Travel Ideas Number 01: The Anabasis To Corinth Of Kudakwashe Kanhutu

I have not yet made this trip but when I do, it will involve two big ideas as templates; 1. visiting all the places it is said Apostle Paul visited after the Ascension and, 2. tracing all the places where the major battles of the Peloponnesian War took place as recounted in The History of the Peloponnesian War by the Athenian General - Thucydides. This kind of trip will involve a lot of Island hopping by ferry - something I have already done - but I will also need a vehicle so as to drive from point A to B at my leisure.

 

To psyche myself for my expeditions, I normally like to quote military passages as they tend to focus on the essence of the matter. But not this time around, this time around my inspiration for the trip will come not from Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War - the greatest book of all time - instead, it will come from Apostle Paul’s message to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 13, he said:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” - Apostle Paul, Epistle To The Corinthians.

Island hopping by Ferry in Greece (2012)

1 Corinthians 13 

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Piraeus Port, Athens (2012)

Boarding The Flying Dolphin at Piraeus, Athens for my first Greek Anabasis (2012)

Stalin: A Preliminary Post Mortem

"We think that a powerful and vigorous movement is impossible without differences — "true conformity" is possible only in the cemetery" - Josef Stalin, Pravda, "Our Purposes."

The book on Stalin

by Kudakwashe Kanhutu

One thing I must commend myself on, is my tendency to doubt everyone else’s, but my own conclusions, on all the subjects I am competent in. There are no experts but yourself when it comes to studying and applying the lessons of history to your own purposes. I need not labour this point as a lot of “experts” have been called out lately as fake news and fake historians: remember the much written about claim that Shaka, King of the Zulus, killed 2 million people during Mfecane? Never happened!

Stalin, however, is exactly as he has been described to be. Much research – including travelling to Russia itself – has made me conclude that Stalin, indeed, was the mass murderer popular culture has cast him as. But, if I had not travelled to Russia, I would not have seen, first hand, the features of Russia that redeem him. You should see the Seven Sisters of Stalin and, as well, the most beautiful underground transport system in the world – the Moscow Metro. I will be very brief as this subject will be dealt with at length in a subsequent article. For all the accusations of cruelty levelled against Stalin, he is credited with bringing Russia from being a peasant country to a Superpower in less than 20 years. The question is; could this have been achieved any other way? Do not forget that unlike the West, Russia never participated in the slave trade that is, to an extent, the foundation of Western prosperity.  

In Moscow, I was Josef Stalin, myself, walking in the same gardens at the Kremlin Stalin walked to clear his mind.

A memorial to the victims of the Gulags

A memorial to the victims of the Gulags

A memorial to the victims of the Gulags

The Moscow Metro - the best in the world.

The Moscow Metro - the best in the world.

Desiderata (Something To Strive For) - A Poem By Max Ehrmann

"Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story" - Max Ehrman.

"If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. An investment in education always pays the best interest" - Benjamin Franklin.

Desiderata - Max Ehrmann (1927)

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,

even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,

for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

many persons strive for high ideals,

and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love;

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.

And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life,

keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.