By Ezekiel Nabieu
We have had the opportunity by happenstance to benefit from the greatest teacher of all times. We should benefit and draw inspiration from EXPERIENCE. All of us are his scholars. Opportunity once lost can never be regained. If and when Ebola returns to this land we should be armed to the teeth to confront it.
Ebola aside, this brings us to the capacity of the All Peoples’ Congress government to benefit from experience, judging by what the Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party left behind after their governance. Sleeping on our wings until the scourge is on our doorsteps is one of the dire consequences from which we should learn.
The disease first reared its ugly head in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976 but our endemic disease control unit officials, who seem to have been on leave during our travail, had been busy telling us about the newness of the disease in the world. They cannot easily convince us that in these days of electronics communications they could not have learnt all about the disease. Whether the unit is one of the state’s sinecures caught with their pants down, is a possibility.
There has been a thin line between belief and the denial of the existence of the haemorrhagic disease now known as Ebola. Publicity has not resulted in denials being reduced to a nullity. Some have only been convinced when they were stared in the face by the deaths of their friends or relatives. It should be realized, however, that there is a great difference between believing a thing and not being able to believe the contrary.
Certainly a decimation that results in the death of ten members of a community in four consecutive weeks or the deaths of extended families of five or six in consecutive weeks cannot be ascribed to witchcraft. It had never happened that way. Witchcraft “accidents” have never been happening so consecutively and on that scale. Shall all sane persons not now come to the conclusion that it is something else? Shall a disease that traditional healers cannot cure not convince us that it is real?
Barring accidental contact with the dead shall we not now abandon the time-honored tradition of washing the dead for superstitious purposes? Yes indeed we can abandon that tradition but only if we are convinced that it is a superstitious exercise in futility. All our favourite clichés have proven to be nothing more than vacuous ranting. “LET’S COME TOGETHER.” This cliché should have been more applicable to hot-spots in Port Loko district where functional rivalry seems to have been bedeviling efforts to contain the disease. And this is in spite of an unsigned agreement that the national efforts should be shorn of politics. We also blab about “LOVE ONE ANOTHER” and “CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE” which have now become discordant to ears of serious citizens.
Music is rhythmic, melodic and harmonic as to affect the aesthetic emotions. It should, however, serve its purpose according to the occasion concerned. Unfortunately, this has not been the case with regard to the kinds of music we have been hearing on the Ebola scourge. At this point in time all music connected with Ebola should, of necessity, have an aura of solemnity if they are to serve the purpose for which they are intended.
Funk music should be limited to joyous occasions unless the hirers of these musicians want to convince me that they are mindless of the people’s missives as they are proving to be. This is one of the mechanical acts of the National Ebola Response Centre, NERC, to impress the uninitiated that they are up to the task. For patriots, this is a time that calls for solemnity, sobriety and sincerity of purpose. As sat down in my verandah I witnessed a group of children engaged in a lively dance to the tune of ‘papa Ernest tenki’ and all that jazz. What is more galling is that one of those reprehensible sounds, a so-called pastor in the background, says a hypocritical prayer. Our mercenary hirers should do well to save us from the agony of such trash forthwith. We need to hear dirges such as Ayub’s ‘I Am A Survivor’ etc. This shows the way tasks are carried out with reckless abandon. It should be borne in mind that it is not what is done that matters but the way in which it is being done.
By way of a digression let me state how not to be mechanical in our ways of doing things. On or about December 21, last year, a woman delivered a baby at the PCMH and the baby was stolen shortly afterwards, allegedly owing to the lackadaisical attitude of nurses and security personnel on duty. They let fall their guard literally. They never stopped to think that it should have been rather unusual for a nurse, with dreadlocks, to take a baby out in the ungodly hours of 2am. This is because they are routinists. The earlier we realize the purpose of our actions the better will be their execution. We should therefore still keep to all the rules for Ebola prevention until it is all over.
© Politico 19/02/15
