Jasper “Kido” Sabuni
Desperate moments often call for desperate measures. Oooh… are we not all desperate to rid the world from this corona thing. How could we not be desperate as in just a blink of an eye, the virus has disrupted the world’s entire system of living. No gatherings! No kisses! No handshakes! No hugs! And worst of all, to some of us, NO FOOTBALL! And the virus most definitely threatens to do more harm and no good, apart from learning to wash our hands for 20 seconds and beyond.
The desperation associated with corona is a result of its nature and its unfolded mystery. Its uncertainty is so real. We are uncertain as to whether our neighbors and loved ones are infected thus we socially distance ourselves from them. We are uncertain as whether when contacted with the virus we shall perish or prevail, particularly bearing in mind that no cure or rather vaccine is available at our disposal. We are uncertain as to whether we ourselves are infected and whether our health system and bodies can cope with this COVID-19 intruder.
Most importantly, we are uncertain of our living. The International Labor Organization (ILO) recently announced that about 25 million jobs are threatened to be closed because of this virus. This definitely sheds more light on our uncertainty. As the fog of uncertainty clouds the universe and more miseries associated with the virus looms, this thus makes the public, the ordinaries, more desperate now than ever, particularly bearing in mind that prior the virus they were already uncertain of their living. Their lives have always been shredded into days of unbearable pain and then come another misery, even more dreadful than others, and even more deadly when it teams up with poverty, unemployment, hunger, malnutrition, debts, homelessness, landlessness, ignorance, police and government brutality, violence, diseases, poor health and other social services, stress, you name them all.
With all these, how can the world, of the ordinaries particularly, not be in more despair now than ever before? Ideally, where there is despair, such ought to be traded with HOPE! With a rather personal experience, over the years, particularly in Tanzania and elsewhere in the African discourse, we have struggled to locate that sense of hope. Not even the beacon of hope at the Kilimanjaro Mountain peak could enlighten our lives.
Unlike our colleagues in South America, the likes of Cuba, we have failed to find hope to the assumedly one component that ought to assure us better living – The Government. We have failed to find hope to the movements such as the Chavistas, as ours have always proved to be birds of the same feathers. We have failed to find hope even in individuals like Sanders who have the audacity to address the root cause of our uncertainties, giving some of us the courage to dream of a better world. Ours, individuals, have always fed us with false hopes that dared not to challenge the status quo – the system that has always precipitated disparities and burdened more the downtrodden.
Similarly to the flowing water facing a blockade that has to channel its flow elsewhere, the flowing urge of HOPE of the ordinaries had to be channeled to other avenues. Whereas some found their falsified hope in boozes, drugs, sexual and other insidious conducts, others found haven in the church, as they found hope in a supernatural being – God. Therein they have found love, affection and comfort that their earthly government has denied them over the years; therein they have dared to dream of prosperity and betterment, something they have failed to do within their movements; therein they have found the voice to communicate with that one force of joy and happiness that they definitely lack in this universe.
The world seems to be failing the public again, as science is yet to solve the corona riddle. The ordinaries are desperate and are validly worried as they are mostly the threatened party. Moreover, they are concerned that even if the medicine and vaccine is unveiled, such would be within the reach of the mighty few rather than them. They recall the trend of infrastructure, electricity and social services all being allocated along the neighborhood of the HAVES. They have not definitely found or rather sensed any reason whatsoever as to why things will be undertaken differently this time around.
As we are all stranded, with science saying there is no direct treatment yet, the evangelical mission communicates to the mass of the Holy Spirit vaccine and assures them of the Fatherly cure, for in Him no harm shall prevail. With this asserted alternative, evangelism definitely wins more hearts and souls of the masses, particularly as it is mentioned that the heavenly guardian works with no labels of the privileged and less privileged.
Whereas the altars and cathedrals are flocked, we ought to ask ourselves to what greater good does the evangelical have to corona and the world’s outstanding miseries? To what extent does it cater for the uncertainty of life? How genuine and sustainable is the evangelical hope? Is evangelism the ideal alternative? If not, what is?
