‘Khisimusi lofika kanye ngemnyaka’

Madam,

So then, it seems people would rather choose food than save a life. After scenes reminiscent of survival of the fittest this past weekend, one wonders what would push people to such dastardly lengths.

Though this has always been the trend when such tragedy occurs, it does beg the question as to why or how people would employ food first tactics than choose to be heroes first and try to save survivors. Are members of society really that selfish or does hunger ward off all sympathetic qualities in a person?

Imagine a man with a family of five and who has been out of work for close to a year yet he is supposed to be the breadwinner; then suddenly a truck full of goods ends up on its sides by the roadside. Looking at recent and past accidents, one can deduce that the likely scenario is not only the man but his whole family and neighbours will flock to the scene and pick what they can before the cops and paramedics get there.

SITUATION

What this all equates to is that the likelihood of a person taking the honours of being a hero in such a situation are next to nothing. Just as with the circumstance of poverty and people being jobless, a person’s priorities can get construed if you look at the matter from a vantage point and not of a starving individual.

One may also ask when last this country had someone hailed as a hero as this goes to show the brevity of such people in society. In the grand scheme of things, if people feel neglected, how can they be expected to reciprocate love and affection when all they know is that this is a dog eat dog world.

You can’t expect someone who has nobody to scratch their back to leave ‘Khisimusi lofika kanye ngemnyaka’ when what’s in front of them has the likelihood to sustain their squalid lives for a few more months.

So as long as people can get away with ‘murder’, they will continue to scavenge around accident scenes and loot whoever and whatsoever they can lay their hands on if it means they will live another day.

DROUGHTS

We just have to live with the cold hard fact that humans are no different from animals when it comes to survival, especially at times of droughts, flooding and people losing houses ... if someone can jack a few odd notes to buy a couple of corrugated iron sheets from people writhing in pain, that is exactly what they will do.

Who’s to say don’t when at the end of the day they have no roof over their heads and barely have anything to eat – in some way the wilderness finds them and they will exhibit odd behaviour, according to those who can afford to pick peas from corn and carrots or Harvestime packed veggies.

In the end we live in a time where a lot of love will be lost and brother will sell brother and families will be as good as enemies. We live in a time where love for one another is slowly disappearing and all we think about is ourselves and what we can get away with while others suffer next to us.

As long as accidents happen and people starve, such incidents will be as common as day.

Andzile