Beyond CP-Time

"...The European and the African have a different conception of time.
"For the Europeans, time lives outside of man, existing objectively. According to Newton, time is absolute. The European depends on time, is a subject of it. To exist and function, he must observe time's immobile and unalterable laws. He must respect delays, dates, days, and hours. He places himself inside the laws of time, imposing on him its rigors, demands, and norms. Between man and time exist an irresolute conflict that always ends in the defeat of man; time destroys man.
"Africans perceive time differently. For them, time is a much more open, elastic, subjective category. Man influences the formation of time, on his course and in his rhythm (it's really about man listening and reacting in consent with the ancestors and god). Time is even a thing that man is able to create, because the existence of time is expressed between those who cross each other in a particular event. It's man who decides if that event will occur or not...Time is a result of our action...it is a passive being, always dependent on man..."

(Translated from the book pictured above)

The strictly-observant perspective, written in the 60s, sheds interesting light on some of the present-day dilemas in Africa today. I'm thinking of medical treatments, notably the administration of AIDS-related medications which require a rigid schedule of doses and time-lapses between pills. One of the battles is that Africans (and i make a huge generality...but anyone who has been there certainly knows this generalization to be a relatively legit one!) do not wear watches, nor to do they obey the "laws" of time.
There's no way to wrap up this particular entry...as I just find myself caught in the battle of what should be altered and what should be preserved.