10 | November | 2014

A long time ago when the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) was running affairs in Germany, there was something known as the Berlin Wall. This wall was constructed to completely cut off West Berlin from East Berlin. With a ‘death strip’, several vehicle trenches and guard towers to patrol the wall, there was little chance that anyone would run away from the Communist East’s fascist tendencies.

On the evening of 9th November 1989, people who were referred to as Mauerspechte (wall woodpeckers) started the work of bringing down this wall and in the days and weeks that followed the demolition took on a more serious trend. The wall covered an entire 155 Kms (96 miles) although just about 3 or 4 kms of it still exist to this day.

A visitor peeks through a still-existing section of the Berlin Wall into the so-called ‘death strip,’ where East German border guards had the order to shoot anyone attempting to flee into West Berlin at the Bernauer Strasse memorial on Aug. 5. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Yesterday (9^th November 2004) about 8,000 helium balloons were released into the night sky over Berlin at the culmination of events held to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of this terrible Berlin Wall.

Now while this may sound like a proper lesson in History, I would like to highlight that I am no expert at History even though I am a very ardent student. The reason why I bring up the issue of the Berlin wall is because even in our lives today, we have several walls that need some kind of crushing and breaking down. These walls have been constructed over the years by ourselves and even without trying so hard, we have created a world that is more divided that it ought to be.

It is high time we brought down some of the ‘Berlin walls’ that have been a part of the human race for quite a long time.

The Racial Walls

It is rather unfortunate that in this day and age when the world is more intertwined and interlinked than ever before we still have people who see and rate people based on their skin colour. It may be true that some of us are a darker shade than usual and we may have trouble being noticed at night but that does not make us any less of human beings. A close friend recently returned from a trip to Texas in the United States and they narrated an ordeal that simply left me aghast. Turns out that even in 2014 there are people who think one race is inferior to another. Even when evidence clearly indicates that all races have similar abilities but are only constrained by external factors, certain people continue to front the assertion that some races are mentally inferior. All human beings are just but one perishable form of flesh. We all have the same kind of blood and our brains and other organs are not any different. These racial walls that still exist even when a black man like myself can have a white girlfriend like Jessica Alba defeat my understanding. Wake up guys! Racial walls need to be torn down yesterday!

Truth!

The Gender Walls

As the human race continues to go through stages of evolution (I am told the process never stops), it becomes more apparent that there are things about men and women that are no longer the way they used to be. For instance, several decades ago, one had to work hard to make the choice whether to take three, four or five wives. Today, one has to struggle even to get oneself just the one wife. Women are now more in control and they seem to be doing a good job steering the world in the right direction. Women have gotten in spaces where they previously only dreamed of and from the look of things, it is benefiting both sexes. Why then would any sane person want to continue putting up gender walls even after women have displayed that they are no less able that men are to execute the various duties that we so much hold onto. And while still on the subject of gender walls, why should people continue to look at women as the weaker sex? I personally think women are not a weaker sex; they are just a different sex. This means that while we (men) may do certain things better than the women, there are other things that women will do without even batting an eyelid and we’d probably need three lifetimes to even get started.

Listen to these wise words

Sexual Walls

Now listen guys; sex is a beautiful thing that happens between two human beings (preferably consenting adults). Why then should we pretend like it does not happen? Why should we consider evil anyone who mentions anything about sex? Why should we put up sexual walls to hide away this information from people who would otherwise need it? I have a good friend Marianne who has taken quite a bit of time to Blog about sex and how it is an awesome thing. I admire her because she continues to challenge people to get out of their shells and share their sex experiences. Divorces are happening today partly because people do not share their sex experiences and so they jump into the activity unaware of what expectations, realities and truths they are faced with. If we tore down the sexual walls and started to talk freely about sex, it would give everyone a better understanding of how they need to go about sex. I know one or two people might have an issue with this because the world is filled with underage people, perverts and sex hungry maniacs. Despite this, I still feel like refusing to talk about sex because of perverts and underage people is like refusing to drive because one fears getting into an accident. Do it well and you will have nothing to worry about.

Remember that Salt-N-Pepa hit song?

Everywhere you go, there are walls that are set up and need Mauerspechte to break them down. Whether or not one is able to summon the energy and resolve to actually begin bringing down these walls is up to each of us. I play my part by making noise about it through this Blog and through Twitter. Are you doing your part? And what ‘Berlin walls’ have you put up in your life? Break them down!