Jallaba: Here's Some Advice

ADVICE FOR THE JALLÄBA

I found this material from early 2014, probably from around April, that I scribbled onto a notebook, after having typed it on a little phone a month or two before. This does not resemble the original, but it was in my salad days, long before the true suffering.

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When I used to call them “Sudanese”.

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Give more than you can take; then everyone will have plenty.

Give with pride,

Take with shame.

Made > Earned > Taken

Rage is not strength,

Rage is how weakness lashes out at strength.

Rage is the threat of violence, which is also the coward’s weapon.

People

Without a thought of their own

Without an ambition for their own

Who prevent the independent thought

And practical ambition of others

Soon become savages.

A passive people

Do not rise against an oppressor

Do not defend their homeland

Do not have opinions that count.

One ruins his own life and makes it cheap to others.

A people will be destroyed twice

First, by themselves,

Then, by outsiders.

As you sow, so shall you reap.

You get what you give.

Laziness deserves contempt.