Perhaps you are confronted with the local violence that claims sons and daughters daily, or the despair of civil unrest that characterises the land you left.

It isn’t long before we begin to look back yearning for the comfort of our past.

An emphasis in our homes on a strong sense of culture, tradition, and of our history as a people has helped us make sense of a foreign reality, but that armour of knowledge is not defence enough against the social ills that plague people of African descent in the Diaspora.

Even in my tender youth I find myself remarking that things were not so in my day.

The harsh reality is that too many of us are left looking back, married to nostalgia with no real concept of our future.

If indeed the ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people, we must learn to teach in our homes that our lives should be effectual.

That our God given talents should and will amount to change.

We should teach that the flavours in our dreams can be tasted when our actions go towards making the dream a reality.

We are a people capable of making a significant contribution to society; the blanket of death that wills to cover our youth must be lifted with the hands of life.

If our nation is in ruins, then we shall rebuild. This year, rip up your list of resolutions, resolve simply to be purposeful.