I do not know if they still read Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer at schools these days. Yes, Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn. In this case, Kabo Morwaeng is Huck Finn. Masisi is Thomas Sawyer. In one of their epic tales, Jim is captured and kept in captivity as they did runaway slaves back in the day. In this case, Jim is the country Botswana. The Phelps family that has Jim in captivity more or less is Covid-19. Tom and Huck must devise a plan to save Jim. Just as Masisi and Morwaeng must save Botswana. Friday night’s speech reminds one of the saving of Jim.
When presented with the relatively easier option of dealing with corona in the beginning such as procuring enough vaccines on time and closing borders, particularly, for travelers from India he did not do it. When charged with procuring ventilators and oxygen concentrators well on time he did not do it. When charged with hiring more nurses and health personnel he did not do it.
When he had to vaccinate teachers or close schools as a priority he did not do it. Neither could he significantly increase ICU beds. Instead, he invested inordinate amounts of money on cosmetic things around the virus spending through the nose for things that would have cost a quarter of his total spend. It appears all part of a script: wait till Botswana is one of the 5 worst case scenarios for covid-19 in the world- perhaps Tom Sawyer thinking cap that says President Mogae got celebrated for literally pulling the country from out of the abyss when HIV\AIDS had finished people. To them, corona presents an opportunity to be heroes. Get people right to the brink, then appear the Messiah as a way to have a story to tell at the 2024 General Election. This, it was carelessly thought, would improve his approval ratings.
Last week Friday night speech could have made a difference a year ago. Not now when in his own words ‘the country has almost all zones white’. In a way, he left this country to a form of social Darwinism, a natural selection under which the strongest and most adaptive immune systems survive. In the end, we almost all would’ve had corona and built up our own defenses before we get any vaccine dose. The disease burden will eventually plateau. Naturally. But he’d seek to claim glory. Everything about him is a year late. The brashness, thoughtlessness and callousness; sheer depravation and moral confusion where there should be no confusion as the preservation of life ought to be the ultimate goal is evident.
The Covid-19 effort has been frustrated by indecision and grandstanding. It seems not farfetched to suggest that the President wanted the crisis to get worse before riding into town as a knight in shining armour to save a damsel in distress. Think of burning down a house and then bringing fire engines and all to douse the fire out before it completely consumes the structure. Then everyone celebrates you as the fire fighter. How else do you explain the ineptitude thus far? How else do you explain the desire to be celebrated and respected for getting vaccines half a year later than peers, a year later compared to some like Egypt and Morocco even?
Unfortunately for Masisi, Botswana is a small country. So small that the death of one person tends to affect so many more people. Because of this, the late actions have hurt people. And many have since figured him out for what he is. There will be no drum rolls and trumpets. No hero’s capes for him. Nothing. Only anger and renditions of Ozi F Teddy’s ‘Body bags’. The thousands needlessly dead are on his watch. Their blood on his hands.
Back to Thomas Sawyer. Jim is captured. Huck has a quick and clear plan to steal the key and free Jim. Tom foolishly decides that this plan is too simple, it must be such that there is adventure to it. He forgets that there is a human being who needs saving. For Tom there must be action, there must be showmanship. He must be remembered.
Tom comes up with a plan that might get all three killed, he invents obstacles to make the mission daring and epic. Jim becomes a prop, an object of sorts in a stage play. They even infest the den he is captured within with rats and snakes so as to make the escape sound more daring. At some point Tom suggests sawing off the chain instead of simply lifting the bed frame off the chain, he wants ropes and ladders, and for Jim to keep a diary on his shirt, written in blood. Actually, how about sawing Jim’s foot itself off the chains? Tom thinks it a good idea even.
Well, to shorten the story, in the end they’re able to free Jim. Late and with great peril. Before they run away, Tom makes noise so as to alert the 15 or so farmers armed with rifles of the act. This so as for the farmers to stage a pose and shoot at the boys. And indeed the farmers shoot and Tom has a bullet lodged in his leg. He wants it that way. That way he becomes a hero. This is the kind of brinksmanship and showmanship we see at display with Masisi!
The weight of life-and-death seems not bothersome to them. What is seen as more important is grandstanding and appearing the hero in the end. When it is all said and done, they want to ultimately appear in the public eye as heroes. Calamity is to them opportunity to fill the huge void within.
It is for the same reason that Masisi, a whole President, name drops. Deep within, there is a vacuum and an accompanying obsession with being viewed as a great man. A vacuum so huge that not even the presidency could fill. That is why he has a penchant for mentioning that he is the President – as if we do not know. That is what also explains his rabid accumulation of wealth at all costs.
The obsession with telling all sundry that he speaks to ‘wealthy friends’ even though we know those people are not his friends but people looking for opportunity and must talk to him only because he is president. Deep within, there is a child that yearns to be better than everyone else. He has an innate need to domineer and demonstrate ‘superiority’ of rank or otherwise. So much that he becomes impervious to advice, perceives advice as an onslaught on his already fragile perception of the self. If you think this a lie, ask yourself where relatively wealthy young Batswana companies are. This psycho-analysis of Masisi we will do at a different time though. For now, save yourselves. Mask up, sanitize and stay home unless you absolutely must venture out. The horses have bolted.
