This lady, call gossip, is not in love with success
By Majok Arol Dhieu, Juba, South Sudan
Thursday, May 31, 2018 (PW) — It’s said by the exploiters to the exploited that if you want to cheat Africans, write a very long document, full of jargon and put in the middle what you want to cheat from them. They’ll not bother themselves to read it all, instead, they’ll approve it. These highly readable and careful worded articles of mine are very educative usually in the middle and if you’re allergic to reading, then you might be unlucky human and there is no any other means to help you.
Sometimes I print out the texts or parts of it, and mark errata with a pen. If there’s a single erratum, then it might be because, I didn’t print the whole article or those who handle it at their end, have misprinted it or miscopy it.
In my far payam from Eastern Bahr El Ghazal, when a dog is finger pointed by hunters to go after a cunning fox, the cunning fox will run for a short distance and stand upright using its rear legs, forging itself as one of the hunters to outwit the dog by pointing one of its front legs to tell the dog that the prey is still ahead. After the dog bypassed, the cunning fox will get a chance to escape away from danger.Gossip and corrupt families are alike, and no-one can catch one of them because when you say you heard this from them or you’ve seen them doing it, the denial is the last resort or they can simply point their fingers ahead as the fox do. One of them if reached, can talks till his mouth is capped with foam trying to explain that it’s the other groups ahead which are the players of corruption or gossip.
As humans, we give far more attention to negative than to the positive issues. We’ve a negativity bias but those who are getting cold shoulder will have an incentive to conform. One of my admired writers wrote something very funny on his Facebook wall that there are other humans who are still cling to many of the old shibboleth of civic education, wasting their efforts, recruiting members into their group and say, “we’ll defeat them”.
I asked myself, defeat them over what? What are we wrestling over? We are all beast of burden for our dearest families, have we freed ourselves from this burden in order for us to go and wrestle with others over unjust conflict?
Let one wrestle with his life and if you fail to confront it, then don’t give poverty infection to others intentionally. I have lived among people who led very hard and penurious lives from time they were born until the day they died. This was caused by lack of critical thinking and sticking to unfavourable vision.
Shannon L. Alder said, “Your dignity can be mocked, abused, compromised, toyed with, lowered and even badmouthed, but it can never be taken from you”. You still have the power to gather your efforts and gear up for the best.
Before I go further as I said above that he, who cold-shouldered gossips from wrong group can succeed in his life, let’s me tell you two examples. One for gossip, and another for success in my payam, please at your far end; don’t call these examples fiction if I failed to provide names.
One elder from my payam was humble and very poor by then but his lip was cold and still is cold even today. When my own uncle was killing his cattle one after another for his deity, this humble man was just living on sweet potatoes and other products he’d been cultivating with his sibs. He married his first wife with three cows he’d borrowed from his uncle and work hard during cultivation seasons. Now as I speak, he is the richest person in our payam. God had rewarded him with wealth and he’d raised a very respectful family.
Another man was very rich from that same time but his tongue was full of gossips and loose talks. I witness this myself one day, when people were talking in a conversation, he said, “you people here, especially those of you and you (names are withheld), you don’t let your wives quick-mothered children. Don’t you see me and my friend here have fathered many children? For me, I’ve a child that can look after goats and sheep, a child that can look after chicks, a child that can shell enemy at a range of one hundred and twenty kilo-metres away and so on and so forth. Why your wives give birth once in three to four years period?”
One hearing these words, bystanders laughed but, none quick tempers targets of which my father included, gave him a cold shoulder because they know that having children is different issue but building them to have confident in what they do is another task. Today, as far as the history is concerned, Mzee is in very critical condition as no-one is taking care of him.
In his above statement, he truly said that his children were taught only to look after animals and so forth, but weren’t taught to take care of people (people’s management). I pity him a lot because he was gearing his efforts into almost what I currently termed as a grave mistake which can lead to an absolute failure if rectification is not applied.
After you’ve brained these two examples above, what do you think can bring that shame? For me as a writer of this article, it’s because that, “gossip can’t go together with success since gossip need time to sit around with people and after this group, you visit another group”.
Also, God visit people’s heart and if He discovered that you like gossips too much, He will make it your professional work. Read Ephesian 4:29 which says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen”.
It’s a fool errand to associates yourself with such group because their path is leading into failure. Failure if wise people of my kind talk about it, pipsqueak with money in his buttock’s pocket will slap his pocket and say, “where will the failure come from, when I’ve this huge pocket”
You might have heard soil erosion or read it, in your fifth grade, this can occur with human wealth if not guided properly with principle of management and how God wants us to behave when we are rich and more importantly, there must be alternative thinking to build your children and siblings to step in for you in case of undesirable health or when you are old.
To seal your tongue doesn’t need your wife or brother to come with a glue, no and again no. You’ve to practice it yourself. See what I said to a worrywart who was saying that his age-mate had built a very luxurious house while his living is a bothersome leave alone construction. I didn’t ask him where he got money from, simply because he may drag me into gossip about corrupt people especially those who earns below five thousand South Sudanese Pounds per month and they’re well off.
Corruption of course, is not one of my favourite subjects nowadays because too many articles about corruption go from silly fun to downright laughable since almost everyone is practicing corruption at all levels.
Notwithstanding, anything obvious and accessible even if it’s a worse scenario is adapted in South Sudan as manhood and when it rotates for few years; it’s also adapted as a culture. The case of gossip and corruption are seen as new model and anyone that isolate himself is seen as amuklec (man of no title).
Judas Iscariot at the end did what he was unlooked-for, to himself. Judas for his part pretended to take this strange ignorance of the high priest call Annas at its face value and reported to him at length concerning the sermons of Jesus, His wonders, His hatred of the Pharisees and the Temple, the violations of the Law by Him, and His desire to snatch the power from the hands of the ecclesiastics and to establish His own kingdom. And so skilfully did he mingle truth with falsehood that Annas glanced at him more attentively, while he indolently observed.
Do you know what motivated Judas to indulge himself into such dirty business? Judas was about to marry, but his brother-in-law was jailed and authorities were demanding three silvers. So, Judas took the risk to the extent that he’d risked himself in.
This’s why we call on everyone to wrestle with their .life because a poor human can be motivated even with a bottle of beer to do anything that will contradict his life later.
Finally, let me conclude with a very interesting example. I was a member of interview panel in late 2011 with a certain organization. An advert was affixed on public notice board and all applications were received within three weeks. We made a shortlisting in which a very brilliant applicant with only two passes after supplementary was neglected on the basis of two reasons; “gossiping and you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, scenario”.
I wore David Yau Yau face on that very particular shortlisting day till I was voted out of panel. The worse of all, one who was recruited lastly, was having more than five passes after supplementary in his diploma which was the reason he’d messed up his role within probationary period because dull students are lacking proper arrangement.
Supporting elders in their politics is a call for gossiping and unknowingly, waste of important time. There is this irritating question in most of the interviews, “why do you’ve too much gap after your first employment or after your studies”? The interviewers are looking what was a problem with the interviewee and if not handled with care, interviewee can contradict himself simply.
I don’t encourage sitting around in Juba doing very little or exchange hands with bartenders or indulge ourselves in politics we’ll not go away with something for children. By and large, the conflict between two people is the conflict between the groups because each group tries to overthrow another group.
This’s why we’ve more camping than before. Then, don’t be part of unjust conflict because you have nowhere to go. You are the biggest enemy to yourself and South Sudan has got no organizations those that can essentially support lame ducks.
We’ve reached the conclusion.
Majok Arol Dhieu is a concerned South Sudanese and can be reached at majongaroldit@gmail.com
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