“Politeness,
n. The most acceptable hypocrisy." –
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s
Dictionary, 1911
A gecko is a creepy-crawly that
often, when seen, results in involuntary ceiling-high jumping competitions of fright
in some, and deep reflective melancholic times in others.
This year ending, had evoked
memorable gecko-like behaviours in me, as we continued witnessing a government
swing on a pendulum leaning on morass.
We competed the most in
ceiling-high jumps of fright when we learnt that the country’s external debt
stock has increased from US $8.7 billion as of end 2017 to some indeterminate figure
pivoting at US $9.4 billion mid this year. Our fright was founded on the past
experiences of high debt levels and its effect of likely lower government
spending on social sectors like education and health., which inarguably affects
the poor and vulnerable the most.
Do not forget this is a
year, in which we also hit the ceiling when we learnt that monies meant for the
vulnerable among us, that led to the British suspending its contribution to the
social cash transfer, was actually ‘taking
a nap’ in some bank account. So we howled that the British imperialists (oh,
and Africa Confidential) owe us an apology, as they were tarnishing the image
of our holy nation. In our howling, we
even forgot that the State had already sanctioned
an investigation as a response to the British government’s suspension of aid
payments amid the allegations of corruption and fraud.
Well, I must admit. The revelations of fraud and corruption in the 2017 trends
report of the Financial Intelligence Centre, the continued observations of misappropriation
of funds in the Auditor General's report, still no idea how essential
drugs took a leisurely walk from government warehouses, made
me jump so high that my head got stuck in the ceiling. Well, some medics came in a very
expensive public ambulance, and saved my sorry head!
Then there were those low
jumps of fright, were we simply muse and say – well it is not falling on me. There
were several, but the most memorable include.
The anarchical use of the
law to suppress dissent, as witnessed in the trial now known as ''42-for-42''.
That is, the protest questioning the purchase of 42 fire tenders at US$1
million each.
Pilato arrested after
returning from South Africa, where he fled after receiving threats for his Koswe
Mumpoto song. Don’t blame the guy for cutting and run. He has a dental formula I
would kill for. He surely did not fancy it being re-arranged by political
thugs. Well, glad he came back home.
Opposition party leaders and
NGO personnel continued being ‘frog
marched’ from districts and even church premises, as the State continued
negating freedom of movement, expression and
assembly with impunity.
But what the heck! Let me
not lie.
2018 was not all about the
gecko on the wall resulting in involuntary ceiling-high jumping competitions of
fright, there were also deep reflective melancholic times.
How a State till end year
has not provided answers on the death of Vespers Shimuzhila, the University of
Zambia (UNZA) student who died from suffocation during riots at the
institution. What those fellows in sisal
wigs are still pondering in the Judicial review proceedings challenging the Speaker
of the National Assembly decision on the impeachment motion.
Anyway, in hindsight, there
is no doubt in my mind that 2018 was just another year of the gecko. We squealed, we reasoned, yet we moved on like
we are just tourists in our own country.
It is like even though we
jumped in fright, we knew that it will actually not fall. We reflected on the
transgressions of the State, but we moved on immediately another gecko appeared.
About it all, we forgot that,
as Sri Aurobindo writes, “our actual enemy is not any force exterior to
ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our cowardice, our selfishness, our
hypocrisy, our purblind sentimentalism".
And, indeed, our polite reverence of creepy-crawlies.
Verbum
satis sapient.
