The Art of War By Sun Tzu. Chapter Thirteen. "On The Use of Spies."

    

  If you follow what I write, you would have come across this quote. It is my favorite quote and I try my best to live my life by this quote because I believe in it completely. It is an Eastern philosophy which states that "Life is War." It was written by Sun Tzu, a Chinese philosopher. Exploring Eastern philosophy, I have learned that it is related to African philosophy and Western philosophy. Philosophy literally translates as the love of wisdom. And why do we need wisdom, so that we can live our lives to the best of our knowledge.
      Before I get to the meat of the topic which is "On the use of spies." I have watched a lot of videos on Asian history and I will encourage my African brothers and sisters to watch because, by watching one will learn a lot. Asian history and philosophy is very rich in knowledge, very rich in wisdom. Africans are aware of the African proverbs which are teachings of knowledge and of wisdom that when put into practice yields knowledge. It is same with the Asian philosophy. Learn it and use it for your benefit.It will nourish you, your soul, your spirit and your personhood.
       But I will like to end this before going into the topic by saying this, it is a good thing that Asians or Chinese are coming to Africa. It is a good thing. But as we know we have the sun that shines in the day and we have the moon that shines in the night and we also have day and night, as well as good and bad. In Asian philosophy it is called 'ying and yang'. In other words everything seems to have a good side and a bad side. You might ask why? Let me explain: Without bad you will not know good and without good you will not know bad. In order for things to be balanced, you must have a 'good' and 'bad', that is how our conscience, (that inner voice that tries to stop you when you want to do 'bad' works). In order words it is not all good that China is in Africa, it is not. Don't buy into the hype that says China is good for Africa. China is good for Africa as well as it is bad for Africa. Just Like the West was good for Africa and bad for Africa. In order to have balance I want my African brothers and sisters to open their eyes and open their hearts so that they see, listen and speak of what is going on in Africa. Africa is for Africans and we Africans must make sure Africa is safe.


                                                              "On The Use of Spies."
A major military operation is a severe drain on the nation, and may be kept for years in the struggle for one day's victory. So to fail to know the conditions of opponents because of reluctance to give rewards for intelligence is extremely inhumane, uncharacteristic of a true military leader, uncharacteristic of an assistant of the government, uncharacteristic of a victorious chief. So what enables an intelligent government and a wise military leadership to overcome others and achieve extraordinary accomplishments is foreknowledge.
Foreknowledge cannot be gotten from ghosts and spirits, cannot be had by analogy, cannot be found out by calculation. It must be obtained from people, people who know the conditions of the enemy.
There are five kinds of spies: The local spy, the inside spy, the reverse spy, the dead spy, and the living spy. When the five kinds of spies are all active, no one knows their routes-this is called organizational genius, and its valuable to the leadership.

Local spies are hired from among the people of a locality. Inside spies are hired from among enemy officials. Reverse spies are hired from among enemy spies. Dead spies transmit false intelligence to enemy spies. Living spies come back to report.

• Among officials of the opposing regime, there are those that can be secretly approached and bribed so as to find out conditions in their country and discover any plans against you; they can also be used to create rifts and disharmony. which is also known as 'divide and conquer'. Africa is the perfect example of 'divide and conquer'. African Unity through a system must be implemented which I called the 'Pan-African Party Movement' which stems from Pan-Africanism.Therefore no one in the armed forces is treated as familiarly as are spies, no one is given rewards as rich as those given to spies, and no matter is more secret than espionage.

• If spies are not treated well, they may become renegades and work for the enemy.

• One cannot use spies without sagacity and knowledge, one cannot get the truth from spies without subtlety. This is a very delicate matter indeed. Spies are useful everywhere.
• Every matter requires prior knowledge.
• If an item of intelligence is heard before a spy reports it, then both the spy and the one who told about it die.Whenever you want to attack an army, besiege a city, or kill a person, first you must know the identities of their defending generals, their associates, their visitors, their gatekeepers, and their chamberlains, so have your spies find out.
• Whenever you are going to attack and fight, first you have to know the talents of the people employed by the opponent, so you can deal with them according to their abilities.
• You must seek out enemy agents who have come to spy on you, bribe them and induce them to stay with you, so you can use them as reverse spies. By intelligence thus obtained, you can find local spies and inside spies to employ. By intelligence thus obtained, you can cause the misinformation of dead spies to be conveyed to the enemy. By intelligence thus obtained, you can get living spies to work as planned.
• It is essential for a leader to know about the five kinds of espionage, and this knowledge depends on reverse spies, so reverse must be treated well.
• So only a brilliant ruler or a wise general who can use the highly intelligent for espionage is sure of great success. This is sure of great success. This is essential for military operations and the armies depend on this in their action.
• It will not do for the army to act without knowing the opponent's condition, and to know the opponent's, and to know the opponent's condition is impossible without espionage.

The art of war by Sun Tzu is not just about war. Life is war, that is, just living day to day as a human being, you are at war. From the day you are born to the day your life ends, you are at war. You are constantly fighting, struggling to survive. This philosophy has been tested through time, from generation to generation and it works.It works in business and in every thing we do as humans to survive. The world is in your hands my African brothers and sisters, you have to be part of the world so that you can influence it to make changes.