Norway’s Tragedy: Future Leader’s Shaken

It hit me like a boulder as I listened to the radio Saturday morning and heard what had happened in Norway. A gunmen walking through an island shooting and killing young people engaging themselves in the affairs of their country, as though he had no heart. The manner of this man’s cruelty, as described by survivors, was even more harrowing and highlights further the extent of this man’s depraved mind. In the end, he managed to murder over 70 people, mostly teenagers – young men and women leaders of a future generation.

Young people all over the world have often been criticised for not being interested and involved enough in matters of politics and social leadership. Over the past few years however, with the rise of social media, young people all over world are finding it prudent to engage in matters of politics and government because they realise that whatever happens now determines the course of their future. Not unlike us youth in Ghana. Participation in discussions of politics and governmental affairs has been on the rise and rightly so seeing as our future lies in the decisions taken by our leaders today.

To therefore have young people in Norway engaging with their leaders targeted in the way they have been is truly sad. Even more so when you think by a countryman albeit a racially prejudiced and deranged one. Whatever point this man wanted to put across, he’ll certainly get a response. And that is no amount of radical thinking and fundamentalist stand, no amount of racial and religious hate be it from within a nation or from without will dampen the desires and wish of young people to continue to engage in the course of their own future. Now the realisation is even more clearer, that only with solidarity and consensus can we hope to defeat this sad reality of hate and racial and religious prejudice.

My hope for the young people of Norway is that they stay firm and strong in the belief that for their country to not fall in the hands of similar people with the mentality of this man, they must continue to engage with fervour in the direction of their nation.      

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Somalia Drought: Death Looming on the Horn

The sad truth is it’s happening, like never before, well almost because it seems every other year around this  time there’s news of people in the horn of Africa dying from lack of food and potable drinking water brought about by drought. The difference now is this one seems a whole lot bigger than we’ve seen or heard, if what the Aid agencies and the UN are saying is to be believed, that is.

Last week the UN officially declared famine in two regions in Somalia. That’s right. “Officially” declared? What that does that even mean? That the men and women and children who were fleeing their land because they couldn’t bare to see one more child die of hunger were only now being recognised? If that then the international body needs serious revamping. Sometimes it’s best to take the bull by the horn before it gets out of hand.

Too much talking and deliberating goes on when action is what is needed. Aid agencies in and around the region have been calling on the international community for urgent response to the crisis, but it seems for some reason the world is not as interested in Somalia like it used to be. The violence in the place does nothing to help, but it’s clear the violence isn’t going away any time soon, and as we spend time contemplating whether to work with or ignore the Islamist sect Al Shabab, people are dying, and will continue to die for what is a very preventable situation.

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The Newest Sudan

Finally, finally, our brothers in south Sudan have gotten what they have for so long wished and fought for. After over fifty years of struggling under an oppressive regime, and the loss of lives and property, it is only fair that it comes to an end with a people with their destiny now in their own hands. When the new flag is raised and the anthem sang, many will be the joy of the people of south Sudan, who can now look forward to living in peace and a brighter future for their children and children’s children.

That is the hope, at least. For it may seem the difficult part of all this has been braved, the freedom of the people restored. However, we all know that the joy and excitement over the birth of a new nation is quickly followed by the realisation that with any freedom comes the responsibility of managing it to the satisfaction of all who aspire to it. Teething problems are set to arise, and how the government and people of south Sudan deal with these problems will determine whether this new nation survives or crumbles.

In the struggle for independence, young people were at the forefront of battle, wielding guns and bullets. Now the onus lies on them to transform that same fervour into the building and sustenance of their country. Now not guns but education, not bullets but ideas that propel the country into a place it can be comfortable at. Also a strong determination to ensure that the people who stood at the forefront of the struggle against the oppressor, do not themselves become for one reason or another oppressors of their own people, as can be seen with the case of Eritrea. That seems to be the case of so many African countries who fought off oppressors from afar and found themselves on the brink of destruction by their own hands.

The recent and on-going Arab Spring tells us that with strong will and determination young people can dictate the direction of affairs of their country. Tunisia, Egypt, examples from which the youth of south Sudan will do well to learn from. Lets hope they do.

Long live South Sudan.  

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