Enough is enough: We need to reflect on our destructive policies and divisive actions?
By William Abur, Melbourne, Australia
November 8, 2016 (SSB) — This piece of the essay is posting some critical questions which required some of us to reflect on as people of South Sudan. Some of may not be aware the importance of reflection of our actions or behaviors as a human being. However, it is my task to highlight what reflection is for those who may not know or who may be wondering why do we need reflection in relation to our beloved country south Sudan.
I’m a trained social worker in critical reflection in my professional and I used reflection outside of my professional work. Critical reflection is advocated in many areas of professional development and practice, including all areas of health care, education, teaching, management, and research, as it encourages practitioners to gain insight into their own professionalism through their experiences.
I have reflected that many of us as citizens of South Sudan do need to do some critical reflections on our actions, our behaviors and our contributions to conflict as individual in this society.
A critical reflection does assist us in analysising any incident or situation, meaning reflection on action. It is about reflecting on past experience and what happen in present time. As professional or practitioners, we do reflection on the following three steps such as “reflect-on-action” (it is past experience), “reflect-in-action” (it is about an incident happens), and “reflect-for-action” (it is about actions you may wish to take in future experiences).
Here are the few Questions for us to reflect on as South Sudanese people
As people of South Sudan, it is vital for us to reflect on the following questions for the benefit of our nation. When do we need to learn enough is enough when it comes to conflict? When do we need to say we had enough fighting each other as South Sudanese? When do we need to realise that conflict is not helping us?
When do we need to understand that our problem is not the government problem alone? When do we need to comprehend that war has traumatised many of our people? When do we need to know that our neighbours are tired or fed up of our problems? When do we need to stand up tall among our peer group and say no to violence behaviours?
Although, I have used the word “we”, I think it is very important for us to replace the word “we” with the word “I” in order to personalise the reflection at the individual level.
I would like to leave it for people to reflect on their own contributions as each individual in the current mess of conflict in South Sudan. I also hope that it is a time for people to challenge their own family members who are still thinking of violence as a solution to solving issues in South Sudan.
Such people need to be challenged and reminded to think twice about their harms in society. Bad should be considered bad and people need to move on or away from it. Considering healing from trauma and self-rehabilitation should be way forward for our society in general.
William Abur is a Ph.D. candidate at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, finishing his Ph.D. research in areas of social work and sociology. He is also a social worker working in high school in student well-being area. You can reach via his email: William Abur william.abur@gmail.com
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