Remi Oyeyemi's Open Mind


In Yorubaland, where this writer originated from, there is a common saying that if you follow a masquerade for three years and there was no improvement in your life, then you need to change the course.
Monday, February 28, 2005



Remi Oyeyemi

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TSUNAMI: WHERE WAS THE SUPREME BEING?



atching the Tsunami disaster, the enormity of its devastation and the grief it left behind, the tears it generated, the gnashing of teeth it appropriated, this writer could not help but ask this question: Where was the Supreme Being?


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One tried to ignore this question. But the question kept nagging one's mind. It kept haunting one's consciousness. It kept emerging and reemerging in one's dreams. The question would not be ignored. It sought answers repeatedly over and over. The question was persevering. It was insistent. It was stubborn. It was adamant. It was tenacious.

This writer was just wondering where was this all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present Supreme Being before and during the Tsunami destruction. Was this Supreme Being on vacation? How was this Supreme Being unable to reveal to his faithful followers and believers the advent of Tsunami? Could it be that this Supreme Being did not care about his worshippers in these areas hit by the Tsunami? Could he be punishing the peoples of the affected areas for their sins? If so, what sins could innocent toddlers, children and the conceived have committed?

All believers of all genres try to convince the doubters like this writer that this Tsunami event is part of the mystery of the Supreme Being. But why should the Supreme Being be a mystery to his believers and faithful? If the Supreme Being is a "mystery," what knowledge could any believer claim about an "anonymous," "obscured," "ambiguous," "vague," (all synonyms of mystery) Supreme Being? How could someone like this writer be convinced that these believers and faithful actually know what they are doing? Do they really know what they are worshipping? Do they really understand him/her?

Or could it have been that the Supreme Being did not really exist and it is just a make belief? How come that no single animal was a victim of Tsunami (if there was, I must have missed it)? Or do the animals worship a more powerful Supreme Being than the one worshipped by humans? Or is it that the animals are more attuned to nature and its vagaries than humans?

In Yorubaland, where this writer originated from, there is a common saying that if you follow a masquerade for three years and there was no improvement in your life, then you need to change the course. With due respects to the followers of this Supreme Being, I am not equating him/her to a masquerade. But what this writer is saying is if you follow a Supreme Being, you worship him/her so fervently, you have absolute faith and trust in him/her and your father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter and what have you still ended in the belly of the Tsunami without any warning, then there must be a serious need for reassessment of who you worship, and why you worship him/her.

Even then, if you are among the lucky many who did not lose anything and contributed to the relief efforts, it is this writer's position that it would not hurt to ask yourself: What kind of God, Allah, Jehovah or what have you would allow this to happen to his/her people? Is this Supreme Being really all knowing as we have being made to believe? If so, how come he did not communicate with his messengers among us to forewarn us of the coming of Tsunami? How did the Supreme Being miss it? Or are the messengers to blame?

Is the Supreme Being as all powerful as we all have been made to believe? If so, how come he could not prevent the Tsunami? How come he/she was not able to help out hundred of thousands of faithful? Why was the Supreme Being so powerless in the time of need? If he/she was not powerless, why did the Supreme Being stand aside and watched as his/her followers became victims of the Tsunami? Or is anyone trying to suggest that the Supreme Being is a sadist? What could have been the rationale or justification for this kind of destruction in the book of this Supreme Being?

Is this the best the Supreme Being on whose behalf wars are being waged, children are being maimed and killed, hunger and destruction is being visited on humanity, can do or could do? Is he/she really "there" or we are all being taken for a ride? Is this a make believe by some smart carpetbaggers who seek to lay their hands on and control our economic resources for their own ends? What could this be if not a contrived conundrum?

It is the highest form of tragedy that it is in the name of this Supreme Being some of these adherents have made this world a hell for the rest of us as they are engaged in the battle for supremacy. The Supreme Being has stood aside and is still standing aside to amuse him/herself with this fight for supremacy. He/she is not willing to do anything about it and will not do anything about it because he/she can not do anything about it. The guiltiest in this battle for supremacy are the desperate Islamists unable to keep up with the changing times and the fundamentalist Christian crusaders who continuously found themselves on a slippery slope of hypocritical morality.

Yet, one of the most politically correct positions to be taken in public across the world nowadays is to show faith and belief in a Supreme Being, regardless of his/her powerlessness. Some people call this Being God, others call him/her Allah, some name him/her Jehovah and several others name him/her whatever depending on the language spoken by the believers.

This writer is just wondering and asking what he considers to be legitimate questions. Yes, one of these questions is, where was the Supreme Being before and during the destructive hours of the Tsunami?