OBLIQUE ANGLE : Two deaths, love and hatred

This week, I attended two separate funerals. The first was on Tuesday. An eight-month old boy had died, almost suddenly. The second was on Friday. It was of an eighty eight-year old man. May their souls rest in peace.

Death. This is a reality that one can never get used to. It continues to baffle scientists and theologians alike. Can we ever understand death? When it strikes, we’re left helpless. We simply have to accept its punchy finality.

The best we can try to do is decipher the lessons left behind by those who crossed into the next life. There are many lessons we can draw from their lives.

At the two events I attended, the clearest message was that of love. Cesco, even at that tender age of eight months, pulled a crowd of people from all over Dar es Salaam and beyond. I had an opportunity of meeting him, when he was about three weeks old. In a short time of his life, he brought light into the lives of his family. He brought laughter and hope. This was especially so as he was the first born of the family.

Mzee Thomas, 88, also brought together hundreds of people from near and far. Many testified how he had touched their lives during his life-time. He was long retired, but those he received into work vividly recalled his careful guidance at work. The family said the love he showed them washed away their pain of loss. Their mother had passed away nearly 30 years ago.

Love. This was the message I could decipher from the lives of these two souls, 87 years apart agewise. Live to love. Touch lives of people in ways that bring about positive change in their lives. We’re not a passing shadow in this life.

Tanzania is not an island. It may not be human in the way we understand, who a human being is, but it has a soul, it relates with other souls in a unique way. We’re currently swimming in a huge ocean of confusing arguments over the copper and gold concentrate saga.

A presidential inquiry committee has submitted its report. The nation is enraged ‘our wealth is being stolen’. The other party too has stated to stand its ground claiming that what they have been declaring is what truly is there.

The best we can all do at the moment is calm down and find the best way out of this situation. Sure, justice must be done. This will require patience and trying being as much objective as possible.

There is so much anger at the moment, especially against the establishment that has always taken part in the signing of the contracts and even passing the laws that are claimed to have hurt Tanzania.

It’s time that our Parliament stopped partisanship and always seek to protect national interests. Tanzania is greater than any political party. We have the duty of protecting it and its people.