SONA: All about doublespeak and fashion
Athundering applause. Another thundering applause. Positive reviews, after positive reviews. What a President we have! What a blessed nation we are! Who is there to rival President Masisi, many asked.
Many had succumbed. Even his harshest critics, were dead silent. Even though it was a bitter pill to swallow, they had come to an ‘ inescapable’ conclusion, that it was the most ‘ beautiful’ speech of his presidency. And probably it was, if content counted for less.
There are a million holes one can punch on President Masisi’s presidency, but his oratory skill is incomparable. He has mastered the art of persuasion so much that one may think he invented it. I mean, who thought we would soon be joining great powers like Russia, China and USA in the galaxy, but we are.
Apparently, in 2023, Botswana will be joining a league of the few with an orbiting satellite. Apparently, the satellite is an illustration of “hunger for a knowledge- based economy.” But what is the meaning of a satellite to a person struggling to put bread on the table, it is nothing more than fairy- tale.
In 1946, George Orwell wrote that the language of politics “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” Political language, he said, was expressed in vague or meaningless words because it was intended to hide the truth rather than express it.
Welcome to doublespeak; language that pretends to communicate by hiding its intentions behind euphemisms and convoluted phrases. Doublespeak makes the bad seem good and the negative appear positive and limits and corrupts thought.
However, in Charles Dickens novel, Hard Times, Thomas Gradgrind, cautions that, “Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the mind of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them.”
And the one hard fact is, in the SONA, President Masisi undermentioned the growing threat to public safety and security. It is all in the open that, insecurity is now reaching pandemic proportions.
The growing insecurity in this country is nauseating. Crime is spiralling out of control. Day or night, the difference is the same. Criminals have literally taken over. They are running the show. There is no place to hide. Like Covid- 19, they are unselective in their attack.
They do not care if you are rich or poor, weak or strong, young or old, BDP or UDC, etcetera. What used to be an exception is now a norm. You hear of murder here, auto- theft there and burglary everywhere. Crime is now so part of us that such a heinous crime no longer makes ‘ headlines.’
In fact, it would have been ‘ news’ had she managed to fend off the criminals. It is common cause that we now live worse off than those in prisons. At least they are safe. As for us, to attain a relative sense of safety and security, one needs all security paraphernalia including electric fence, security alarm, CCTV, burglar- bars and on top of that, a dog. But not every dog. This ever- friendly Tswana- breed is never a threat. They actually take it with the loot!
But having said that, not many of us afford the luxury of having all these intrusion detectors. As such, we are forced to sleep with assortments of tools to act as defensive weapons in case of attack. Therefore, take it appropriate to find rakes and other gardening tools in bedrooms.
As they say; the terrain determines the tactics. But so far it seems there is no place to run. Crime is everywhere. If you escape them at home, they will certainly get you on the streets. They will smash your car windows by the traffic lights and snatch your laptop or unlock your vehicle by the parking- lots to steal your belongings.
If you escape them to the cattle- post, they will then come for your livestock. They seem adamant to follow us even to the grave. I do not even think going to the moon would help us escape these criminals’ wrath. The President should have told us what the security cluster is doing to counter criminals.
They do not care if you are rich or poor, weak or strong, young or old, BDP or UDC, etcetera. What used to be an exception is now a norm. You hear of murder here, auto- theft there and burglary everywhere. Crime is now so part of us that such a heinous crime no longer makes ‘ headlines.’