No One Wants To Be Ushered To Heaven Ahead Of Others
- Category: The Comrade
- Date 19-07-2010
- 311 views
Some terrorists have sent people to meet their Creator too early and we have since mourned. As the first – and possibly last – FIFA World Cup tournament on the African soil came to a close in South Africa, excited fans that gathered at various points in Kampala paid with their blood. Coordinated bombs exploded simultaneously and took about eighty lives, caused scores of grave injuries and formulated a shocked nation, in need of counselling.
If a landlord wanted to evict a tenant in Kampala today, it has never been much easier. If a thief wanted to grab a handbag, the trick is now very simple. A pickpocket does not have to snatch and dash away with your mobile phone anymore; he can only ask you to surrender it and walk away in silence and without turning your head to see who it was or where he might disappear to.
It is only a matter of flashing a doubtful box or metal object in eyes of your prey and the job is done. Since the time of the bombing, police has been called to every nook of Kampala and other towns to check if a suspicious item spotted in a garden, dustbin, manhole, or courtyard could be a bomb. A tremulous sensation hangs over the nation like a dark cloud as no one is sure if they will return home safely after a day’s work. The deadly incident has undercut the business environment especially for troupes that derive from mass congregations such as bars and restaurants, entertainment clubs, and markets.
Have people become lily-livered after a single terrorist attack. And is it justified at all? The Comrade says: Yes! The victims of the bomb attack were no ordinary souls. There were not street sweepers, wheelbarrow pushers, slum dwellers, itinerant hawkers, or barmaids among them. It would still have been tragic if the outlined categories were the victims but possibly the impact of the incident to the shapers of public opinion would have been different. Only months ago, landslides buried whole families in their hundreds in Bududa district but, whereas this received extensive coverage locally and internationally, the media did not give profiles of individual victims as been the case for the bomb victims.
The profiles of the bomb victims indicate that most of them had several things in common. They came from the corporate world, young men and women at their most productive stage of life. They were still in school or had just finished college, full of dreams of a blissful, successful future. They were just beginning to live and it is that life was just nipped in the bud. This is not to mention the heavy investments parents had made to bring these youths to the level where they could independently and confidently hang out in such modish places as Kyanddondo Rugby Grounds or the Ethiopian Restaurant in Kabalagala where a beer costs a fortune.
When we leave the young ones aside, many other victims of were vibrant professionals from telephone companies, banks, in government and civil society institutions including nongovernmental organisations, international agencies, diplomatic missions, multilateral companies, business and production firms and others were progressive religious personages. Your columnist lost a finance manager of the international agency where he works. Some victims were young couples, others in courtship, others just young parents of budding children with a long way to go in life. Many of the dead left behind a lot of unfinished business, unrealised dreams, plans and responsibilities.
The African system means that, other than the government, relatives of the deceased are to shoulder the burden hundreds of orphans who need food, education, Medicare, shelter, and etcetera. The only pledge government could make was a future contribution to the cost of funeral services for the bereaved families and hospital bills for the gravely injured. No form of insurance whatsoever for lasting support!
The sad reality nonetheless remains that the attackers targeted the group of the most unprepared for such an early death. The extent of harm to the families, communities, and nation is simple incalculable. God grant them peace!
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: The Comrade, The Guardian on Sunday