Before God we are all equally wise and equally foolish, Albert Einstein
Finally, the centre is alive! Spurred on by an unlikely and unfortunate event that happened at the bus rank, the national discourse is once again blazing. We must see the young lady who was grossly violated at the bus rank as a heroine and a champion. While she did not call what happened upon herself, we should not regard her as a victim. Not at all! If we did, we would have failed humanity once again. Because every time we focus on the crime and not the opportunity to confront ourselves and our shortcomings, we fail at realising our full potential. Every time we wish the crimes would not happen or should not happen, is all the time we fail at embracing the opportunity to love and show it. Every time we spend calling for retribution, is every precious evolutionary moment lost. The conscience must evolve for the world to erase pain and gnashing of teeth. Right now, fueled by GMO food, we have super bodies that house an obsolete conscience. I am reminded of a quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti: “we will see how very important it is to bring about, in the human mind, the radical revolution. The crisis is a crisis in consciousness. A crisis that cannot, anymore, accept the old norms, the old patterns, the ancient traditions. And, considering what the world is now; with all the misery, conflict, destructive brutality, aggression and so on… Man is still as he was. Is still brutal, violent, aggressive, acquisitive, competitive. And he’s built a society along these lines.”
These are words we must explore as we grope for the next step. It is heartening to hear the evolution of the discourse around the event that happened at the bus rank. It started off as a rights issue that evolved into a gender based violence issue and now it is morphing into an exploration of freedoms and equality. It is in this continued quest for parity between men and women, that we must invest a lot of our effort. To do that, we must ask very tough questions, one being, where do we draw the line between women empowerment and domination? If we are honest, we would agree that currently the quest to create this parity between the sexes is skewed in favour of the women. And since the beginning of this drive, men have become disillusioned to a point where they now feel so guilty for being men. It is like women have pushed them into a corner to a point where they are now making guilt decisions in the name of women empowerment. Vice President Rre Mokgweetsi Masisi is right now sponsoring a competition in which the prize money is skewed in favor of female contestants. At this event, a man stands a chance to win P200,000.00 while a woman stands to walk away with P250,000.00. Just for being a woman! Just that! Favoured by nothing else but the right organs and the dynamics of our current environment! Is that not ironic, that in trying to bring parity between the sexes, there is a general drive to give women an unfair advantage over men? So, where do we draw the line between women empowerment and domination?
Unless it is true what Rre Edwin Batshu said on Gabzfm recently, that the SADC gender protocol seemed to engender a conspiracy against men and that is what caused the delay in signing it! The conspiracy here – I would imagine – being to empower women by disempowering men. Because that is what is at play here isn’t it? Power! And it is the dynamics of this power that are making everyone froth at the mouth. Yet, the thing about power is that, it is never lost, increased, reduced, taken or given. Power can only be transferred. It does not exist in a vacuum. Therefore, the discourse around the issue of parity between the sexes must begin to shift into the modalities of sharing that power. That is the game changer; how much of this power we are talking about, will transfer from the one who has it, to the one who needs empowerment. The current winner takes it all approach, will not get us anywhere. Mr. Nelson Mandela understood this concept very well. He understood and appreciated the ramifications of a winner takes it all approach even as he was setting out on his long walk to freedom. How unfortunate that the rest of his countrymen were not yet evolved to be able to embody the idea of equality. Mighty as Rre Robert Mugabe is, he also failed to grasp the full expanse of this dynamic when he implemented his land redistribution policy. The idea was perfect! The approach? Not so much. Now there is a generation or two ahead that will return to Zimbabwe to demand, even by force, what their grandfathers lost. This should be a lesson for us here. If we are going to have a set-up where women are going to shake on with men with one hand, while holding a club with the other one behind them, then we will have a situation. For those who seek absolute empowerment will tomorrow turn out to be dominators of those who have the power today! Then what would have been the point of it all? Once again, Man would have failed. He would have fallen short of attaining His true glory. He would failed at embracing the opportunity to love and show it. He would have wasted a precious evolutionary moment. This must be a lesson as this country tries to create this ultimate nirvana – gender parity! As Viktor E. Frankl said; ‘so, let us be alert – alert in a twofold sense: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.’
*K. Gabriel Rasengwatshe is a multi-dimensional speaker, author and presenter of Gabzfm’s Breakfast Show, weekdays, 6am-10am.
