Maravi

Our true heroes

Our true heroes
By The Post
Mon 05 July 2010, 04:50 CAT

We believe that on a day like today – Heroes Day – homage should be paid to the efforts made by all those who have given us the freedom and the relatively peaceful life we live today.

Although it is said that no single individual can assume the role of hero or messiah, there are men and women chosen to bring happiness into the hearts of people – those are the real heroes. Our heroes are men and women who are worried about socio-economic questions; people who care for the weak, the poor and for those without hope – these are our heroes.

And on a day like this, we are not only remembering the heroes who are citizens of our country but all the heroes that have touched, in one way or another, our lives or whose practices, whose daily lives have set an example for all humanity.

On a day like this, we remember Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Kenneth Kaunda, Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King, Che Guevara, Pope John Paul II and many others – these are our heroes. And above all, we think of that hero of all heroes Jesus Christ and his example. We are reminded of Christ’s command when he was making his ultimate sacrifice for us: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
These are and were men and women full of boundless love for humanity who have lived exemplary lives.
These are men and women who could consciously sacrifice themselves for society and its ideals. And to us, if they could do it, then so could others. On a day like this, we remember Che’s teachings on what it means to be a hero: “…

Let me say, with the risk of appearing ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love. It is impossible to think of an authentic revolutionary without this quality…

In these conditions, one must have a large dose of humanity, a large dose of a sense of justice and truth, to avoid falling into extremes, into cold scholasticism, into isolation from the masses.

Every day we must struggle so that this love of living humanity is transformed into concrete facts, into acts that will serve as an example, as a mobilising factor…

Each and every one of us punctually pays his quarter of sacrifice, aware of receiving our reward in the satisfaction of fulfilling our duty, conscious of advancing with everyone toward the new man who is glimpsed on the horizon.”
On a day like this, we think of all these heroes and we also think of those who came from faraway lands to aid our region’s liberation struggle – those are our real heroes.

There are moments when difficult and bitter decisions have to be taken, and when that moment came to the Cuban people and their party and armed forces, they did not hesitate for an instant to send their heroes to defend the independence of Angola and to help alter the balance of forces between the apartheid regime and the liberation forces.

We believe that the Cuban heroes helped prevent a political calamity, a military calamity for Angola, for Africa, and for all progressive forces. We believe that decisively boosted the prospects for peace now present in our region. That is heroism we can all feel proud of.
We are also proud of the heroic role the Zambian people and their leaders of the time played in the liberation of our region. There were some who dared to question the internationalist spirit of Kaunda and his comrades over their decision to aid, in whichever way they could, the liberation of Southern Africa.

But again, we are reminded that whoever is incapable of fighting for others will never be capable of fighting for himself. And by doing what they did, Kaunda and his comrades were not doing a favour to anyone but simply fulfilling a duty.

Again, if a man cannot sacrifice himself for others, he is incapable of sacrificing himself for anything; a people that cannot sacrifice itself for other peoples is incapable of sacrificing itself for its own sake; a people that is not willing to fight for the freedom of others will never be ready to fight for its own freedom.
Sometimes it’s forgotten that Kaunda and his comrades’ support to the struggle against apartheid, to Mandela and the African National Congress in particular started long before Zambia was independent. Kaunda utilised whatever little advantage they had to aid their comrades in the region who were less advantaged.

Recalling Kaunda’s response to his request for support before Zambia’s independence when he was in Lusaka on his way up North, Mandela says: “Kaunda put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Nelson, speaking to me on this subject is like carrying coals to Newcastle. I am your supporter and a follower of chief Lutuli’.”
We should maintain that patriotic and internationalist spirit that was forged from the very beginning of our struggle for independence, a value that was very important to us but one which is being lost very quickly today.
Let’s emulate these heroes, these real heroes who walk their talk and teach by example. They are and were humble men and women, who possess and possessed great courage, compassion and unwavering commitment to equality and justice.

And as Simone Weil once observed, at the bottom of the heart of every human being, from earliest infancy until the tomb, there is something that goes on indomitably expecting, in the teeth of all the crimes committed, suffered and witnessed – that good and not evil will be done to him. It is that above all that is sacred in every human being.

There are still many causes today that require heroes and heroism. And as Herodotus once observed, “It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what may happen.”

On this day, we pay special tribute to all our heroes, especially those who travelled thousands and thousands of kilometers to come to Africa to assist us in a practical way – these are really our true heroes.

Labels: HEROES DAY

posted by MrK @ 2:43 PM