Simon Ateba sits at Dupont Circle in Washington DC in June 2017. Photo: Jennifer EhidiamenIn the center of my world, he appeared, with thirty roses at hand for all the years I had waited to be kissed in the twilight, days gone when I longed for warmth like this. That was the introduction of a great poem by Canden Webb that she again performed on Sunday here in Washington DC.
From her YouTube channel, it seemed she had earlier performed it in 2015. When she began releasing those sweet but powerful words, it appeared she was talking about passion, love and her prince charming, until she elegantly switched to Jesus Christ, His love for us, His death on the cross, and resurrection to save the world. That was, believe me, a masterpiece you can watch on simonateba.com.
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Washington DC is full of free exciting events, from Museums to bars and clubs, parks and yes, diversity, people from all over the world.
A report said weeks ago that 20 million Americans visited Washington DC in the first quarter of this year. Many more are coming in, not because of President Donald Trump who is not very liked in this part of the country, but because of the diversity and tourist sites scattered all over the place.
Talking about diversity and the United States. It’s not just in the arts. There are almost 7.4 billion people on earth today, and when Forbes Magazine late last year chose the 74 most influential men and women who make the world turn, 35 of them were Americans.
In most other countries, the people chosen such as Putin, the Pope, the President of China, the President of France and the German Chancellor and the rest were mainly political figures (the pope being the exception, although there is some politics in the Vatican).
In the United States, most of the people mentioned were businessmen, starting with President Trump, Bill Gates of Bill and Melinda Gates, Larry Page of Aphabet (Google’s parent company), Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Travis Kalanick of Uber, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, Elon Musk of Spacex, Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Doug MCmillon of Wal-Mart, Sergy Brin co-founder of Alphabet, parent company of Google, Tim Cook of Apple, Charles Kock of Koch industries, Rupert Murdock of News Corporation (Fox News and the rest), Michael Dell of DELL, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group, Ginni Rometty of IBM, Mary Barra of General Motors, Bob Iger of Walt Disney, and several others.
I read and read and my little head almost exploded. I spend my time reading and trying to understand this country the best I can so I can give you the best and most accurate information I can.
In Africa, the only man mentioned was Nigerian Aliko Dangote of Dangote Group, who was number 68 out of 74 most powerful men and women on earth.
As you can see, this country is really blessed. But in the midst of all that, many people go to bed hungry, many homeless everywhere, while others like myself, have little food and drinks in their fridge.
You know, I have lived long enough, and got white hair by the way, to know that whether here in Washington DC where I am writing this scrambling to make sense of the facts, or over there wherever you’re reading it struggling to understand your own environment, the truth remains that in this country, the more I look, the less I understand.
Simon Ateba is the publisher of SIMONATEBA.COM. He’s operating from Washington DC.