Opinion / Columnist
The Shutdown
30 Aug 2016 at 20:30hrs | Views
Firstly greetings from the cyber terrorist, the bridge dealer, in the dusty ghetto streets of Zimbabwe. The land of vendors and home to ZIMASSET.
I write to you today humbled by the task before us, gratefull of the trust you have bestowed upon our cause and mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.
Today as a nation we are confronted by a vortex and plethora of problems. They are serious and pluralistic in confrontation.
Firsty, our nation is at war with itself against a far reaching network of violence and gross human rights violations. Our economy is weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of so many, but also our collective failure, as Zimbabweans, to make hard choices and prepare our nation for a new age. These weaknesses strengthens our adversaries and threatens our future.
These are the indicators ringing volumes of the contextualisation of a crisis, subject to data and statistics gravely measurable, but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our motherland; a nagging of fear that decline is inevitable and that the next generation must lower it's sights.
Words have been spoken during rising tides of economic doldrums and the still waters of chaos. Yet so and often the presidental oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. The notion that we are in the midst of a crisis is now well understood.
Today we stand united, not because of the skill or vision of our vanguards, but because we, the people, have remained faithful to the ideas of our forebearers and true to our founding documents.
Today we unite because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we unite to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas that for long have strangled our polity.
The time has come to set aside petty and childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirits, to choose a better path and story for our juvenile nation. To carry forward that precious cause, that noble idea passed from generation to generation from Mbuyanehanda to Tongogara now us. The ancestral promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. As we reaffirm the greatness of our nation, we must understand that greatness is never given, it must be earned.
We must all understand that our journey has been that of shortcuts and settling for less. It has been the path curved by the faint hearted. The ones who prefer leisure over work and seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. The champions at the do nothing businesses and today they utter business as usual. Well i say no!.
Right this day i summon the Mbuyanehandas and Mutsvangwas in you that have been dormant for quite a long time. Now sons and daughters, fathers and mothers of Zimbabwe obscure in your activism and i promise it will carry us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, it was the Nehandas, Kaguvis, Mukwatis, Mashayamombes, Karitundundus, Matares, Chidyamauyus, Gumboremvuras, Svemberes, Tongogaras, Chitepos, Mutsvangwas and Mahiyas who harnessed their few worldly possessions, invested their efforts in travelling across the forbidden lands and foraged all avenues of emancipation in search of a better tomorrow for me and you.
For us, armed with a steadfast determination and a desire to secure a better tomorrow for me and you, they toiled the thorned lands bare foot, endured the lash of the whip in the reserves and ploughed the hard rock of Guruuswa.
For us, they fought emaculate battles and died with honour and pride in battles such as Sianoa.
Year after year, month after month, week after week, day after day and second after second our ancestors and war veterans struggled, sacrificed and worked till their hands were sore that we may have a better today. They saw Zimbabwe as a nation bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions, greater than all our differences of birth or tribe or wealth or faction. They graduated themselves from the narrow confines of individual concerns and embraced broader concerns for the nations well being. A better Zimbabwe
This is the journey we continue today. Fear not for our minds are no less inventive, our efforts and determination no less needed than they were last week or last month. Our capacity remains undiminished. So my dear brother and sister never underestimate the capacity of your bones.
Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting of unpleasant decisions under the banner of patronage. That time has surely passed. From today we must pick ourselves up from the gutter of poverty, dust ourselves off trepidation and burnish our confidence as we continue the exorcism of the demon of progress and begin again the work of remaking Zimbabwe.
The state of the nation calls for acting boldly and swiftly. We will act not only to exorcise the demon of progress, but lay a foundation for a democracy. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines to cement the chasms of tribalism, partisanship and bind us together. We will restore our nation to its rightful place and wield patriotic wonders to raise the health of nationalism and redefine its definition.
We will harness the courage of our liberation war heroes, guidance of our spirit mediums and pastors and energy of our capacitated bones to fuel our cause and run our races to freedom.
For our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our war veterans, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, in 1896 armed with an assegai and with their noses pointed straight into gun barrels they declared war to assure the rule of non racial law and rights of man.
In our time, the cynics and political pretenders veiled up with courage clearly understands that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.
Lastly, the question i pause to the rest of Zimbabwe today is not about your political foundation nor intellectual orientation, but your position.
Are you for the people or against the people.
I hope to see you in the trenches.
Cyber terrorist.
I write to you today humbled by the task before us, gratefull of the trust you have bestowed upon our cause and mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.
Today as a nation we are confronted by a vortex and plethora of problems. They are serious and pluralistic in confrontation.
Firsty, our nation is at war with itself against a far reaching network of violence and gross human rights violations. Our economy is weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of so many, but also our collective failure, as Zimbabweans, to make hard choices and prepare our nation for a new age. These weaknesses strengthens our adversaries and threatens our future.
These are the indicators ringing volumes of the contextualisation of a crisis, subject to data and statistics gravely measurable, but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our motherland; a nagging of fear that decline is inevitable and that the next generation must lower it's sights.
Words have been spoken during rising tides of economic doldrums and the still waters of chaos. Yet so and often the presidental oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. The notion that we are in the midst of a crisis is now well understood.
Today we stand united, not because of the skill or vision of our vanguards, but because we, the people, have remained faithful to the ideas of our forebearers and true to our founding documents.
Today we unite because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we unite to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas that for long have strangled our polity.
The time has come to set aside petty and childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirits, to choose a better path and story for our juvenile nation. To carry forward that precious cause, that noble idea passed from generation to generation from Mbuyanehanda to Tongogara now us. The ancestral promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. As we reaffirm the greatness of our nation, we must understand that greatness is never given, it must be earned.
We must all understand that our journey has been that of shortcuts and settling for less. It has been the path curved by the faint hearted. The ones who prefer leisure over work and seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. The champions at the do nothing businesses and today they utter business as usual. Well i say no!.
Right this day i summon the Mbuyanehandas and Mutsvangwas in you that have been dormant for quite a long time. Now sons and daughters, fathers and mothers of Zimbabwe obscure in your activism and i promise it will carry us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, armed with a steadfast determination and a desire to secure a better tomorrow for me and you, they toiled the thorned lands bare foot, endured the lash of the whip in the reserves and ploughed the hard rock of Guruuswa.
For us, they fought emaculate battles and died with honour and pride in battles such as Sianoa.
Year after year, month after month, week after week, day after day and second after second our ancestors and war veterans struggled, sacrificed and worked till their hands were sore that we may have a better today. They saw Zimbabwe as a nation bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions, greater than all our differences of birth or tribe or wealth or faction. They graduated themselves from the narrow confines of individual concerns and embraced broader concerns for the nations well being. A better Zimbabwe
This is the journey we continue today. Fear not for our minds are no less inventive, our efforts and determination no less needed than they were last week or last month. Our capacity remains undiminished. So my dear brother and sister never underestimate the capacity of your bones.
Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting of unpleasant decisions under the banner of patronage. That time has surely passed. From today we must pick ourselves up from the gutter of poverty, dust ourselves off trepidation and burnish our confidence as we continue the exorcism of the demon of progress and begin again the work of remaking Zimbabwe.
The state of the nation calls for acting boldly and swiftly. We will act not only to exorcise the demon of progress, but lay a foundation for a democracy. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines to cement the chasms of tribalism, partisanship and bind us together. We will restore our nation to its rightful place and wield patriotic wonders to raise the health of nationalism and redefine its definition.
We will harness the courage of our liberation war heroes, guidance of our spirit mediums and pastors and energy of our capacitated bones to fuel our cause and run our races to freedom.
For our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our war veterans, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, in 1896 armed with an assegai and with their noses pointed straight into gun barrels they declared war to assure the rule of non racial law and rights of man.
In our time, the cynics and political pretenders veiled up with courage clearly understands that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.
Lastly, the question i pause to the rest of Zimbabwe today is not about your political foundation nor intellectual orientation, but your position.
Are you for the people or against the people.
I hope to see you in the trenches.
Cyber terrorist.
Source - Barney Tinarwo
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