Opinion / Columnist
Violence begets violence
01 Sep 2016 at 10:27hrs | Views
The people in Zimbabwe have learned that violence begets violence and it never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Thumbs up to Zimbabweans for snubbing and resisting the second mass stay away. The people have come to their senses that indigenous business people need to be on the job in order for them to be successful.
It is a reality to say that violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all; that is the victims and the perpetrators. Violence is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding, thus it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. We should take a leaf from the MDC-T's violent strategies and glean that violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.
Recent riots in Harare organised by the MDC-T and the #Tajamuka group has shown that violence destroys and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than in dialogue. According to Martin Luther King, violence ends up defeating itself; it creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. We should take seriously these words of wisdom from those people who were fascinated by ideas which were able to be operationalised.
It is a fact that whenever the so-called stay away or shutdown is called for they will always be accompanied by violence. When Morgan Tsvangirai used to call for a stay away in the past, white employers used to lock workers out; thus giving the stay away a semblance of success. Now people are doing their own businesses; hence if one pays heed to strangers calling for a stay away one will only have himself or herself to blame when the family starves.
It is prudent to keep away from stay aways and acts of violence. At the end of the day one will go back home needing to eat and feed the family. In fact it is not fair, like what happened recently, to burn the wares of small business people and vendors who are trying to eke a living.
The calls for stay aways are coming from dubious people who are seeking political relevance through using innocent people. However the majority are realizing that they are being taken for a ride by few individuals who are benefiting. In the long run these stay aways will become a thing of the past as the perpetrators will be languishing in prisons.
Progressive Zimbabweans should keep away from violence and continue with their business of the day so that they can achieve the objectives of the country's economic blue- print Zim Asset.
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Stewart Murewa <stewartmurewa@gmail.com
It is a reality to say that violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all; that is the victims and the perpetrators. Violence is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding, thus it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. We should take a leaf from the MDC-T's violent strategies and glean that violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.
Recent riots in Harare organised by the MDC-T and the #Tajamuka group has shown that violence destroys and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than in dialogue. According to Martin Luther King, violence ends up defeating itself; it creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. We should take seriously these words of wisdom from those people who were fascinated by ideas which were able to be operationalised.
It is a fact that whenever the so-called stay away or shutdown is called for they will always be accompanied by violence. When Morgan Tsvangirai used to call for a stay away in the past, white employers used to lock workers out; thus giving the stay away a semblance of success. Now people are doing their own businesses; hence if one pays heed to strangers calling for a stay away one will only have himself or herself to blame when the family starves.
It is prudent to keep away from stay aways and acts of violence. At the end of the day one will go back home needing to eat and feed the family. In fact it is not fair, like what happened recently, to burn the wares of small business people and vendors who are trying to eke a living.
The calls for stay aways are coming from dubious people who are seeking political relevance through using innocent people. However the majority are realizing that they are being taken for a ride by few individuals who are benefiting. In the long run these stay aways will become a thing of the past as the perpetrators will be languishing in prisons.
Progressive Zimbabweans should keep away from violence and continue with their business of the day so that they can achieve the objectives of the country's economic blue- print Zim Asset.
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Stewart Murewa <stewartmurewa@gmail.com
Source - Stewart Murewa
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