AY UBUNTU BE WITH YOU , ALWAYS .
From The Brickfields Gunners Blog.
Make sure you do not start seeing yourself through the eyes of those who do not value it. Know your worth even if they do not . – Thema Davies.
In certain regions of South Africa, when someone does something wrong , he is taken to the centre of the village and surrounded by his tribe for two days, while they speak of all the good he has done .
They believe that each person is good, yet sometimes we make mistakes, which is really a cry for help . They unite in this ritual to encourage the person to reconnect with his true nature.
The is that unity and affirmation have more power to change behaviour than shame and punishment. This is known as Ubuntu – humility towards others.
Ubuntu is a complex word from the Nguni language with several definitions – all of them difficult to translate into English. At the heart of each definition, though, is the connectedness that exists or should exist between people. Ubuntu is best known outside of Africa as a humanist philosophy associated with Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Another meaning of Ubuntu is correct behaviour, but correct in this sense is defined by a person’s relations with other people. Ubuntu refers to behaving well towards others or acting in ways that benefit the community. A person who behaves in these ways has Ubuntu. He or she is a full person.
For some, Ubuntu is something akin to a soul force – an actual metaphysical connection shared between people and which helps us connect to each other. Ubuntu will push one toward selfless acts.
Archbishop Tutu famously described Ubuntu as meaning ‘My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours'”.
He explained that Ubuntu was the essence of being human, meaning that a person could not exist in isolation. “We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world.”
According to Wits University associate lecturer in philosophy, Jason van Niekerk, there is more to Ubuntuthan its oft-repeated phrase or Tutu’s musings. He explains that Ubuntu is better defined as the nurturing of relationships with other people. “Ubuntu is a feature we take on by interacting with others like ourselves. It is about showing empathy and putting effort into building relationships.”
Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee once defined using slightly different words ..“I am what I am because of who we all are.”
“So Ubuntu — for us it means that the world is too small, our wisdom too limited, our time here too short, to waste any more of it in winning fleeting victories at other people’s expense. We have to now find a way to triumph together,” according to Bill Clinton .
In popular culture it has often been referred to as ‘ The Force ‘ and The Matrix . It exists within and without and binds us all together .
So could the practice and adherence to the principles of Ubuntu help Arsenal FC to move forward? Could it unite the various warring fractions and divisions of the Arsenal support ? Can we be one and collectively move the club forward? Are we willing to give it a try ?
Do you think that we can stop wasting time making silly posters and banners; refrain from unjustified criticism of the shareholders, board, manager and our players, and focus on the real ills that ail us – the media, the FA, PIGMOB and the fixers? Do you want to?
If yes , then please join the rest of us AKBs , who will be having a Ubuntu Intervention and Redemption gathering just before the first friendly match of the season, out side the stadium in the ‘holy of holies’. It will be of course be held in the consecrated and hallowed ground of the Untold Arsenal Grotto, and in the very presence and in full sight of ‘God’ – or the Denis Bergkamp statue, to those who don’t quite believe !
I do hope to be there, but my contribution would be minimal at best, as I really don’t have too many good things to say about ‘them’! What about you? Would you invite Ian Wright , Paul Merson , Steward Robson , and other Arsenal traitors, and what good would you speak of them?
- Sanchez, why we hate international football (complete with horrific pictures)
- The complete list of every player tipped to join Arsenal now the Window is open. 73 in, 17 out, 2 new coaches.
- It’s all happened before; how the results of one season don’t help predict the results of the next.
Untold Arsenal has published five books on Arsenal – all are available as paperback and three are now available on Kindle. The books are
- The Arsenal Yankee by Danny Karbassiyoon with a foreword by Arsene Wenger.
- Arsenal: the long sleep 1953 – 1970; a view from the terrace. By John Sowman with an introduction by Bob Wilson.
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football. By Tony Attwood, Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews.
- Making the Arsenal: a novel by Tony Attwood.
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal by Mark Andrews.
You can find details of all five on our new Arsenal Books page
A very touching piece. Those who have ears, let them hear.
I’m not sure how the title changed when I sent it to you Tony .But I did do it in a hurry. It should have been MAY UBUNTU BE WITH ….. , akin to may the force be with you .
And following the rules of Ubuntu , one can only speak good of the offenders . That probably is why there is a such a deafening silence here !
Cast a baited line upon the waters , and catch a whooper ! Just received this in my mail .
I have been much blessed to receive so many offers and so frequently , so in true Ubuntu fashion ,I am passing this great offer on to someone more deserving than me .
God bless !
FROM MRS YEETY BAYARMAA
Greetings Dearest Beloved,
I know that this letter may be a very big surprise to you, I came across your email contact from my personal search and I instructed the doctor here in this hospital to help me email you and i believe that you will be honest to fulfill my final wish before i will die.
I am Mrs. Yeety Bayarmaa, I am 66 years old, From Mongoila, and I am suffering from a long time cancer of the breast. From all indication my condition is really deteriorating, and my doctors have courageously advised me that I may not live beyond 3 month; this is because the cancer has reached a critical stage.
I was married to late Dr Bayramaa Altangerel, gold & diamond exportation) in Burkina Faso, West Africa, where we live all our Lives for Thirty-two years before he died in the year2004. But is quite unfortunately, He died after a Cardiac Arteries Operation that lasted only for four days.
Since his death I decided not to re-marry, I deposited all the sum of $5.8million dollars with a Bank in Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso, where we spend our life together in Burkina Faso.
Presently, this money is still in their custody, and the management just wrote me as the Legitimate beneficiary to come forward to receive the money after keeping it for so long or rather issue a letter of authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf since I cannot come over as a result of my illness, or they get it confiscated.
Presently, I’m with my laptop in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment. I have since lost my ability to do anything myself and my doctors have told me that I have only 3 month to live.
Now that i am about to end the race like this, without any family members and no child. It is my last wish to see that this money is invested, but you will assure me that you will take 50% of the money and give 50% to the orphanages home in your country for my heart to rest.
I want your good humanitarian, to also use this money to fund churches, orphanages and widows around. I must let you know that this was a very hard decision, but I had to take a bold step towards this issue because I have no further option. I hope you will help see my last wishes come true.
As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Bank. I will also issue you a letter of authority which will prove that you are the new beneficiary of my funds, and the documents concerning the deposit. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein. Hope to hear from you soonest. I am waiting your response.your Reply to my private mail address(edited out by the editor)
Yours Sick Sister in Christ
Mrs. Yetty Bayarmaa,
Paul Merson – You can bet your last dollar that he can sniff out the good stuff with all his experience . Cheers !
Thanks Dr.Brickfields, a tonic for the times!
A man, called to testify at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), asked his accountant for advice on what to wear.
“Wear your shabbiest clothing. Let him think you are a pauper,” the accountant replied.
Then he asked his lawyer the same question, but got the opposite advice. “Do not let them intimidate you. Wear your most elegant suit and tie.”
Confused, the man went to his priest, told him of the conflicting advice, and requested some resolution to the dilemma. “Let me tell you a story,” replied the Priest.
“A woman, about to be married, asked her mother what to wear on her wedding night. ‘Wear a heavy, long, flannel nightgown that goes right up to your neck.” But when she asked her best friend, she got conflicting advice. “Wear your most sexy negligee, with a V neck right down to your navel.”
The man protested: “What does all this have to do with my problem with the IRS?!”
“Simple”, replied the Priest. “It doesn’t matter what you wear, you are going to get screwed!”
A Roman Ubuntu and a wake ?
ANTONY
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—
For Brutus is an honorable man;
So are they all, all honorable men—
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me.
But Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.
This guy’s drunk right?
He’s completely pissed.
Or have I lost my sense of humour?
And why is he passing that scam onto Untold readers.
Come on guys , there must be someone that you would like be the subject of your Ubuntu .
If not someone from your club , what about Mike Riley ?
Or a leader or politician of your country who fed you with lies and promises about the rose garden , but led you down to the path of destruction , grief and probably ruin?
There must be someone , surely ?
at 7:49 pm – rather be a drunk than a fraud.
Brickfields sings his rich song all the way from Singapore Land.
May you sweet song never stop. 🙂
Bushido
Really?
You’ll need to explain that.
Are you accusing me of fraud?
bushido
Just as I thought. Typical trolling
Rambo with 2 brilliant assists (Bel 1 Wal 2) sorry Walter but Gooner Rambo is causing havoc.
what a top performance by A.Ramsey, 2 assists but of cos as we know so well the media and their expert pundit will barely mention that. they will say a ‘welsh xavi’ who is Liverpool player is Wales best player.
Come on wales.Hope they beat the belgium cheats!!
Vokes sends the Belgiums home ….Yes!!!
I was following commentary in second half, and here. Did Ramsey really get his self banned from semifinal for deliberate hand ball?
Ramsey’s booking was a farce. He didn’t handle the ball. The ball hit his arm off a rebound. The referee was totally biased in his cards. Some of the Welsh fouls were professional fouls & deserved cards, but Hazard should have been booked for throwing the ball away. Damned referees!! Why can they not be consistent & more importantly reasonable.
Good piece, Bricks. And being from that part of the world I can relate to this a lot. The people have very little in terms of material things but they learn share with those that don’t have, whatever little they have. This gives them the spirit of looking out for one another; whole communities behave like just one big family. It’s this feeling towards one another that makes people less vile towards each other. If Ubuntu could be found everywhere this world would definitely be a much much better place.
For those that may not have a clue, or struggling to grasp the concept of Ubuntu, I suggest watching a clip about the zo’e tribe from the Amazon jungle. There are a few clips on YouTube. You will get the idea. Thanks Bricks.
I hope nobody has responded to that post at 7.23. It’s typical “Nigerian scam” that you wouldn’t normally see on a football blog, but when Brickfield is involved……who knows?
Just read it. It is classic 419. 419 is the law that is broken in Nigeria when such a scam is run.
Menace
I’ve emailed Tony just in case he’s compromised
Guys! A scam is a scam. Stop stereotyping Nigerians. Please.
Gideone
No offence, but that’s what it’s called. That type is a “Nigerian Scam”. Check with Action Fraud or Google it and find out all about them.
@Leon:
Hmmm… It’s still people calling names. I did google as you advised and this is from Wikipedia. Note the part emphasized:
Ramsey is getting the praise he deserved in the Belgium media for his match. From what I have heard a real top class performance! Go Rambo!!!
Noticed the spuds thug Alderweild stamp on Ramsey’s right foot late in the match, the type that breaks the metatarsal.
to answer your question Leon, i not accusing anybody was fraud. same like u will not admit u accusing somebody at UA comment section as the head case or obsessed and some fan boys who never even been to England let alone Emirates stadium and lives thousand miles away in Malaysia, Burma, Canada etc. and spout crap about other teams without ever experiencing local allegiances. that’s is your own word i recall from some of your previous comment (by the way, what year are u in right now? that country u call Burma changed their name long time ago to Myanmar since 1989, probably u were not born yet). u should know, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones and the world doesn’t revolve around you. many other things happen outside football in the real world.
How is the draw for these games done? Can see Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Iceland (sorry England 🙂 ) were all in one half of the draw. Surely this can’t be right, having all the heavyweights in one half.
It’s too bad about the yellow for Ramsey. I’m not seeing much evidence in the the medja to indicate it could be protested.
From what someone said the other day, the first yellow was for kicking the ball away, and hence was a real card. If the card count is not reset at the semis, then I suppose if he wasn’t carded today, he could have been carded against Portugal, and should they win, miss the final over too many cards again.
On the flip side, we could have something like:
> Hey ref; want to earn a quick $10k? If you see an opportunity to improve Portugal’s odds of winning the semi-final in this game, do so.
—
I wonder if referees believe in Ubuntu? 🙂 Certainly 😈 Mike Riley doesn’t.
From an article at Sportal.co.nz:
> The Gunners star has endured a frustrating last 18 months. After recovering so successfully from that horror leg break in February 2010, a hugely inconsistent campaign with Arsenal last term led some to wonder if, at the age of just 25, his best days were already behind him.
There is at least one person, who never thought Ramsey’s best days were behind him: Arsene Wenger. And he is one of the few who’s opinions counts.
(Sorry, I don’t know diacritical marks on US-English keyboard.)
Two serious posts, how about a dumb one?
How many John Brown’s have articles about them in the 11th Edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica?
6, 7 or 8; depending on whether John George and Sir John are counted.
(I needed a set of well written paragraphs to analyse, so I grabbed a bunch of stuff from that encyclopaedia.)
Bushido
You’re quoting me out of context, but I did say those things, but none of it is fraud as you said in your comment at 8.21. And I think I was correct in saying Brickfields was drunk. Whatever else explanation is there for all of his comments to his own article
Thank you got thie info about Burma. I’ll have to take geography refresher course
The main article was great read. Something we need to reflect on. And if the dissenting group read it, they would probably understand negativity does not breed a conducive environment for players on the pitch. Then I kept reading through the comments, of which most were by the author. But the post at 7:23 should not have been shared on a forum as this. Because this is a online community of like minded people and there has to be a certain amount of credibility to what you put here or else the community looses the trust factor. Hope nobody puts another of these here again. Oh and Bravo to Ramsey and Wales, quite the underdog story unfolding. Good day to all.
Thanks guys for getting the gist of the article . And for coming to my defence . It germinated out of that meaningful meme above that was sent to me . I had wanted to just post it but then when reading further about Ubuntu , decided to share my findings .Do read more about as so many articles are available .
The second part was just me , stirring the shit with ‘them’ who apparently know everything ( in their minds !) but mostly nothing of importance; and who try to corner every post to their soapbox ! I believe I’ve more than proved my point !
As a rule , I never answer ‘them’ , however insulting or stupid their queries, questions and observations . So I shall not break my own rule ! Instead I will choose to go into a state of Zen-like Ubuntu trance and meditation to cleanse their hate and ignorance .
Damn ! There is only silence,static and a vast emptyness – apparently I have really nothing good to say , nor think about ‘them’ !!!
@ Ajay July 2, 2016 at 4:22 am & others – I very often get silly requests like the above and just laugh it off . If you have been reading my posts and articles , its always a mishmash of fact , fiction and farce ! Its up to the reader to decipher which is which . Or mabye its my Malaysian accent that confuses people ?
And the lead to that phishing e-mail says it all-and all so tongue in cheek !
” Cast a baited line upon the waters , and catch a whooper ! Just received this in my mail .
I have been much blessed to receive so many offers and so frequently , so in true Ubuntu fashion ,I am passing this great offer on to someone more deserving than me .
God bless !”
TWO HORSES .
~ Author Unknown
Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in it. From a distance, each horse looks like any other horse.
But if you stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing…
Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him. This alone is amazing. If you stand nearby and listen, you will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field.
Attached to the horse’s halter is a small bell. It lets the blind friend know where the other horse is, so he can follow. As you stand and watch these two friends, you’ll see that the horse with the bell is always checking on the blind horse, and that the blind horse will listen for the bell and then slowly walk to where the other horse is, trusting that he will not be led astray.
When the horse with the bell returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, it stops occasionally and looks back, making sure that the blind friend isn’t too far behind to hear the bell.
Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges!
He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need…
Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing bell of those who God places in our lives. Other times we are the guide horse, helping others to find their way…
Good friends are like that.. You may not always see them, but you know they are always there…
Please listen for my bell and I’ll listen for yours, and remember…
Be kinder than necessary .
Everyone you meet is fighting some kind of a battle.
Live simply,
Love generously,
Care deeply,
Speak kindly…
FOR WE WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT
IRISHMAN’S FIRST DRINK WITH HIS SON.
While reading an article last night about fathers and sons, memories came flooding back to the time I took me son out for his first pint.
Off we went to our local pub only two blocks from the cottage.
I got him a Guinness. He didn’t like it, so I drank it. Then I got him a Kilkenny’s, he didn’t like that either, so I drank it.
Finally, I thought he might like some Harp Lager? He didn’t. I drank it. I thought maybe he’d like whiskey better than beer so we tried a Jameson’s. Nope!
In desperation, I had him try that rare Redbreast, Ireland’s finest. He wouldn’t even smell it.
What could I do but drink it! By the time I realized he just didn’t like to drink, I was so bloody drunk I could hardly push his pram back home.
PRAYER –
There is a story about a Sea Captain who in his retirement skippered a boat taking day-trippers to Islands.
On one trip, the boat was full of young people.
They laughed at the old captain when they saw him say a prayer before sailing out, because the day was fine and the sea was calm.
However, they weren’t long at sea when a storm suddenly blew up and the boat began to roll & pitch violently.
The terrified passengers came to the captain and *asked him to join them in prayer.
But he replied, *”I say my prayers when it’s calm. When it’s rough I attend to my ship.”
Here is a lesson for us…
If we cannot seek God in quiet moments of our lives; we are not likely to find him when trouble strikes.
We are more likely to panic.
But if we have learnt to seek him and trust him in quiet moments, then most certainly we will find him when the going gets rough.
( For this same reason , I never panic for the Arsenal when AW is the manager – God works through him !)
@ Brickfields Gunners
The mishmash kind of made it a bit confusing this time around, appreciate you clearing that up. ??.
Are we to understand that due to unforeseen circumstances there will not be a Untold report on the international match that took place in Lens, France last night?