Last year in December, I attended an all-staff retreat for the organisation I work for. It was a wonderful time as colleagues met physically after an action-packed year to reflect on the year and to plan for the future.

Several team-building games were lined up for us, and with about 200 staff, we were split into eight different teams. It was team building indeed as teams exhibited great teamwork devoid of titles and rank anyone held within the organisation.

The competition was fierce. Although we were all employees of the same organisation, lines had been drawn along the assigned teams.

However, despite belonging to different teams, as employees, we never lost sight of the bigger picture—that we were all colleagues, part of a bigger team delivering on a shared mandate.

Our awareness of belonging to one bigger team was evident in how we treated each other during and after any game. There was no animosity. The teams competed to win but no love was lost. We took the games for what they were—team-building activities, not a measure, quest, or display of our worth.

I hardly recall my team's score in the games. However, I vividly recall the many faces and the warm smiles of colleagues I met for the first time in person at the retreat including the organisation's Head of Security who was the jolliest person on our team, always cracking jokes, laughing, and strategising for the team's victory. I had never seen such a jolly Head of Security.

Employees at a retreat, however, are not the only people belonging to one big team that get assigned to smaller teams to enhance team building. Although we are one human race, each of us has been assigned to a smaller team identified by tribe/race.

Similar to a retreat, the purpose of our tribes/races is to enhance team-building because, with a population of over 8 billion people walking this planet, it is impossible to know everyone, and yet none of us is an island—we need other people.

Unfortunately, many people do not see [their] tribe/race as simply an assignment to a team. Instead, they see it as an assignment of status in life with many believing their tribe/race or those of others to be superior or inferior.

Those who believe their tribe/race is superior go down the meaningless road of trying to impose their ways upon others. Some have even gone to the extent of committing genocides in an attempt to eliminate those who belong to a tribe/race they consider inferior.

On the other hand, those who consider their tribe/race inferior suffer from an inferiority complex that often leaves them disempowered to do much for themselves. They spend their days in awe and worship of tribes/races they believe to be superior.

However, any belief in the superiority or inferiority of any tribe/race is a false belief. 

As history has shown, no ability or strength is exclusively assigned to any tribe/race—all are capable of doing good and evil in equal measure. The seasonal rise to the top that gives birth to territories we describe as empires or superpowers is the equivalent of a team at a retreat emerging as a winner in a game. This victory is not permanent because the game of life is still being played.

We, therefore, each need to be proud, with humility, of our tribe/race because any tribe/race is as good and as bad as any other.

As we cherish the firm sense of belonging bestowed upon us by our tribes/races, let us remember that you and I belong to a bigger team—the human race—and therefore always act in the best interest of that bigger team.

Song Dedication: You Are Me by Alaine