Not everything whichh glitteris gold

Not everything which glitter is gold

By: Abraham Daljang Maker

KAMPALA:  I believe that this is an old adage that everyone is familiar with, but have you ever stopped and give a second thought before you take up any decision and weighing the consequences at the same time?  Wait a minute; I am alluding to how people take normal things to be extra-ordinary in our nation, South Sudan.

 The recent additional celebration days on the calendar puzzle me and I am pondering why they are so important to others when in actual sense, they are just normal. When the government announced to the whole world that it has finally decided to shut down our oil, it was such great news. As a result, we took to the streets in all the ten states in celebration for having successfully shut down our pipelines. On the contrary, the celebration was short-lived because 98% of our economy depends on oil and this gave birth to a term called “austerity measures.” Consequently, our potbellies flattened; there was no enough fuel for our V8 vehicles, we had to limit our holidays to abroad, and our families in foreign countries were feeding on beans and rice instead of steak and fried food.

 One more celebration day occurred when our President reduced the size of the ministries and he put the Vice President and all the national ministers on benches. In other countries, this is just a normal thing, but here in the republic; it was a new celebration day. In Lakes state for example, People took to the streets in celebration and all businesses came to stand still that day because the shopkeepers were told not to open; this was a semi-holiday I would say. School children were mobilised to match on street and none of these kids knows why they were matching; this reminded me of our days in 1995 when we used to line up waiting for Anglican and ECS priests who were still checking in at Jomo Kenyatta or Moi international airports in Kenya.  I was wondering what was so special about the removal of all the ministers and the Vice, How often shall we celebrate such minor issues? To me this is as normal as eating food and it can happen not only here but in other nations, why can we focus on productive thing rather than celebrating minor and normal events? 

Political renegades are other groups who think running away and form a warring faction against the government is the best solution. Despite his greater contribution in the liberation struggle, Late George Athor defected away just because he thought having lost the position of governorship was the end of everything. Unfortunately, he lost his life may his soul Rest in Peace.  David Yau Yau, also deserted the national army because he failed to go through as an MP in his constituency but regrettably; he is terminating his own people whom he wanted to lead, this is absurd.  There were other groups who think that they can run away and fight the new government without weighing the consequences, any act you do against the innocent civilians will follow you till the end. I pray that those who are removed from their ministries will only nurse their frustrations in their homes without causing any trouble.  And let me hope that cooks, co-wives, student leaders, and paramount chiefs should not fight because they fail to get the position of being the head cook, head wife, union leaders and chiefs.  If we know that being a leader means being the people’s servant, we shouldn’t be fighting for it. But since we view leadership as something where we reap riches and gain reputation; that is why we force ourselves as leaders, and failure to reach there makes us to kill our own sisters, brother, mothers and fathers.  

 There is this other thing, “the wounded heroes” these are the people who fought for the freedom of our nation and most of them lost limbs, sustained big wounds on their bodies; they cannot help themselves anymore and they deserve support. Because they sacrificed their blood, people are now able to eat and sleep in big hotels; they drive expensive cars, rent bungalows in abroad, marry as many wives as possible, and take sacks full of dollars to unknown banks. The irony is that; these disadvantage groups of people (wounded heroes) are being cheated by potbellied individuals who think that they are “SMART” enough to acquire wealth in the shortest time possible. Some of these fats pregnant men never fought but they are the ones reaping the sweat of the heroes, 98% of the REAL wounded heroes never step in expensive hotels, they never have bungalows abroad, they only remain destitute with a few pounds in their pockets. We should all think twice and reward these people, for it is their efforts that brought us thus far. Let’s not eat what does not belong to us and think it is our golden chance to eat.

One more thing, Internet politics is another thing which is spoiling us the youth, the fact that we all have access to electronic media is both advantage and disadvantage. Advantage because we are moving towards global communication in a digital era where you can communicate with your loved ones across the globe. Disadvantage because we think we can insult each other and sow the seeds of hatred and tribalism on the website, we all think that we are media practitioners just because we get our pieces published online leading to the abuse of journalism as a profession.  

Another glittering Gold is the issue of regionalism, we all see ourselves as citizens of the regions rather than being the staunch citizens of our beloved nation which we had suffered for more than two decades. We called ourselves as people from Greater Equatoria, Greater Bhar el gazel,  Greater Upper Nile and Greater blab la……….. if one says that we should not look at ourselves from regional perspective; you stand a high risk of losing your neck in the process. Most still, we seem to be basing our political ideologies and support on regional lines which to me is worst practices we shall ever regret in our lives. I am fed up with gossips in schools such as, “we shall not allow them to do this and that… they are worst tribes, worst regions, worst clans, etc.” these are not good talks and we shall never progress until we all know that this nation does not belong to single Region, tribe, clans, community, family but instead it belongs all of us. 

Like I mentioned above, let’s not see anything which glitter as gold, we should first analyse any shining metal before we assume that it is gold. We as a nation have a very long way to go and if we start like this, we shall not see our vision which we yearned for. We should all stand as one instead of being so paranoid and try to terminate other people’s lives for no good reason; because no one will fill in the gape of that person whom you eliminate thinking he/she is a threat. 

The writer holds bachelor’s degree in journalism and he is currently pursuing master degree in Development studies. He can be reached on abraham12daljang@yahoo.com