virtually anything could in some way give certain people the power and strength to perform extra-ordinary acts.
Just A Thought!
