I’ve always wondered why the Lord brought me here. I probably shouldn’t have returned to my homeland in 2015 only to face a seemingly endless desert. I hope I’ll see the Promised Land at the right time.

My wisdom was too weak to receive the gifts the Lord intended to give me. Here, I’ve discovered several values: hospitality, the smile, sharing, waiting, and self-control.

The Lao people are very welcoming. The number of expatriates who come here and never go back is incredible. Yet, it’s classified as a developing country. You cannot enter a home without being warmly received. Whether you’re a stranger, a complete unknown, or a friend arriving unexpectedly, you’ll be welcomed. These are the values that many who call themselves Christians, sons and daughters of God, have lost. Everything is calculated—even a glance.

Back home, we smile at a stranger only if they are handsome or beautiful, rich or powerful. A smile is a way to get something. And when you have nothing to offer, no one even looks at you—except maybe to size you up from head to toe. Africans should learn to smile freely, even when they are not at peace. There’s no point in frowning when you’re angry. It’s better to be joyful. That is self-control.

When I first arrived here, my dark skin inevitably attracted every girl I came across. Some of them were thrilled just to see me. I was also thrilled to approach them—for a kiss, a caress, a hug. Carnal love took hold of me every time I met a soft and beautiful young woman. Until I learned to be indifferent to outer beauty so I could discover inner beauty. That too is part of self-control. Where I come from, a miniskirt can cause an earthquake in an entire office or company.

The value I discovered here—and which left the deepest mark on me—is one I had appreciated blindly when I lived in Senegal: eating together, at the same time, at the same table, in the same posture, from the same dish. Back home, we hardly ever do that—maybe once a year, at Christmas or New Year’s, when we were kids. Why? “I’m busy with…” The absence of sharing inevitably breeds a culture of irresponsibility and individualism. These values are contrary to the universal law of Love.

Families must return to the essentials, to simple gestures. What is man chasing if not the clock of time? A clock he only truly discovers upon birth into the afterlife. And by then, it’s too late. The only human wealth, the only treasure we truly possess, is time. Nothing is more valuable than time—not even health, fortune, or power. Nothing surpasses time.

A person’s worth lies in how they share their time. If there’s no sharing of time, there is a death of humanity. It’s the sharing of time that makes you an eternal human being. All those who have changed the course of human history learned to share time. The time you share always comes back to you. The more you share, the more you receive. And the time you give to someone, who gives it to another, and then to another… that time will return to you multiplied by the number of people to whom you gave it.

That’s why a father or mother who devotes time to their children will never be hated by them when they grow up. Even if they don’t offer them earthly pleasures, fortune, or riches, the time they gave will generate eternal riches. The value of time surpasses human imagination. One must travel to truly understand this! No—time is not money. It’s your entire life, your destiny!

No vice, however vile or cruel, equals injustice. That day, a light crossed my mind. I had to come to Asia to receive that light. Change won’t come to me—I must go toward change. Each day must be a battle for change. There are those who believe and those who don’t. There are those who refuse to believe and those who refuse not to believe. And finally, there are those who neither believe nor disbelieve. They are the most vulnerable. They are unaware of belief and unaware of disbelief. I belonged to this category for the first 30 years of my life. I was a peasant. And even if I die a peasant, I would still wish to live free. For there are free peasants and enslaved peasants.

Today, new technologies are the greatest tools of mass domination. This is raw neocolonialism. Facebook or Weibo—what do you prefer? China and the Chinese understood: self-determination. If you can’t achieve self-determination in this century, you’re worse than a slave from precolonial Africa. The African slave at least had an untouchable space—his conscience. But today, the world eats into our brains, devours our spines, and violates our consciences until they are disfigured.

If you’re not careful, you’ll spend more than three, six hours on social media. And what about those who spend their entire lives liking, commenting, sharing? I think I need training in web management and digital communication. I must work, save money, invest—and while investing, I’ll get trained.

Marriage is no longer on the table. It’ll have to wait, probably five more years. I dream of starting a family, cherishing my children. I also dream of vacations, a peaceful life, peace, and social development. But if you don’t self-determine, your whole life will be worse than that of a precolonial African slave.

Yesterday, we visited a place nearby—an enterprise with a partnership mission. Asia is ahead of its time. While it serves as an outsourcing lab for America and its allies, Africa serves as a cattle field for humanity. Nearly two hundred young people working part-time, at least six hours a day. They develop skills, earn a living, and receive employment certificates backed by years of experience in the company.

In Africa, many with master’s degrees, post-graduate degrees, and doctorates endlessly search for a job. Years and years of studying humanities (law, literature, sociology, history, psychology), only to remain poor and unemployed. Yet here, after three months, one is job-ready. Yes, the Asian economic model may be seen as oppressive or bestial by the West. But when I compare the two systems, I wonder what has truly happened to Africa.

Is today’s Africa a product of the West or the East? According to Aimé Césaire, neither side desires Africa’s happiness. Building a free and independent Africa by free and independent Africans remains, for now, a distant utopia.

The new dream that moves young Africans: become a billionaire at all costs. They are willing to sacrifice everything, even their lives and families, to get billions. But a world filled with billionaires isn’t worth a single suicidal life. Because billions do not create life. It’s life that creates billions. What young dreamers of wealth don’t realize is this: to become a billionaire, you must hate school. Billionaires are self-taught. They are shaped by the school of life. You don’t go to school to become a billionaire.

School is a testing lab for inventive billionaires. In the lab, it’s not the lab technicians who make billions—they’re salaried. The lab’s owner and shareholders make the billions. The salaried worker is just an employee. He will never become a billionaire—unless he steals or revolts. Only a boss can become a billionaire, because he owns a business and has employees. At 40, young, overqualified, unemployed people—with no experience of failure, which is the true lab of wealth—still dream of becoming Colonel Sanders.

School coldly assassinates billionaires. So, if your dream is to become one, run from school—but don’t hate it…

This text is an excerpt from the book “EASTERN CLOCK” written by Jean-Paul Marie (Pastor Samuel Binyou).

We invite you to read the next article: “MALI?”

LIGHTS OF ASIA. LIGHTS OF ASIA. LIGHTS OF ASIA. LIGHTS OF ASIA. LIGHTS OF ASIA. LIGHTS OF ASIA. LIGHTS OF ASIA.