War and sacrifice the relics

                                           

Many a time leaders who came into power by the barrel of the gun often than not remind their countrymen of the sacrifice they made, usually pointing out ‘peace’ as the key achievement. To all military men that have kidnapped their countries for the last twenty five years on grounds of having sacrificed, here are some mirrored thoughts for you to reflect upon. 

I would like to delve into understanding and undressing this concept of sacrifice and what it means;-

‘Sacrifice is defined by the oxford dictionary as an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else’

‘, you may skip the other definition of killing an animal or person as offering to God which happens  a lot in these days – come to think of it we are not far off from the primitive era where animals and human beings were sacrificed on a daily basis, something today that even a young child who listens to Britney spears will tell you is evil and barbaric but that is the new norm today, forgive my ranting it is my aching soul, getting back to the first definition ‘giving up something valuable for another’.  What does the military leader usually remind his people, I sacrificed and many men shed their blood for your freedom- well if we are to be scientific about this notion it would really mean that my freedom and that of the rest of the country is pegged (directly equivalent) to the bloodshed and the effort that a few men made in carrying a gun to the bush. I recognize that effort and we are ever more grateful to the military leaders but what about the ordinary man. Does he ever sacrifice?  Again if am to be scientific about it all -  We may have lost a few tens of thousands of soldiers to war that liberated whatever nation in the past twenty five years, a number that I personally grieve for but what about the ordinary man. Did the wanainchi sacrifice at all, or was it only the military that sacrificed, civilians lost their lives and many suffered injuries that left them impaired, that is sacrifice.

The woman - and I mean woman in the hundreds whose child dies every single day in hospital due to poor antenatal care or medical services sacrifices every single day current figures stand at approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every day and 99% occur in developing countries according to World health organization.

Who else sacrifices, well the persons who loses his life through a road accident due to poor road networks or safety standards, sacrifices. and worst of all the causality who dies in hospitals due to unavailable medical service, enough drugs, equipment or standing doctors and nurses to provide immediate attention sacrifices every single day. I have personally had to provide first Aid to victims of accidents on the road on two occasions and used my car as an ambulance to drive profusely bleeding victims to hospital after a hit and run  – another discussion for kings and queens, now we can try to be scientific about these figures again and compare the numbers of deaths due to such poor services and the number of men that died on the battle front liberating a country.. You will basically realize that death as a measure of sacrifice to usher a state into peace can no longer hold as a standard for holding a nation at ransom because really every single day men and women are losing lives due to either poor services or unavailable services.  Well, we might try and understand the economics of education too and the sacrifice that ordinary people make in their own painful un documented way. The family man who makes the effort to send his children to school on debt, gives up the luxury of owning his own house (we talking housing systems) because he would like to have his child acquire the best education, that is not all. At most, according to my basic calculation a student will spend not less than twenty five million on his education from primary one to graduating from a University(Ugandan standards/shillings)..So, that student in economic terms due to transfer earnings is in debt of twenty five million on graduation from university and indeed we usually celebrate or even host parties at the end of the education cycle in celebration of our acquired debt. Does that debt incurred ever get repaid, not in most cases. The sacrifice then goes on to failure of acquiring a job;- one moving debt burden that continues to incur. That is sacrifice beyond measure taken by an ordinary person.  By the way, the number of un employed youths as a quick reminder now stands at about seventy million in the world today according to International Labor Organisation’s (ILO), please make the calculation how much each of those graduates owe to their family, now who is really sacrificing?.   While these figures and stories are awash in the media so does the ever increasing political rhetoric “we sacrificed”, well check yourself. 

Who is really sacrificing today?. The teacher/doctor who never loses his smile and continues to cleaning and inhaling chalk dust for a salary less than four hundred thousand shillings that comes eight or six months late. Who is sacrificing? Is it you twenty five years ago?  or is it that teacher who continues to produce the best lawyers, doctors and politicians while his life style never changes and income never increases and yet never mired with corruption scandals that run into the billions. 

After those basic and not the many stories of the rural man who has suffered a life threatening disease but cannot afford the medication or is not even aware of the treatment perhaps too far away from the nearest medical center, it would be a shame, indignity, a disregard for human life for one to claim electoral votes and political office from citizens because he made the effort of fighting in the bush a long time ago. 

Well, we cannot talk about sacrifice before war shows its ugly head, what is war?  It is a state of conflict or absence of peace as usually defined by lay men.  The war machinery has been demystified like an old relic the Gun (All weaponry including poison, knife and tongue waggling snake); the machine that enables war is today sold in supermarkets like bubble gum in different colours for children to love, like ice cream the gun is sold and packaged in bright pink/green or blue to attract young children. The gun that is a symbol of fear and a big element in enabling war is another toy in many of the developed nations.  An old relic the gun has become that it has to be paraded and honored by men who chose to wear uniforms – I salute your sacrifice.  Ironically the one who possess the most guns in some societies like our own country still controls the state power, whoever comes across a couple of guns like LRA leader Joseph Kony, Ntangada of Rwanda, Rebel faction in south Sudan etc automatically becomes a freedom fighter, well one collector in America owns as many as three hundred thousand weapons just for a hobbie - spends his time polishing them, reconstructing them etc and the neighborhood has never been threatened by his weapons.

  Whoever controls the most guns and most number of lives willing to be sacrificed controls the state in some societies, another classic relic of power. 

So, the story goes on with everything about leadership and political systems pointing to warfare and militant-ism, another relic. It is quite funny that after all that sacrifice even when military men gain power they are never really at peace, most of them and if you can just look closely at your own politicians or military men you will notice the glaring war scars either from the products they consume or the struggle against being poisoned;- nuclear/gun powder pimples and the shaky leg muscles, acid attack black scars are written in their faces – products that I have survived my self, because literally their war never ended. They are always at war with each other. Our own leaders have gone ahead to claim that food is war, indeed one of our retired spy army generals who now vehemently criticizes the Ugandan political system mentioned that it is not long when the military command will each have to carry his own packed chapatti to meetings for fear of consuming the food offered by the establishment, a relic trying to be kept alive in a world where an able bodied twenty five year old would prefer to buy an ipad and drive his girl friend to a dinner date while listening to Irene Ntale, Coldplay, Eminem or watch a Kevin spacey,  but the proponents of war never seem to realize that the world has moved on and so they are constantly creating intrigue, putting one faction against the other;- one religion against the other, one tribe against the other, one region against the other, one race against the other, one political group against the other, one gender against the other, father against son and  daughter against mother,prostitute against non prostitute. Just like in pavlov’s dog experiment nationals all over the world are slowly being conditioned for war, one bomb blast here another one there, one train wreak here, another shooting there and one national mourning here for political and national social cohesion. Slowly nationals all over the world are learning to live with or with out fear of death and uncertainty – not any different from jihad-ism if you asked me, once again, a relic trying to be kept alive. 

If the country’s borders cannot offer it- war, so they search for it outside the borders of their own state at the expense of their populace, who have to sacrifice and share in the abhorrent escapade of their leaders as they quench their thirst for more blood, history has a lot to teach and usually people stand against tyranny.  How has war been demystified, well like lollipops the guns are sold in super markets, a disturbed young man or woman with one machine gun will walk into a public place and shoot away..by the way he might have acquired the weapon legally, posted photos of himself with his machine, said a few hateful things and one day he goes on rampage. What does the state do, it deploys, satellite systems,   the entire state police, the military, the media, that one lone wolf will cost the state a budget that may run into hundreds of millions in a spate of one shooting; nationals will be asked to stay indoors – no work. Meanwhile they comb the city for this one shooter another young man dawning a hood will be buying a sub machine gun in a gun store next door and  police cars will be cruising by in a rush to protect the state, yet another potential shooter is being created at that same instant. 

 Once again the old relic is reinvigorated, if there is no one to fight any more, we might as well fight civilians, or perhaps just hand more guns to students to walk into their school compounds– who knows maybe today’s teenager who still experiences the adolescent hormonal energy and the natural emotions of anger and rage has mastered himself/herself. It is a wait and see scenario – A young man with an original 5.0 revolver in his bag that is  constantly being handed 15% from his math or science teacher and a heated brawl in the locker room between two young men comparing their muscles where ever they maybe, who knows if that gun in the locker may soon become part of the equation to such irritable natural circumstances – well, a wait and see scenario but it is now official in some countries children will be allowed to carry guns on the school grounds.- A relic trying to be kept alive.

  Well, to put that in perspective, if a leader still thinks that his effort in liberating a country deserves eternal gratitude and hence presidential terms for life because he and many others like him  went shooting while hiding in the bush as a measure and yard stick of commanding respect, wake up, your new competitors are those untrained lone wolves who like you still believe that the gun is the answer.

 A word to those who still profess the religion of feeding the bullet and use professional national armies for that cause. I have news for you too. Maybe – bullet efficient jack baeur in twenty four or Idris Elba in Luther may say it better, the untrained/unschooled, unfed, non housed, non uniformed terrorist in Pakistan, Iraq,syria or Afghanistan is a cheaper version of your military operations - your services are no longer that required and soon or later the terrorist will be silenced too, perhaps you may settle for police brutality and fire live ammunition into demonstrating crowds but that too will eventually culminate into massive popular uprising. So, you might as well start rethinking your exit and become the relic that you are.  Well, Mao tse tung to whom many leaders ascribe may have claimed that the gun is your mother, father, protector and the bread winner but that is another classic relic.  The bread winner is not far from the industrial machinery complex or mining giant from which we import our equipment. The mechanized brigade general, who is decorated for being so good at managing weaponry in  his late seventies ,can hardly construct a sentence today or provide formidable technical military advise or the scurrilous rogue general (any highly ranked soldier) who is famous for terrorizing untrained timid civilians but still holds the job, wake up.  The real mechanized genius of today is the logistics/operations manager in a brewing company or industrial complex that has to oversee the delivery of merchandise to various countries, each dealing with different protocols and yet the consumer wherever they maybe in the world may never have to feel the pinch or wonder how that  product got to their door step, but we are far from that in Africa, we still praise these men who held guns and we still sit in front of our television sets and listen to their technical jargon while electric lines are sparking outside our houses, roads are not to standard and dust is part of the meal.     

Well, the new war is economics but you cannot fight it, if you still think in terms of self militarized adoration, you are bound to fail and follow the same path that your predecessors took, not until you rest that gun, the relic.