The sleeping giants
Friday, March 06, 2015

Kgafela
They are intelligent beings from outside our world, with potential and the awesome power to eliminate human life on Earth.
The bubonic plague of 1348-1352 wiped out a huge population of Europe 700 years ago. The influenza virus of 1918-1919 claimed about 500 million lives in the world in a short space of about six months. Scientists remain puzzled as to how the virus started at the same time of 1918 in different continents, as if it had been hibernating in the humans just ready to burst out at a given time. The recent Ebola pandemic claimed about 10,000 lives in West Africa within a short space of time in 2014. The small Botswana population is evidently dwindling from “strange” deaths whose real cause is not known. Something out there, not readily seen is picking people one after the other.
While every citizen, including the Head of State, has the right to voice opinions, the tone and context of the President’s comments were regrettably dismissive and risk chilling free expression in our country. The remarks are not isolated. They form part of a disturbing pattern of public attacks on independent institutions pillars essential to the healthy functioning of our democracy. The Judiciary, the Legislature, and now the media have all...