FEAR THE BIGGEST VIRUS THAN COVID-19: JUBILATE RESPONSIBLY!

 FEAR THE BIGGEST VIRUS THAN COVID-19: JUBILATE RESPONSIBLY!

By Benjamin Pulle Niriwa, 01.12.2020

Political violence is like any infectious disease COVID-19, that is no respecter of person (Niriwa, 2020)! But it is dangerous than COVID-19 or any infectious disease (Fig. 1A), because of its unpleasant or negative impacts (FGVP, 2011; Kesternich et al., 2014). It can kill (Hargarten, 2018; Wilson, 2014) and make thousands homeless (Oppenheimer et al., 2016; Riley et al, 2014) within just a blink of an eye than being infected with SARS-CoV-2 (Meyerowitz et al., 2020). Though COVID-19 can give you about three to five days to write your will before death, political violence will not give you even five (5) minutes to do that; as seen in places that were/are hit by violence (Amao, 2020; Reques et al., 2020; Oosterveld & Torossian, 2018). Though it is good to be continuously observing the COVID-19 protocols, its consequences cannot be compared to that of political violence in any affected country (Amao, 2020; Daw et al., 2019; Oosterveld & Torossian, 2018).

One of the ways that we can invite political violence is when we are intolerant, discriminate against each other based on party’s colors and continuously lie or insult each other leading to political hatred. For COVID-19 we need to continuously maintain social distance; practice personal hygiene like washing our hands under clean running water or sanitizing them with 70% alcohol-based hand sanitizers; wear clean and untorn face masks (Tartari et al., 2020; CDC, 2020); eat (Draver, 2020) and rest or sleep (Draver, 2020; Watson, 2015) well to build strong immunities to save ourselves and others. COVID-19 Prevention Protocols were mostly ignored (Fig. 1B) during the political campaigns as revealed by (Agyei, 2020; HotNewsgh., 2020) which is a very big mistake in “our physical preparation to prevent COVID-19 transmission” (Niriwa b., 2020). Ignoring it again during our jubilation or celebration of victory would be worst! Violating these protocols as revealed by this pandemic add up to the bad practices in politics that put the lives of people at risk.  

David Lipe is known for saying that: “Opinions are like noses – everybody’s got one and they’re all different!” (Sproulre, 2014), but opinions are educational tools too. Opinions from our daily life realities are true and cannot be disputed, though they differ from how everyone see them. The existence of God or prayers which almost all religions accept (Andrade & Radharkrishnan, 2009) is an excellent example; though we have different believes/opinions about who He is or how we should worship or pray to Him (Nicholson, 2017). These different believes or opinions about God rather confirm the fact that He exists – not that He does not. Politics is like opinions that can be likened to the letters or words, “p” (pee) or “d” (dee), “NO” or “ON” (Dictionary.com., 2020; Dictionary.com(b)., 2020), “SOW” or “WOS” (Landau, 2018). The way we turn or look at each of them; determines how it looks, what it means, and its value! The letters “p” or “d” can begin words related to peace or violence like: People, Peace, Pieces (Word.tips, 2020) and Demeanor, Dance, Death. The demeanor of people is what will tell whether there is going to peace for us to dance (celebrate), or violence that would lead to death (Modernghana.com., 2020) or tearing ourselves into pieces. Let us say NO to pieces or death and welcome peace and dance by tolerating each other.

Figure 1: Political Violence Is Dangerous than Any Disease

NO, though is an exclamation (Dictionary.com., 2020) that we use to reveal how negatively we feel; through our responses or actions and inactions, can also be a positive reply that opposes intolerances or violence. When this same word is turned upside down, it becomes “ON”. To promote tolerance during celebration of any victory, let us turn off the negative “NO” (Vinkers et al., 2015) that opposes good things. We should turn “ON” the positive “NO” (Vinkers et al., 2015), that opposes bad things and agrees with good things, to say “NO” to any actions/inactions that would make us intolerant to our opponents or others. It is also like the numbers, “9” or “6”.

Using the word “SOW” would means differently depending on how it is used, such as: “Statement of Work” (Landau, 2018) or with a literal meaning, to: “Plant (seed) by scattering it on or in the earth”. The kind of seed that we “SOW” and how well we take care of that seed determines whether the end result would be a positive or negative “WOS” (Web of Knowledge”, “SOW” (Statement of Work) or “NO”. Likened politics to the numbers: “9” or “6”. The way you view any of them is how you see it (how it looks), thereby determining how you react to your opponents or others, and the value(s) (Hurts, 2013-2020) that you attach to it. Using all single digit numbers form zero (0) to nine (9), the most valuable is 9; “9 tenths or 9/10” (Hurts, 2013-2020).

Let us SOW good seeds, turn off the negative “NO” and turn “ON” the positive “NO” or “ON” to make Politics valuable “9”: but not valueless “6”! From life’s experience, the magical words of peace to avoid any violence are: Love, Patriotism, Tolerance, Respect, Responsibility and Forgiveness. These are the same words that we can use to make politics valuable “9”. The moment we make a mistake and replace them with hatred, unpatriotic, intolerance, disrespect, irresponsibility, and unforgiveness; we are going to make politics less valuable “6”. They are the words that we are supposed to put in our minds and use them to water the seed(s) that we have sown, if we are having ONE COMMON INTEREST – the development of Mother Ghana in PEACE. This will make Mother Ghana a Woman of Substance “WOS” and avoid us from being surrounded by a Wall of Shame “WOS” that will lead us to Walks of Shame “WOS”.

Celebration of any victory is not wrong! The question is how do we celebrate our victories? Some few minutes after Ghana’s General Elections are over; some supporters started jubilating and, in the process, two (2) of them joined the heavenly choir (Modernghana.com., 2020). As you celebrate, you should know that COVID-19 is now our close friend who is always read to mingle with us – whether invited or uninvited. This is one of the reasons why we have to be careful with how we celebrate. Celebration of victory does not mean disregard to COVID-19 Prevention Protocols like social or physical distancing.

There are also six (6) magical words or oil of peace that can help us have a peaceful celebration: “Love” (Matthew, 22: 34-40, KJV. 1611 ), “Patriotism” (Gangl et al., 2016), “Responsibility” (Levy, 2019), “Respect” (Beach et al., 2017), “Forgiveness” (VanderWeele, 2018), and “Tolerance” (Verkuyeten et al., 2019). A politician that enters into politics to serve his/her nation is loving and tolerant by nature; the one who is in to for personal political fame or wealth is intolerant (Crawford & & Pilanski, 2013). All the remaining words five (5) are borne from love: they also lead to love! Born at the days when the celebration of political victory is always full of “insults” or teasing of the “loosing” opponent(s), our modern democracy should view it with a different eye (Sharma, 2020). To be able to do easily, all the six (6) magical of words or oils of peace must used be applied.

Celebration of political victory does not mean irresponsible with your life, word, action or inaction, intolerance, and disrespect, to political opponents. In the celebration of Americans’ elections’ victory, some words that are not supposed to have been used were used (Staff, 2020).  Statements like: “Trump just made OK to be racist” (Staff, 2020) were not necessary as they can create division amongst the citizens. Once an election is over and the winner won through fair means and been has been genuinely declared, the next think thing we should think about is to forgive each other and be united. This cannot be possible without patriotism or love our country and colleague citizens.

Recommendations or Suggestions

v  To be able to overcome any biggest virus called political violence, as we celebrate, we must put these magic words of peace: Love, Patriotism, Responsibility, Respect, Forgiveness, and Tolerance in our minds and apply them.

v  A win by any of the candidates should be seen as a win for the nation, if that candidate wins genuinely.

v  Behaviors (actions/inactions) like hate speeches, insults, carrying of coffin branded by a particular political party or candidate, names calling, and so on must be avoided.

v  Most people drink alcohol excessively or take in hard narcotics like cocaine, heroin, Indian herbs, and so on. All these can have negative effects on your behavior and must be avoided during celebration.

v  Avoid bad peer influence! Most people insult or use abusive words because they have been negatively influenced by friends, colleagues or family members.

v  Flee anyone who tries to use abusive words on or insults anyone!

v  The politics of winner takes all which makes it look as if losing is death sentence is one of the reasons that trigger intolerance and insults amongst opponents. As our world becomes more democratic, politicians should start thinking of how best they can include opponents in public officers.

v  To help reduce politics of insults or political hate speeches, we must say NO to politics of deceptions and lies that put anger in opponents.

v  All national general elections’ victory should be a nation, but not by a winning political party.

Thank you for Reading!

 

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