Where has the love gone?
HEARTLESSNESS is one evil that has become deeply entrenched in people. A moral broom is needed to sweep it away. Families, churches, communities, workplaces, social clubs and everywhere else where people gather need to be approached with caution.
It is now a dog-eat-dog affair, where one only cares for one’s immediate needs without sparing a thought for the next man. Indoda iyazibonela.
Called “kuoma mwoyo”, “hutsinye”, “kusindimara” or “kuwachisa”, being unkind is like gangrene, which eats away the core, leaving empty shells that are good for nothing.
Men, women, the young and the old
are all sadly caught in the web of cruelty. Heartlessness often makes people do things that result in others questioning their sanity. It can also wear many faces, including betrayal.
Some women betray trust and bed their sisters’, friends’, relatives’ or even biological mothers’ boyfriends to get an unfair advantage over the other parties because of cruelty.
There are some men who also do the same. It is not only the poor who exhibit acts of heartlessness. The rich also do and at times treat people worse than pigs and dogs.
As I commit pen to paper, gentle reader, there are countless reports of people who, because of cruelty, funnel damaging information into the ears of the employers of the people they hate to ensure they lose their jobs.
At churches, office bearers are accused of prostitution and/or helping themselves to tithes and offerings, resulting in challenges that may be too ghastly to contemplate.
The moment a church treasurer buys a house, a car, furniture or a suit, they are accused of dipping their fingers in the church’s coffers.
The case of a Mufakose man who slit the throats of his girlfriend’s children, killing one instantly, on suspicion that their mother had cheated on him is one good example of heartlessness.
One cannot understand how the deep love the man reportedly had for the children’s mother turned into bitter hatred in the blink of an eye. That was worse than witchcraft! “Chinonzi huroyi varume hakusi kufamba husiku chete. Kuchiva chinhu chemumwe asina mhosva newe; ndihoka huroyi pahunotanga napo,” sang
Nicholas “Madzibaba” Zakaria in the song titled “Huroyi”.
True to the song’s words, the moment you act negatively to spite others, you would have committed witchcraft.
Sadly, some cruel people brag about this and actually revel in the pyrrhic victories they score.
“I am not called Madhuve for nothing. My husband did not buy enough provisions for the household, so I just prepared the sorghum sadza which he prefers and served him with salt,” I heard a woman bragging in a kombi.
“I cooked a whole pot of meat and ate it just like that because the man of the house had not bought mealie meal, rice or spaghetti. That will teach him a very good lesson,” quipped another.
“James fancies himself a good boy at the workplace, so we let him do all the work alone so that when he clamours for recognition, it will be well-earned,”
I heard some people saying in the bar recently.
Heartless people do not consider the feelings of others.
These are the kind of people who help themselves to cellphones, cash and even food meant for the sick.
As I commit pen to paper, gentle reader, there are disturbing reports of gangs of thieves who feign illness and go about stealing food, gadgets and anything they can lay their hands on, especially in hospitals.
“My friend, if you thought hospitals were safe places, where people showed compassion for the sick, then you need to be corrected. It is not unusual to walk into a hospital ward to find patients crying over stolen cash, cellphones and walking aides,” said Mr Cosmas Kadandara of Mutoko.
Doing away with heartlessness can make the world a better place.
Inotambika mughetto.