A Place to Stand

"We are all a bundle of potentials-the twenty three chromosomes from your dad and those from your mom provide a very interesting gene pool...from which so many ancestral traits can be derived. The talent to sculpt, the talent to sing, the talent to deal with figures, the talent to be dexterious with mechanical devices the whole concept of genetics is really so...

He was no longer listening, okay everyone had a super gene pool to draw from. It had to be for there had to be someone or some people in the lineage who had distinguished themselves. But how come...his hand darted up. Much to the surprise of the other undergrads. taking the Bio Engineering class with him. One girl in particular looked at him, to say she was pretty was to say the least. Now there was a lovely expression of the interplay of genes and traits.

"Yes," his mind was drawn back to the lecturer.Yes would you please ask your question and stop making know the obvious- the aesthetic value of her ancestors gene pool," the whole class laughed.
"Well sir I was wondering why anyone fails then. It looks to me sir that everyones' gene pool offers us something-something we can at least trade in the world with."
"Nice question," Koffi Yaduah replied as he turned and walked up the stairway into the midst of the undergrads. he so loved too teach.
"Well...whats your name again?"
Salasie, Salasie Wale."
"Interesting name, the Salasie is Ghanaian the Wale perhaps a short form of Adewale is yoruba and it means the crown has come to our family. Cross cultural-see what I mean?" He said to the class
"Nice question Salasie," Professor Koffi said sitting on an empty chair in the midst of the class.
"Genes, traits and the whole interplay of such traits are only-or provide potentials only. What you can be. Have you heard of the term tableau rossa-the blank page."
He saw the bewildered look on his face and knew straight away the young teen didn't know.
"It states that everyone born into this world is born an open page-blank with no preconceived notions, no learning. And that we become what society-no our family then society-so we become what our family and society write on us."
He saw the young man was catching on he looked around the lecture theatre everyone seemed to follow, So he continued, "so you became all your mother and dad taught you or did not teach you, Plus what was taught in all the schools you've attended and what was taught you by religious leaders. So if you were a Bin Ladin in the making...you would be?"
"A product of the belief system you have." One sweetly dressed girl from the far right of the lecture theatre replied.
Professor Koffi Yaduah sat up and said, "Mr. Black B can we have the word belief system, the e-black board wrote the words on the e-board. The electronic black board was one distinct feature of the university.

"She raised a new idea, she called it a belief system." Koffi said aloud to the class.
"It's an overkill to assume you don't know what that means. Salasie what does that mean?"
"The sum total of what I belief. And how they govern my decision making process."
"If those beliefs govern your decision making process like you have said Salasie. Would I be right to say then. That what you are today is the sum total of your decisions and maybe those of your parents and the governments and all the institutions of society-particularly their decisions that have had an effect on who you or your family turned out to be?"
"Yes, you could say that-sir,"
"So you are getting my point your beliefs would either make you take a decision or make you stay away from it. If your beliefs are by any chance weak, defective they could affect how far you may go in life."
"So every failure we see out there is a product of either his or her own defective belief system or was at the receiving end of somebody elses. Another example if your belief system makes you agressive a go getter even. You could find yourself a billionaire before you're thirty. Aggression to a psychotic point however may make you one who would stop at nothing to get what you want even if it means you have to kill someone." Koffi added.
"Don't see a problem with that," one male teen said."
"Well not if you also want to live out a full life and you know you have a God to answer to. Trust me it always come back for ya. You go evil- over to the darkside it always gets you in the end. I know you kids don't like be lectured or sermonized to but on this one you'll have to trust me. Yes the evil that men or women do-does come after them."
"Well how come we see the rich getting richer."
"Not all rich people are bad people, and what is your name."
"Sakique."
"Yes Sakique, we're talking about belief systems here and I say categorically that not all rich people are bad people. Some maybe. But not all."
"Beliefs system is subject of another class-psychology-mine about the biology of your upmake and how we are studying it to try to ascertain perhaps a better way of achieving better results. Being better human beings...
Salasie was no longer there, his mind had wondered. So all the poor out there where suffering as a result of someones belief system and theres. The matter intrigued him. One because he did want to go as far as possible in life and two because he so badly wanted something that wouldn't come haunting him later. He looked at Professor Koffi Salasie the man wasn't rich but he wasn't poor either. He wondered if the man's belief system was faulty for he would have expected such a man who "had all the answers" to be...well that was it then the man's belief system made him content doing the good job of teaching. Though it did not give him the world.
He wondered Who designed belief systems. For the way his mind was working right now he wanted only the best prototype for his life. He had only one life to live-and how he so badly wanted a belief system that would give him a place to stand a place to stand amongst the stars...