The other day there was a heated debate on one of the WhatsApp groups, that I am a part of with so much pain and grimacing. Someone brought in the topic of this political party member who had lost a child and there was an immediate digging into the discussion. The insights ranged from condolences, to surprise, shock and criticism.
Opinion,Grace Ruvimbo Chirenje
What broke my heart though was the clear lack of empathy and sympathy in most of the contributions. I am a parent myself and do know that children are such a handful to raise and no matter what, once one has a child they treasure them dearly and do their very best to ensure that they are socialised well. Now when we are so obscured by politics that we chose to see the world as purely that then I suppose we could have a huge challenge.
Zimbabwe is a very beautiful country and many will testify to this and especially those who have chosen to make this country their place of residence. I met people from Iceland, Sweden, Britain and Belgium last week during a training we held and they did testify of the beauty of Zimbabwe.
However, deposit the beauty this nation holds, it is also clear that it is highly polarised and this has messed up it’s ordering in many instances. Those that were born before the much younger generation do speak of a time when milk would be dropped off at the doorstep and no one would dare steal it. Newspapers were also delivered and no one would touch that which did not belong to them.
There was a sense of respect, dignity, belonging, love and, above all, ubuntu. Those who went to church were valued as the ones who upheld the social fabric of the land in its diverse forms. Today, we bemoan our lived realities as we witness the fallenness of humanity. Now it seems like a dog-eat-dog situation. No one seems to care about the next person such that we have placed more value on politics than anything else life has to offer.
The realities of struggle, lack of democracy, sheer greed and desperation maybe has left many people seeking to fight it out for themselves and this seems to have no regard for the basic needs of the next person. It is about what each person can get out of any situation even if it means bringing harm to the next person. So we peddle drugs, steal, cheat, lie and close our hearts to the possibility of feeling whatever it is processing. In zombie-like trances we live each day and do not want to look like we care.
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The truth is, it is affecting us in varying degrees and there is need to rethink how we are living our lives! What happened to our hearts? Who killed our sense of ubuntu? How can we restore it? Where do we run? How do we even dare continue on this destructive path?
The media is awash with how us as human beings are abusing not only ourselves, but also each other and even the environment at the expense of meeting our selfish needs. Well, that is truly saddening. As educated and literate most of the Zimbabweans are, what we seemingly do is spend most of our time in our headspace and forget that we are emotional creatures as well.
Even the strongest person does suffer pain and experience a whole host of emotions whether they chose to show/express them or not. Is there a way out of this hardness of heart we have embraced? Can we pause for a moment and rethink how we lost it then recover? Is there another way to live life in Zimbabwe today? Is it even possible with all this suffering and desperation we face? Can we do this in the face of such polarisation?
Yes, there is an alternative that we can choose to live if we dared to. Just last week I was part of this training I mentioned earlier on with a diverse group of people from all over the world, different languages, cultures and so on, yet the humanity was very clear.
Emotion was shared deeply and respect was mutual. There were differing opinions that were expressed with respect for the person and much empathy for those struggling with their life journey. It was such a peaceful space to belong to. Each person decided to own his or her being.
Whenever someone felt offended, they would say and there would be a healthy conversation and exploration of alternatives plus possibilities. Oh my, it does sound like some monastery movie, doesn’t it? Well, it did happen and this for me was a taste of what it means to be deliberate about living life to the fullest. We make choices and live them out. These choices do have consequences not just on the one that makes the choice, but also on those around them. Life is cyclic in nature, what goes around does eventually come around.
They say that the law of karma is that if you plant pain eventually you will reap pain. The Christians do say that a tree is known by its fruit so there is no way one can pick bananas from a peach tree, what you see is what you get. It is high time we chose to live at peace and harmony with each other. Life is just not about politics and politicising everything.
So even if my so-called “enemy” from whatever faction political party or rivalry party has an ill that befalls them, guess what?
The pain does not soften because it is one I do not necessarily like that has an ill befallen them. The same pain we feel is expressed universally. The same joy of success and frustration of failure is universal. So, why don’t we become brothers and sisters and seek to make each other’s live a much better by being the difference we seek to see?
If we dream of a Zimbabwe that is clean, then do not litter. If we desire peace, then let us plant peace. If we want an economy that grows, let us explore means of seeing it thus. It will not get us anywhere to complain and inflict pain on each other just because we are on opposing sides of the “game”. We can decide to explore the strength of diversity whether or not we are both women and our political party has factionalised us.
There is no better time than now that Zimbabwe has needed the touch of angels like you and me.
To my fellow parents, my condolences for your loss, we keep our eyes on the ball and do hope that one day our loss and our writing will mark the beginning of unity, peace and harmony. Now is the time, let’s do this!
lGrace Ruvimbo Chirenje writes in her personal capacity and loves stimulating conversation. She would be excited to hear from you. You can contact Grace on [email protected], follow her on twitter @graceruvimbo or Facebook: Grace Ruvimbo Chirenje. Chat soon.
