Africa is a beautiful continent. Flu is a deadly disease caused by a virus. At face value the two, dont seem to amount or simply put, command the attention they both are worth. Democracy on the other hand is a philosophy, or an ideology: indeed a meta-textual ideal, which is only as good as the extent to which the ever-transient normative conditions favourable for its existence are recognised and abidded by.
Studying the pathway, from the entry of the RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae or (influenza viruses)to the infection and ultimately the contraction of the flu virus, one can learn very useful lessons around the so-called African Democracies.
A lot can be said about the African Democratic ideals which are mostly hinged upon certain insignificant nostalgic 'heroic exploits' to say the least. From Zimbabwe, to most unfortunately South Africa, especially with the advent of the recent "...kill for Zuma" idiosyncratic yet potentially dogmatically obliterative Zuma-farce anthem, and the most unfortunate Human Rights commission's stance towards dealing with these potentially destructive,and truly anger inciting and at worst babaric utturances, one wonders what the future of our Democracies really is?
Different stakeholders who are supposed to keep the politician on check or accountable are slowly and surely becoming accomplices of the much shunned human right abuses that are witnessed daily within the beautiful boaders of our continent. If these organisations are slowly becoming toothless bull-dogs especially in the midst of the unbearable heat emitted by these intolarable human right abuses by the people we sent to represent us at governmental level, then one wonders again what the future entails for the common man on the African soil? Hope seems to be dissipating under our feet and this is a very big problem.
The flu virus, like I mentioned earlier on is deadly. Statistics and research shows and further attest to this claim.Research demonstrates that flu spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics, killing millions of people in pandemic years and hundreds of thousands in non-pandemic years. Furthermore, it is postulated that atleast three influenza pandemics occurred in the 20th century and killed tens of millions of people, with each of these pandemics being caused by the appearance of a new strain of the virus in humans. Often, these new strains result from the spread of an existing flu virus to humans from other animal species. A deadly avian strain named H5N1 has posed the greatest risk for a new influenza pandemic since it first killed humans in Asia in the 1990s. Fortunately, this virus has not mutated to a form that spreads easily between people (Wikipedia).
Lessons we should learn from the flu virus is that:
1. it kills both in pandemic and in non-pandemic years
2.each pandemic is caused by an existing strain of the virus appearing as a new strain but operating with the potency of the old
3. there are deadlier strains of the same virus such as the Avian strain named H5N1
4. there are 50/50 chances of the Avian virus mutating and therefore posing the greatest threat to human existence ever posed a flu virus.
Such lessons are caution marks and they require us as Africans to belt-up and tackle our impending problems with the view of nipping all the bad seedlings right back into their buds before they blossom and cross polunate. But it seems African leaders are either too afraid or too complacent to act...and this scares me.
Symptoms of influenza on humanbeings:
In humans, common symptoms of the disease are the chills, then fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.What is amazing is that these sympotoms have fooled the human race to the extent that we regard them as normal. Flu vaccines are out there but we dont make use of them, because flu, dispite its perils is a disease we think we are so acquinted with. But research has just shown not only its perils but also its deceptive tendencies. I say its deceptive tendencies because often times we dont know which type of virus we have, except that we are 'familiar' with the symptoms...
Symptoms of democratic decadance:
1. lack of trust in the succession process
2. an attempt to changing the constitution to extend one's term in office
3.polarisation of democratic ideals i.e. creating gery areas within the democratic process (pathetic)
4.utterances of hate speech in and during political campaigns
5.references to 'freedom fighting'
6. embellishing the so-called freedom fighters with status beyond them (what happened to sacrificial service?)
7. silence diplomacy with regard issues of national urgency
8. diplomatic approach to rectifying wrongs perpetuated against citizens or the nation by ruling elites
9. condoning and impatial dealing with wrong, i.e. some people being brought above the law (what????)
I am not going to make or draw conclusions for you readers out there, but I want you to please respond to these writings. I need to know how you see our future democracies. Just click on the comment link at the end of this text and add your comment or views. You dont have to agree with me, you just have to have an opinion of your own.
You can also drop me an e-mail at: monnapt@gmail.com
taaa!
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