Selfless and Heartless Pursuits: Stories About 4 Animals ,Birds and the Moon for the Reflection of Families, Children and Students

By Jonathan F Awasom

Selfless and Heartless Pursuits consists of four morale fables from Cameroon, Africa, whose characters are the animals, the birds and the moon impersonating human beings from all walks of life who are bound together by challenging circumstances.
The tension between selfless and heartless pursuits reminds us that we need to cultivate a spirit of effective communication and selfless love which are the lights that shine within us as we work to overcome the darkness of bullying, abuse, violation, oppression and injustice in our societies.
These moral fables are an invitation to us to treat one another with respect and dignity. More importantly, the fables challenge us to live in peace and harmony with our neighbors, because an eye for an eye may not be the best way to resolve a conflict. How well can one seek justice without vengeance? How do we draw the line between exacting justice so that it does not spill over into vengeance?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496924490

Jonathan F Awasom

Jonathan Awasom is a survivor of bullying and abuse. He found solace and healing after many years of bullying and abuse through moral fables his grandfather shared with him when he was in elementary school in Cameroon. The stories reminded him about never giving up but to stand tall in the face of any adversity and to fight back wisely, courageously, kindly and with a purpose. His motivation to advocate for a virtuous and free society stems from the injustice of the totalitarian political system, which obviously enabled abuse and exploitation of the downtrodden. He believes that the rule of law, a change of heart and mind set of people could go a long way towards solving some of these problems. He was born and raised in Mankon-Alabukam, Bamenda in the North West Region of Cameroon to his parents Grace and Samuel Awasom along with seven other siblings; three ladies and four guys. He came to the United States 12 years ago as a Religious Missionary through Presbyterian Homes and Services. He later filed for political asylum when it turned out that he was a victim of trafficking (abused) for the wrong reasons. Before he left Cameroon, he was being persecuted by the Synod Officials of the Presbyterian Church and the Cameroon totalitarian political establishment for his free speech, beliefs and ideas as a young visionary Youth Pastor and leader in the Church and community. He holds a BA in Theology from the Protestant Faculty of Theology, Yaoundé, Cameroon, an MA in Religion and Theology from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, MN, USA and currently, he is pursuing an MA in Law and Governance: Conflict Management and Peace Studies at the Montclair State University in New Jersey, USA. He was formerly a resident of Minnesota from 2000-2009 when he relocated to New Jersey and has been resident there since 2009. He was ordained as a Minister of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon in 1997 and when he wrote 100 theses to reform the church in 1999 with emphasis on social justice following his dissertation on "Ethics of Human Welfare" he was dismissed from the church for his vision, ideas and free speech but today his ideas are being implemented in the Church in Cameroon. While in a Presbyterian boarding school known as Presbyterian Secondary School Mankon( Pss Mankon) between 1983 and 1986, he was amongst many students bullied and abused by senior students and the Principal. Unfortunately, the abuse was enabled by the Principal who took school discipline to a whole new level as a personal weapon to unfairly target children of a peculiar background mostly those whose parents were considered less important .He claimed to be a disciplinarian but that was an excuse to conspire with children of the "corrupt" ruling class and powerful in society to abuse those of us whom they erroneously thought came from "less privileged" backgrounds but it was unacceptable.Even though our paths crossed in one of the presumed prestigious boarding schools in our society, the truth is bullying and abuse of girls by some boys was lurking and too rampant. When he began to suffer abuse, he decided to speak up and defended some of the victims especially female students to the extent, which he suffered retaliation with all sorts of name calling from the perpetrators. Yet, he neither bowed to the Principal nor to the senior students and any of the guys. He stood up for himself. He confronted them and also wrote protest letters on his behalf and other victims of bullying and abuse by the senior students! Bullying and abuse took a huge psychological toll on him to the point where he failed to make it to the next class whereas he started as a very bright student. Even though the perpetrators have never been held accountable since Cameroon society was primitive and did not pay attention to such ills , the fact is, he always put up a fight against bullying, abuse and injustice even if he knew winning was far fetched. In that way, he would protest against b

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© 2014 Jonathan F Awasom. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

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Published by AuthorHouse 08/08/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-2450-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-2449-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014911947

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Contents

Acknowledgement

Selfless and Heartless Pursuits: stories about 4 animals, birds and the moonfor reflection of families, children and students

The Lion King of the Jungle Falls into His Own Trap

The TortoiseTricked the Birds and the Moon

The Elephant and the Hawk at Daggers Drawn

The Tortoise’s Tug of War with the Elephant and Hippopotamus

Questions for reflection and discussion

Testimonial And Philantropic Purpose Of This Book

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the loving and eternal memory of my grandparents, Tata Nicodemus Nde Awasom and Nimo Swirinkwi Elizabeth Awasom, the oral historians of our family. They were devoted followers of Jesus Christ who were guided by the Christian principles and African traditional values they learned orally, and they handed down those principles and values to their grandchildren through the same oral tradition. Through their exemplary lives of selfless love and sacrifice they saw to it that their grandchildren received an education of both the head and heart.

Acknowledgement

It is not easy to write an acknowledgement to include everyone but here I have tried to be realistic to say thank you to individuals and people who have impacted my life in myriad of ways.

I would like to sincerely thank Christine Orzepowski for her devotion and help in editing this book and especially for the final stage in proof reading. Her expertise as a retired English teacher was very useful and I am so thankful to Christine for her input.

By the same token, I am grateful to my friends for their financial support towards the publication of this book. I could not have done this work without their support. I am particularly grateful to Ms Catherine Mary Mbu