THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT?

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT? 

Written By Michael Chidiebere Ituma

Over the years I have grown into a man who has listened; heard, seen; observed, experienced; felt, researched; discovered so much about life and its thread. 

At the moment in my life, I have chosen to disbelieve certain concepts and philosophical inclination that have been carved on the wall of my naive mind as a child, having been a first hand witness to the various calamities that have tossed the world terribly in recent times and heard of many environmental disasters that have claimed lives in their millions per nation, per country. 

Everyday as I wake up to the news of fresh troubles, endless killings, ceaseless protest all over the world, I tend to ask myself where the world is really going and what grim of hope still awaits the world at the tail of time. 

IS THE FUTURE STILL BRIGHT? 

Wake up, Nations! Wake up! White, Black, Red, Pink, Brown skinned, Irish, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, wake up and learn the truth! 

What future is bright? Tell me. What future is bright? 

The people who lived in the early centuries hoped so too - that the future will be bright. You know, this gives me a glimpse of where our teachers, our parents, world leaders, preachers of the biblical Jesus, and priests of the heathen religion got this lie from. Just how can the future they predicted would be bright turn out to be such a messy one as this which we now live in? 

Okay, let's assume they had only made attempts to prophesy about how beautiful the future would look. Then let's not blame them for giving us hope through their prophesies. Let's rather blame them for not telling us how untrue some of those prophesies would turn out to be. 

Anyone may have his/her pudding to the story of this "Bright Future" thing. But my own analyses have foundations upon which they are built. 

In July 1931, about 4,000,000 Chinese, if not more, were taken in a flood that happened that year alone. The ancestors of China may have also had this dream of a bright future, too. 

A future where they had dreamed of their children living in mansions, increasing in their numbers (of course the dream of every parent is to see their children prosper). But this is their bright future, records upon records of natural disasters. The more they try to build, the more they loss more people to messy disasters. 

Chinese, despite her growth in population and advancements in technology, seems to have the greatest figure of earthquakes and so are the death tolls. Is that a bright future? 

Same China, between 1958 and 1961, lost no less than 15, 000, 000 to 55, 000, 000 souls to what is named 'The Great Famine of China'. How does a country loss half a hundred million people in a space of three years? Bright future right? 

Do we even begin to reckon with the world deadliest pandemics that have ravaged the world terribly and carted away with millions upon millions of the world's population? 

The Spanish Flu alone had infected over 500 million people leaving 100 million dead. Bird flu had its numbers, so did Small pox, Measles, Swine flu, Zika virus, SARS, HIV/AIDS (over 35 million as at 2017, with more infections in sub-saharan Africa), the most recent novel Corona Virus, and a host of many others. 

Let's peep through the window on the other hand, terrorism is on the increase by the rising sun. The Islamic state (ISIS), the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the notoriously dangerous Fulani herdsmen, and very many unrecognized terrorists have not given the world a breathing space. The death toll by terrorism in Nigeria alone is alarmingly on the increase with Forbes recording over 18,000+ worldwide. 

Rape, ritual practices, trafficking of human beings and their body parts alike, kidnappings, mischievous behavior amongst people, heinous acts, fraud, increase in the prices of commodities and so much more, have also played their big roles in the annulment of the statement of fact that the future is bright. 

But isn't the future bright? I mean the future our ancestors predicted? The one we now live in? 

We have technology revolutionizing the human concepts, digitalization is on the increase, civilization is as it were an everyday affair. The world is truly seeing the brighter side of life daily. Work has become easy because of technology through sophisticated machines; so has been travels. 

Indeed we have eaten our bright future and have not had it. Whoever crafted the adage "You can't have your cake and eat it" should be given a credit. 

This is what I mean. The bright future is an irony. Tragic irony! 

Is not it the same guns that were manufactured to protect human beings with that are used in endless wars all over the world? 

Haven't we seen that the various mechanisms of travel has turned out to become the easiest way a nation can attack another nation from afar? 

Is not the technology of internet a contradiction of its original invention, with fraud becoming too alarming? 

How do we justify the fact that one wants to change ones skin colour by applying bleach regardless the consequences of cancer - civilization huh? 

Haven't we seen that too many environmental degradation and pollution have led to more earthquakes, cyclones, hurricanes, death waves, and many more disasters? Civilization right? 

The human race has eaten so much of processed food in the recent years. Many has died of cancer as a result of excessive consumption of canned, processed foods. And we can give civilization a credit for that. Isn't it? 

IS THE FUTURE STILL BRIGHT? HOW SO, IF SO? 

One man has lots of wealth - or a little; cars, land, companies, firms - and that may be his definition of a bright future. 

Another man has connections all over the nations of the world; that may be his bright future. 

Someone somewhere has been in a terrible health situation, may have been healed by God; that may be that person's bright future. 

But a bright future, with a world devoid of evil, devoid of crime, devoid of alarming killings, peaceful, is such a tragic irony. 

The big deal is; there will be good times and bad times, there is need for the good and the bad for a world as devastated as ours to maintain balance. But the promise of a bright future is not as true as it sounds. 

Your bright future may be a decent job after graduating from college. Does that stop you from facing the fang of life's sting? 

Your bright future may be a car or a luxury of them. Does being a car owner exclude you from kidnap or brutal mishandling of human lives? 

 THERE IS NO BRIGHT FUTURE ANYWHERE! 

WAKE UP TO REALITY. 

Things will get worse. Life will become more difficult. A time will come when even the wealthiest of men will cry yet he has billions to his credit. 

A time will come when knowledge of technology cannot save anybody from the dangers that nature will pose on humanity. 

A time will come when cars may not take you anywhere beyond your doorsteps. 

Where is the world heading; where is the bright future? 

I pity the coming generations. Knowledge will increase as predicted in Daniel 12:4 of the holy Bible. But it will be so much in the negative, more than it will be in the positive. 

Matthew chapter 24 holds the purest of truths about what the world will become anytime soon, many of which prophesies are happening right in our presence. 

I don't know what you want to believe. This whole context may mean trash to you. But find truth and see how bright you think the future is for your unborn children. You are free to hope that things get better; it may suffice you. 

In the end, heaven may be the only place with this bright future in question. 

Shalom! 

. 

Michael Chidiebere Ituma

June, 2021.