Oh Bill...

Pretty sure I saw this about a month and a half ago and had every intention of writing about it, but I forgot.

It appears that former President Bill Clinton has been stalking me. That, or his aides have been spending time in South Africa, whatever.

The following was posted on BBC.com:

All you need is ubuntu
You and me, me and you, lots and lots, for us to do
By Sean Coughlan
BBC News Magazine

Bill Clinton told the Labour conference to get into ubuntu. Eh?
Ubuntu. That was what Bill Clinton told the Labour party conference it needed to remember this week. "Society is important because of Ubuntu."

But what is it? Left-leaning sudoku? U2's latest album? Fish-friendly sushi?

No, it's a word describing an African worldview, which translates as "I am because you are," and which means that individuals need other people to be fulfilled.

The former president, husky-voiced and down-home with the delegates, gave it a folksy flavour, describing it in terms of needing to be around others to enjoy being ourselves.

"If we were the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most wealthy, the most powerful person - and then found all of a sudden that we were alone on the planet, it wouldn't amount to a hill of beans," said Mr Clinton.

The word comes from the Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa - and is related to a Zulu concept - "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" - which means that a person is only a person through their relationship to others.

And it's entered the political lexicon through the political changes in South Africa.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in his book No Future Without Forgiveness, says: "Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language... It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.'"

In his definition, it means that there is a common bond between people - and when one person's circumstances improve, everyone gains and if one person is tortured or oppressed, everyone is diminished.

Mr Tutu's identification with ubuntu has given rise to the idea of "ubuntu theology" - where ethical responsibility comes with a shared identity. If someone is hungry, the ubuntu response is that we're all collectively responsible.

There is a spiritual as well as practical dimension to this - with ubuntu reflecting the idea that we're part of a long chain of human experience, connecting us to previous and future generations.

Ubuntu has also entered the language of development and fair trade - with campaigners using the word in aid projects for Africa in ways that suggest this will be an African solution for African problems.

Ironically, says Rob Cunningham, Christian Aid's programme manager for South Africa, just as the word is taking off in Western society the values it embodies are in decline in the land of its origin.

"In my conversations with partner organisations and the communities they work with, and among older people, there's a deep sense of loss of ubuntu," says Mr Cunningham. "To me, it means sitting down in a Zulu hut in KwaZulu-Natal sharing scarce food and a brew and a few stories."

There are ubuntu education funds, ubuntu tents at development conferences, ubuntu villages, an ubuntu university - and it's now the name of an open-source operating system.

Expect to hear more from ubuntu in the future.

Now. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Perhaps you may have heard something similar before.... perhaps FROM MY LIPS LAST SUMMER AT A PRESS CONFERENCE FOR THE ONE CAMPAIGN IN CENTENNIAL PARK?

Why yes I believe that's correct.

The following is a section of the aforementioned speech...

My work with The ONE campaign has been an on-going lesson in community, unity and involvement. And it has been an honor to be able to engage my peers, my neighbors, and my city in a conversation that has been dormant for far too long.

People often ask me what it is that makes the ONE campaign special, and why I choose to devote time and energy to it. And I tell them that it all comes down to ”ubuntu.” 'Ubuntu' is an African term which roughly translates to ‘we are only people, becuase of other people.” And this to me is beautiful, and bittersweet. Hopeful and yet tragic at the same time because it reminds us that we are only as strong as our weakest link.

They say that as a global community we sink or swim together, and that when one community suffers, we all suffer. If this is true, and I believe that it is, then we are living in perilous times. Whenever the quality of life is threatened, whether on the corner of 8th and Lafayette, in the townships of South Africa, or the remote villages of South East Asia, we all have the responsibilty, as members of a human race, to do something about it. Until we come together and acheive a union of solidarity, amongst ourselves, then peace is only a dream.. but if we work together, everyone doing their part, then anything is possible.

THIS is a section from this very blog back in March of 2005:

There is this amazing ancient African term: “Ubuntu” that means “humanity to others” and is used to say “I am who I am because of who we all are.” Now I won’t go off on another one of my “solidarity soapboxes”.. but seriously. That is so true.. we are only people because of other people... and that is a beautiful thing. I would love to say that if we all really and truly believed “ubuntu” then we wouldn’t struggle with being ourselves... however, I really and truly believe ‘ubuntu’ and I still have a hard time letting go... maybe it’s because I know that not everyone subscribes to that line of thinking... Regardless, ubuntu reminds us that everyone, every person on earth, has a common bond with each other through our very humanity. As christians we know this to be true in that we all are sinners in need of God... we’re all on the same road, trying to make sense out of a place that is incomplete and unresolved. Indeed to try and understand it is to “struggle for a new world to be born.”

There's also a baccalaureate speech out there somewhere with "ubuntu" references, but I won't bore you. (i know.. too late, right?) Search "ubuntu" in this blog if you're that desperate. =)

Anyhow... all this to say: Bill ain't got nothing on me...

except maybe this:


Now why didn't I think of that?

Nothing says togetherness like ubuntu thongs...