MY ENCOUNTER WITH A CURIOUS OLD 'WHITE' MAN

I sat down in the library this morning waiting for a client after having hooked up the computer into the power outlet. I then put the files on the table. Sitting beside me was an old 'white' man. Strangely enough, he kept on looking at me stealthily. This being Canada, I brushed away his curiosity as this curiosity happens a lot.

After having seen that I'm comfortably seated with my computer on, he walked up to me and asked without qualm.
"Are you hacking?"

Yeah, just like that. I looked at him curiously and retorted back: "Why would I do that?"
He confidently looked at me and said: "Some people have been hacking into people's computers here. I thought you were doing that."

I was a little upset so I looked at him with a frown and said: "No, I'm not hacking?"
He stood there looking at me and then  said as he walked way: "I'm surprised you're behind time. I thought you knew what hacking means."

Very much controlled, I looked at him and said: "I know what hacking means but I just don't know why I'd hack into people's computers."

He then  silently walked a way. I heard him talk to someone in the children's section of the library but I couldn't see who he was talking to.  After talking to that person for sometimes, he walked back toward the area I was sitting in. He was sitting next to me. As he neared, I turned to him and said: "You have to be careful who you ask such types of questions."
He looked curiously at me and said self-righteously: "I don't know why someone would be upset when I'm just asking a question."

"Someone might assume you're accusing them and that can count as character assassination," I said.

The old man was confident. He shook his head and said. "I wasn't accusing you. It'd be an accusation if I'd  pointed at you and asked "Why are you hacking?"

"I work with people from different parts of the world and what I've come to realize is that different cultures respond to the same question differently so you have to be careful how you approach people. I don't care about the question you asked, but some people might not take it well," I said.

"Why can't we just discuss issues like civilized people."
"I'm just cautioning you because you might find people who might perceive your question differently," I told him.

He thought I was being irrational and defensive and at the same time, wrong! He couldn't understand how his question could possibly be offensive to anyone. He assumed that as long as what he was saying was right, there's no reason for people to be upset.

I realized his understanding of civilization was limited so I didn't press him on that. He went on to say that even if he'd annoy someone by the question, which he considered right and innocent, he wasn't doing anything wrong. He assumed that whether his question annoyed me or anyone, it'd still remain within the law and truthfulness.

I also realized then that the old man had a certain perception of me so I decided to give him a dose of me. I told him that any questions anyone asks have motivations behind them. Before you asked that question, I said, you had to look around and perceptually rationalized who could be a possible hacker around here.

Nairobi Westgate Mall Shooting and the Deaths of Innocent Civilians

 

Many people were cautious regarding the identity and nationalities of the shooters when the shooting happen. Kenyans officials refused to speculate as to the nationalities of the gunmen. However, we all knew who they could be. Given what happened in Kampala in July 2010, we all knew the fingers would point at the Somali Islamists, Al-Shabaab.

What one has to ask is why do such people become so wicked to that extent? What happens to their human hearts? These young people have siblings, parents and relatives however, they are willing to takes lives without compunction.

Only dehumanized hearts would do such a horrible act. No person in his/her right mind would work into a mall packed with shopping families and start shooting. The radicalization of young Muslim men in the west is something that has to be addressed properly. The mainstream western populations point fingers at the radical groups, however, we have to understand that these young men are handed to or forced to seek supposed 'purpose,' sense of self and human validation among the heartless radicals.

These young people live at the periphery of the society and that makes them easy targets of radical groups among whom they find a sense of belonging. The consequences of marginalization of these young people become the horror and a problem to the innocent civilians.