Let’s stop politics of domination and exclusion, give everyone else chance. By Barrack Muluka ********************************* When former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka says the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission ( IEBC) is The National Alliance (TNA) and vice versa, he echoes a perception in a huge national constituency. Perceptions are often wrong, but people take them to be the truth. This perception on TNA and IEBC could also be wrong. However, it is fast gaining traction. The latest fuel is the Kethi Kilonzo political debacle in Makueni. Whatever the truth in this matter may be, there is a snowballing constituency outside the Jubilee vote catchment that Jubilee is embracing the politics and economics of domination, exclusion and oppression. Is this true? I do not know. I know, however, that even as you feast, it is in your own interest to ensure that even those whom you do not like have something to eat. If they do not have, you are sitting on a live volcano. We read in the Good Book the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman who once came to the Lord Jesus for a favour. It is recorded in the book of Mark that the Lord entered a house and that he wanted to be left alone. However, some woman, a Syro-Phoenician – knew his whereabouts. She came before him and asked that he remove an evil spirit from her daughter. Mark records that the Lord said to this foreign woman, “First let the children eat all they want. It is not right to take the children’s bread from the mouth and toss it at the dogs.” Not one to be put off easily, the woman agreed with the Lord. But she went on to remark, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7: 24 – 28) The same narrative is retold with varying nuances in Matthew’s gospel, at Chapter 15: 21 – 28. We read that the good Lord was overly impressed with the woman’s faith which, like that of the Roman Centurion in Luke’s Gospel, superseded that of the Jews. The Lord honoured her pleas. This is how people live together. You pass around the goods – even if they are just the leftovers. Many years ago when I was a little boy, my grandfather often asked me to read to him the narrative of the Syro-Phoenician woman. We read it many times. Kuka would fix a steady look at me and ask, “Have you heard?” You would have thought someone else had just read the text to him. Then he would go into reflection, as if talking to himself, “Every satisfied individual has the responsibility to see to it that everyone else has eaten something. It is in your own interest to ensure that there are no hungry people in society.” The good old man of Emanyulia would carry on with the homily, “Never pick up the crumbs that drop on your table as you eat. God intends them for something else. Never follow what is under the table. It belongs to the dogs. Let the dogs eat, too. Worse, never try to remove what is in the dog’s mouth. Even your own dog will bite you, if you reach out for the food in its mouth.” But it is not just about food, food and food. It is about life. If you enjoy life to the exclusion of everybody else, you are courting disaster. If you are this happy family that seems to have everything cut out for you by the gods, you have a duty to yourselves to spread the benefits. This is not about moralising on issues. It is about your own good. The dogs under the table know their place. That is why they tamely remain under this piece of furniture, despite the appetising aroma above. The dogs only pray that something meaty and really big and juicy drops from some hands above. Unlike the cat, the dog will refrain from snatching your juicy piece of meat. But once it lands on the ground, the rules dictate that you refrain from following it. If you do, we shall struggle over it. If you beat him to it, the dog will reluctantly allow you to go on with chewing. He will follow your hand as it moves from plate to mouth and mouth to plate. However, to get into his mouth is to cross the line. Apart from squealing “oppression,” he will bite you. Now this is wisdom from the village. But we villagers take solace in the knowledge that the Bible recognises our kind of wisdom. For, the Lord was very pleased when the Syro-Phoenician woman said to him, “Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Our wisdom derives from the laws of nature. Pushed beyond certain limits, your own dogs will turn against you. Your poor neighbours will first come to ask for food, because they know you have it. If you elect not to give them, they will quietly steal it, if they know how to. If, however, you have secured your doors and stores, they will come to you menacingly. Since they have now crossed the line, themselves, they are likely to want to eliminate all witnesses. They will begin with witness number one – who is you, of course. Nature fights back. And there is nothing as vindictive as nature when it fights back. That is why the laws of nature supersede all manmade laws. If you should see the people who make and enforce laws in Kenya, tell them about this biblical wisdom from the village. Say these things to those who sit on tribunals and in the law courts. Above all, let those who sit in the highest councils of the nation know that it is important to leave the crumbs to the creatures under the table. Show these readings to President Uhuru Kenyatta and to his Deputy, William Ruto. Tell them that this is why the dog said, “It is a game if I fall for you and your fall for me.” Tell President Kenyatta that there is wisdom in trying not to eat everything, if you want to live well with less privileged people. The people are saying this not just in Emanyulia, but in Makueni and in villages and homelets throughout Kenya, as well. Let the children eat, by all means. But let the dogs eat, too. The writer is a publishing editor, special consultant and advisor on public relations and media relations
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 06:59:13 +0000
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