I have been freely watching at a good number of beings, more especially the so called animals. But to be more causal, I have also looked at birds, leave alone humans, all these have shown a natural reality in interdependency and complementarity.
If a bird is left alone by fellow other group of birds, it hunts others even to death, unless it finds where others are, then its mind will be at rest! Watch at the giants in the jungle, such a lion left alone, a buffalo in the abyss, even an elephant separated by members of the elephant’s family!
It will trumpet looking for others not only for security, harmony, reciprocity, the give-and-take one individual enjoys from another and this is what is embedded in true love amongst cognitive beings, humans being part of it on earth.
The Valentines Are Social Realities: Just imagine a social life without love. The opposite of it will be terror, worries and unrest; the life of hate in continuum.
The one such as what we have started figuring out, such as lonely lion, a lonely buffalo, even a freelance lonely chicken, finding itself insecure, uneasy but to run here-and-there looking for others so as to be part of the group loving each other in harmony and fulfilling what is needed in everyday life.
Think about a member in your group and family, street or hamlet. One planning to travel far away or for a couple of years or even days.
More often than not, that will be sent by either the action or love or signs of love. It does not matter whether by a gift or a bundle of food parked for a safari or any sign of love like kissing or conjugal love done in the hiding or anyhow, but to be openly realistic, love is inevitable.
Birds, lions, buffaloes, humans, some do even mention plants and soils that all need love, need to be loved and from there care and concern is expressed.
People do compose songs, poems, play and dance music, do worship and sacrifice for spirits, sports, patriotism and in a certain loved academic or professional discipline of innovation and invention or a loved adventure or navigation.
Psychologists believing or presenting and studying the 6th sense are of the argument that at times love is transmitted in the medium as electromagnetic waves. Love from an individual therefore sends signals a spirits. The receiver can detect, the extent of attraction, less or not attracted to the other.
It is where one would say, I have no reason that, somebody somewhere, his or her spirits do concur or do not do correlate much though, I try my best but in vain. It follows therefore, love from one individual to another will have some degree or different levels, but a certain general concern, more especially as humans need be there.
The quest amongst psychologists, religio-political cum economists is love amongst humans for a better and a world of justice. To a lawyer, when justice is rendered, it emits love to not only humans but to nature and all beings.
One Korean Sun Myung Moon, a religio-businessman, once defined true love as to give and give and forgive and forget that you have given and start giving and give and forget that you have given! It is about care and concern for either a chosen individual or certain humans if not all, surely with some or certain necessary limit or conditions.
The Valentines we are told about in history, had conditions as they were to make love in secret (we mean those Italian/Roman soldiers.
They had concern and care for their beloved conditions; remember those young soldiers under the Roman Empire were restricted from being married, but was Saint Valentine in Italy who married them in secret and he was discovered, he was jailed and persecuted on 14th February in the 207 (3rd Century) after Lord Jesus (Anno Domino: A.D).
It is said after hanging of the first martyr, there followed others like two of such a stand in love, who also were hanged by the Roman Caesars of those ages.
But from a traditional etiquette, the month of February was known as a month of Romance. Quotations collected by Sarah Maker are such as, “You may hold my hand for a while, but I hold your heart forever”, and “When I feel giving up, your love keep me going”! Plus these words, “if you live a hundred years, mine is minus a day than that one I never lived without you”!
These are tit bits of what people expose from deep down their hearts that they are committed to make life more meaningful, peaceful not of worries and make money from those who love others! Love becomes a commodity in commerce!
Dated back through the European Middle Age (the 5th to the 15th centuries), Saint Valentine was declared by Pope Gelasius I of Roman Catholic in Rome, Italy in 907, by then the Roman Empire was controlled by the Catholics hence, it was easy to spread the Pope’s decision across Europe and some parts of The Middle East and Northern Africa.
The Valentines commemoration has survived all odds and its history and commemoration has spread the world over more especially with the upsurge of colonialism and now globalization accentuated by the fourth industrial revolution or rather geared or engineered by the digital technology.
The Valentines’ Day is an Economic Reality: it is estimated and verified in plans and action that the Day is a reality in two or a week towards the very day where love, passion, care, concern and admiration or appreciation is revealed more especially in those communities which have expressed mass production and hence able to be on a position for mass consumption during such days, mostly the Valentines’ Day.
A Day to express love, concern and appreciation. In love there is drunkenness, craziness if not madness. Another side of odds in love! Prone to spend more than one can earn..! (Hughes in USA, 1970’s).
One tycoon in the US, Hughes in the 1970’s had to say, when interrogated by the journalists, on two things that brought about poverty. He said, the first one was women and the second was betting!
At the Valentine Day, it becomes another day for leisure making. Note that, action and reaction are equal and opposite. It means spending has its counter side which is expenditure.
But in mass production communities, mass consumption is economical than the opposite. One has to be ready to bear the burden of costs. Individuals in Europe may spend up US$ 2,000 in average during the Valentine week. The average population of young people in The United Kingdom is 30 million.
It follows therefore, if these do spend US$ 2,000, it totals US$ 6 billion during a week for the commemoration. Likely in US$ the amount is fourfold that of the UK. Just think about the whole of Europe; some countries in Asia, the Middle East, the Oceania and South and North America.
This year in The USA it was estimates for an individual spending $176 on the Valentine day. General records are predicting about US$ 23.9 billion to be spent against US$ 21.3 billion spent in 2021.
Most of the spending were predicted to be jewelry US$ 6.7; the outing US$ 4.3 billion. Candy and cards US$ 3.2 billion. This is according to localmemphis.com.
Global expenditure, anticipated was US$ 236 this year against US$ 200 in the year 2020.
Love is not only for humans but to more holistic, love is in the natural entities, as electromagnetic waves or as spirits are; in the Garden of Eden there was love; love is within angels and in Heaven of Allah. It follows therefore, under such realities, social and economic milieu cannot escape from that grip of inevitability.
Love is the cause of the cause that caused other causes, this saying is borrowed from Latin that when it comes to love, effects in series should reflect the cause of those effects. It said, “Causa cuasae, causanti causantibus”. Yes love is a social reality and in a trickledown effect it has attracted the economy and likely all walks of life.
My Plea to Africa and the World Over: My ideological stand is panafricanism more especially avoiding copyism and pasteism, but am inclined and entrenched in Africans’ contribution to the world in all avenues of knowledge and civilisations, like Kiswahili, an African contribution to lovers of international languages!
But not all that comes from other nations or continents should be discarded. Living examples are religions which we have embraced mainly from the Middle East brought by the colonial agents. To me Valentine is another norm each and every human would like to emulate.
But, as Mwalimu Nyerere caution, “Not like sponges collecting all liquids” meaning not all that is included in the \valentine \day or week, should necessarily be embraced by our people. We have an African way when it comes to express love, though we agree in principle that love or Valentine is paramount in humans and even non-human beings.
I have started this article with an example of care, concern and togetherness amongst other animals such as birds, buffaloes and lions. The importance of love can be tantalized as the another meaning of nature. Believe it or not, even terrorists do need LOVE!
This takes me to find it in the role not only to religions or schools and even traditional leaders but the UN and its organisations, that they are there to advocate THRUE LOVE for all nations, nature and its ecology!
That Valentine started in Europe under the belief that emanated in the Middle East (Ibrahimism and Christianity), the idea was and still is very noble to all humans. Still, it is advocating appreciation and pardon.
If one ignored the Valentine Day simply because it emanated from the Western world, that one is not far from an emotional racists and likely has psychological problem of hate.
Let us join the world in marking this very day which had and still have a commanding and appealing message for all humans and other beings on behalf of others.
If the Valentine Day means the sex-mania, then these ones will be hurt and will get tired in sexing before 24 hours or a week of the Valentines ends! Love may turn into hate!
As Plato and Aristotle argued that sex can bring about happiness but never joy! Odds in each ethos are there, but romance, sexual practices are real but also should not obscure the very noble philosophy in love generally, a day of pardon and human appreciation in all natural beings.
Dr. Kahyoza is an economics lecturer at Kampala International University; a research fellow at Fort Hall School of Government, Nairobi; a researcher at Maarifa Institute; and a policy analyst at Malembo Farm, Dar es aalam.
