The Sick Country Syndrome:
has pain got identity?
(Tariku Abas Etenesh)
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The bizarre news of the recent months in Ethiopia that included the arrest of demonstrators for opposing a fascist Italian leader- Rudolfo Graziani,the eviction of the Amhara people from Benishangula region, the blocking of free press outlets, reminded me of a medical phenomenon called Sick Building Syndrome. Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a
phenomenon that occurs when the occupants of a building experience acute health
effects that seem to be linked to time spent in a building. Frequently,
problems result when a building is maintained in a manner that is inconsistent
with its original design or prescribed operating procedures, or when occupant
activities create a problem.*
After
reading this definition, I wondered if there was anything called Sick Country
Syndrome (SCS) for countries whose citizens feel ill to belong to due to the sociopolitical realities at certain
point in time. And I wondered if countries undergo medical
checkups at a hospital of ‘human solidarity’, how would they measure up against the symptoms of sick country syndrome?
For
me, one pillar of the sanity of a country is how it allows people exercise their free will while consenting to a common identity
bound by a covenant (e.g. Constitution) where the covenant they signed is impartial towards its members regarding their color, race, gender, religion. That is country that rhythms as a community of equals; and
where each member lives up to its rights and obligations-taxation with representation.
However,
in a country where the will of any one person or group is imposed on any other person or group, especially when the breach is manifested as naked
injustice perpetrated on member of the group for just the
simple reason that ‘an entity is what it naturally is’ i.e. black or
white, male or female or ethnicity, language and religion it is simply a grave breach of contract that
threatens the health and deemed enough a symptom to label the country as suffering from a sick country
syndrome.
The
sick country syndrome, I believe,
has its causes in one of the most common melting pot of human misery: not learning from the lessons of history, coupled
with the foolishness of exacting crimes (as perpetrated by dictators of the past), expecting different outcomes.
Such countries often suffer from the blindness allowed by propaganda that shapes itself as a fight for the
“new nation”, the new political ideal, the new vision worth killing for and worth denying someone else's rights for. These claimed 'new' run on the fuel of the corollary requirement of labeling
some of the country’s own members as enemies. Hitler’s new Germany- against Jews, or Ian Smith’ Southern
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe
Countries
suffering from the sick country syndrome are characterized by a worrying
but dangerously-normalized inclinations towards condoning injustice, only because on the receiving end of 'the injustice' is a person, a group or an idea referred to as “the other. The little dose of tolerance that fashions itself as jests of the political elites, later becomes the mantra of the support base of those politicians and before any one realized it, the worst crimes could find themselves entertained at the coffee tables, chat-rooms waiting just a whistle to blow. The sad logical outgrowth of such tolerated 'impunity' to label others (no matter how innocent the
subject might be) is producing ‘guilty as charged’ because they belong
to the a certain religion, ethnicity, political opinion, or language speaking group.
Such
countries run the terrifying Sound bits exhibited in the statement: the pain inflicted on others is no pain.
This claim reads loud from the book of misapprehension that pain has ethnicity,
color, gender or religion. And thus any
pain inflicted upon any group labeled as ‘the
other" is supposed to be experienced differently - a pain which is supposed to
have identity.
Does
pain of such identity exist? No, except in a country where the pain felt by human beings is
weighed against odd criteria to be accepted as human pains. Because on the other
end of the weighing balance is put ethnicity, color, religion, gender. And in
any of these criteria the pain inflicted or injustice perpetrated proved to be
done on “the other" the pain is not accepted as being experienced by humans.
Thus, the simple naked truth of being considered as human becomes a factor of
ones ethnicity, color, religion, and gender. History profiles ample examples of such failings being taken as normal Europe during colonization ans slavery against the pain of Africans, Europe during the second world war against the Jews,Ethiopia for 20 years against the Amharas.
Such
a nation that harbors the sick country syndrome of not making sure that all its
citizens feel ‘healthy’ and involved, by not tolerating any intentions or
claims that go in the guise of labeling 'some citizens' as not having been paid
for, does so at its peril. Only
in a sick country could a citizen be told,despite being a citizen,
is not paid for and can’t move from one place to the other, can’t be treated
equally as the other citizen, can’t be respected as the other citizen, or can be
insulted unlike others.
When someone is recognized as a citizen of one country, he or she is already paid for and has every rights and responsibilities of the resources and opportunities of his nation. A reality confessing otherwise is a symptom for being a sick country.
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*(National Safety Council.USA 1997)
