Wednesday, March 26, 2008

It seems every other Tom, Dick and Chesi has the right to preach on religious holidays like Easter. Not to be left behind, I tried it too:

There are some people in good old Bongoland who are pretending to be the modern version of the famed Good Samaritan of the Holy Bible.

For those aliens to religious fables, the Good Samaritan was a certain guy traveling on his donkey when he happened to come across another man who had the misfortune of falling into the hands of some vibaka who worked over him and left him for dead.

The Samaritan guy is said to have helped the man by bandaging his wounds and taking him to the local kivulini Guest house and footing the residential and medicine bills.

He is said to have done all this to the victim who was a total stranger to him while a Priest and a Levite, persons expected to have done something, had just minded their own businesses and passed on.

We are told the Good Samaritan did this without trumpeting or advertising it to nobody. Indeed, had it not been for a certain man going by the name of Jesus, we would have not known about this.

I must hasten here to add that this is the same Jesus a.k.a The Christ who was heard saying things to the effect that; ‘take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your father in heaven’.

Jesus goes on to say; ‘Therefore, when you do a charitable deed do not sound a trumpet before you as hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward’

And the good man Jesus caps it all by advising that when you do a charitable deed do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing and that your charitable deed should be in secret and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly’. I like that.

I must, however, hasten to add that by this ‘preaching’ I am not out to take someone’s job, no. rather this being Easter, the spirit of doing good has gotten into me and I have decided to do the only thing I think I am good at. Preaching, through this column!

The Bongoland modern version of the Good Samaritans is not doing things like the Biblical counterpart. Not only have their left hands known what their right hands are doing but also the local TV and radio stations and newspapers!

They are now even making appointments as to when they are going to do a good deed. That is why it is now not strange to hear a TV or redio station announcing that a prominent this person or that company will do a good deed to a certain house of orphaned children.

And when the great day arrives we see the prominent citizen or company descending on the premises of the orphans like a small tornado with a barrage of reporters, newspaper and TV cameras in tow.

Yeah, we get to see the prominent citizen or workers from prominent Monetary or Communication institution with smiles as wide as a Dentist’s bored yawn getting well orchestrated photo sessions with usually bewildered orphans.

They are bewildered because they have never seen such a big number of sophisticated, some of them actual looking like guns, of cameras and video cameras. Indeed, they are too busy staring at the barrage of TV cameras instead of enjoying the food.

Come next day and we see the Bongoland version of the Good Samaritan pictures splattered all over the newspapers showing him or her feeding some of the poor orphans with the angle of the picture more on the modern Samaritan than on the child. This was the purpose from the very beginning.

Yes, this is but a well orchestrated public relations occasion on which the poor orphans are just pawns in someone’s marketing strategy.

That is why I have decided to go down history documents and find if ‘The Daily Jericho’ of that time had news and pictures of the good Samaritan aiding his fellow human being. If it does not have, then definitely something is wrong with our modern Bongoland Samaritans!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Chesi,that was an amazing article! seriously! It was so funny reading and at the same time you got the shot right to the bull.
I could not agree with you more about charity.The meaning of charity is never the same.If you check out in United States ,leave alone ather parts of the world,charity has become all but a shocking.To be precise,it went from being an act of good dees to anything that suites your objectives.It's business.Extortion.Whatever is it that fits the intentions.A lot of times it's the good samritan who finally sweeps more benifits of the act itself.Ofcourse this happens in many ways.No surprise Chesi,Folks are so fired and driven ,especially the cash loaded folks,to provide charities .They know certaily that they gonna be rewarded more at the end the day
The whole thing to me is pathetic.Rich folks are continually storming the good intentions of charity,crook it into a spectacle,an opportunity to seek certain favors and finally enrich themselves like nothing matters .But still i believe in good samaritans. But Chesi, lets be realistic at the same time.Right!. if you can tell me ,who in the world would ever give a charity without wanting publicity?
Chesi i used to read your articles on Mzalendo in my teens .And now am so delighted that am continuing to follow your work at my age .Am now 36 yrs old.You never seize to amaze me.Am completely blown away.Most of it, it's the satirical approach that you have always managed to intergrate in your writing. You are as witty as ever.You awesome Chesi! keep up the good work
Raceznobar(mtoto wa mwenge)
Edmonton
Canada