Maravi

Meaningless Heroes holiday

Meaningless Heroes holiday
Written by Editor

The Heroes holiday is now almost meaningless in Zambia. It doesn’t seem to be there to honour the efforts, the sacrifices, the selflessness and the memory of those who fought, those who struggled for our freedom, for the independence of our country and for our collective and individual dignity. It seems to be much more a holiday for us to drink beer and have some rest from work. It is something that we seem to be continuing just because we found it on our calendars and we don’t seem to have a good reason to remove it.

We say this because of the way we have treated and are continuing to treat the people who struggled selflessly, sacrificing everything – their lives, their education, their jobs, traditional or other privileges – for the independence of our country. A big number of that selfless and heroic generation are dead, buried in unmarked graves – most of them don’t even have a stone on their graves to just say ‘the remains of heroic freedom fighter so and so lie here’. And those of that generation, who are singled out to stay the longest and bear the pain of seeing their comrades go, are today living in abject poverty, with no respect, dignity or identity accorded to them.

We shouldn’t forget that these heroic fighters fought a noble battle and lived their lives in pursuit of a better life for all of us. The democracy in which we have buried them, in which we are making some of them suffer while we enjoy and live in comfort is the sweet fruit of their lives of struggle and sacrifice.

And here we are not talking of young people. The majority of these heroic fighters are over 70 years old, they are old people with no jobs, no pensions, no discernible source of income whatsoever. And we shouldn’t forget that when Frederick Chiluba came to power in 1991, he took away even the little benefits, the extremely modest retirement benefits the law had provided for them. And these same characters that robbed those humble fighters of their meagre benefits are today paying themselves all sorts of benefits, including mid-term gratuities for people who do nothing of benefit for the nation. They even shared the houses and parastatal companies these same freedom fighters had with extraordinary effort built. Is this the way to reward the efforts, the sacrifices, the selflessness of these apostles of our nation?

Is this the way to treat old people, especially old people who have given so much to us? In this country, old people are entitled to nothing. Even in terms of paying taxes on their income, if they have any, there are no exemptions, they are not treated in any favourable manner. They are not treated favourably anywhere or over anything. This is truly a society under the leadership of extremely selfish wolves who think of nobody else other than themselves.

It is said that a society that does not value its older people denies its roots and endangers its future.

Even when it comes to naming streets, buildings or other infrastructure, they have rushed to name them after themselves and their friends. They seem to live only in the present. The past seems to owe them nothing. Even the future doesn’t seem to owe them anything. All they think about is the present and themselves in that present.

When these mercenaries came to power, their first act was to remove the face of Dr Kenneth Kaunda from the national currency. They should be ashamed that Kwame Nkrumah’s face is on Ghana’s currency. Instead of putting monkeys, buffaloes and other creatures on our currency, wouldn’t it be a befitting tribute to our freedom fighters to have the faces of Dr Kaunda, Harry Nkumbula, Simon Kapwepwe, Reuben Kamanga, Sipalo Munukayumbwa, Julia Chikamoneka, Mukwae Nakatindi, Mary Fulano, Fines Bulawayo, Aaron Milner, Arthur Wina, Humphrey Mulemba, Mainza Chona, Grey Zulu, Sikota Wina, among many other freedom fighters, on our currency? We have so much infrastructure in the country that has meaningless names. Yet we have so many names of heroic freedom fighters that we need to remember.

There is need for a change of attitude. We are teaching our children a very false history of our country. They will never truly know what it took to get our country where it is today. This requires a leadership that is humble, that is selfless and is able to place the dignity of others before self. We may be asking too much from this generation of vampires that knows nothing but to suck the blood of the suffering masses and lord over them. It’s only a humble person who is able to live with great respect for his neighbour and others. A leader with humility lives an ordinary life, not trying to be distinguished, except by his great diligence in the practice of common virtues. He practices the daily duties of his state of life. His main goal is first of all the sanctification of his interior thoughts and sentiments. A humble leader is fore-bearing and accepts crosses.

Truly, we have no right to be ungrateful to this generation that has given us so much, that has given us everything we have and asking nothing from us in return. Just look at the way we live today and the way they live today – and even the way they lived when they were in power. This is a generation that had total control of the 755,000 square kilometers of the land of this territory, but look at how much land they took for themselves and compare that with what we have taken for ourselves since 1991! Who is more selfless – us or them? Who selflessly honoured a public duty – us or them? Certainly there is something wrong with us as a people, as a nation that needs urgent correction. We are a disgrace and we should be very ashamed of ourselves over the manner in which we are treating these heroic fighters and builders of our country, of our nation. Until we start to address the plight of these freedom fighters and give them the respect and dignity they deserve, Heroes Day will continue to be a meaningless holiday in this country. It will actually be a day of mocking these heroic fighters instead of honouring them. These selfless human beings are not asking for too many things from us, they are not asking for the impossibilities. They are asking for very basic things that constitute the dignity of any human being. And as freedom fighters and old people, they deserve our respect and compassion. Let’s give them what is legitimately due to them.

Labels: HEROES DAY, NATIONAL UNITY DAY

posted by MrK @ 11:08 AM