STEAMING IT OFF
THERE are some people out there who are so ignorant they should be in prison.
Serious!
Do not get me wrong — this has nothing to do with anyone’s level of education or even social status.
This is plainly based on the simple fact of ignorance though, at this point, I should point out that some of our so-called intellectuals are the ones perpetrating this evil.
Whoever said “common sense is not common” hit the nail straight on the head and s/he should have been listened to from the start.
Ignorance breeds so many of our existent and recurring social ills, which in turn give birth to total chaos that may be avoidable if one pays attention to what is true and fact!
A perfect example is this deep-seated hate that we have for our fellow African brothers and sisters.
Yes, they are foreigners but that does not make them any lesser as people.
For you as a human being to ostracise and even go to the extent of that bad emotion we all term as hate just exposes you as plain ignorant and a hypocrite.
Stereotyping someone because of where s/he has been is so totally wrong.
Believe me I have heard the strangest stories linked to people just because they are from one country or the other.
What always makes me keel with embarrassment, and even laughter, is that some of these people (the story-tellers) have never set a foot in the said foreigner’s country — let alone out of his/her own borders.
Well, it goes to show “empty vessels . . . (you get the honour to finish off the last tiny bit).
Look, if you meet a few people visiting, coming to find work or even seeking asylum in your country, it does not mean anyone and everyone from that said country is the same with your acquaintance.
Fact: not all the brothers have it as you all ignorantly think they do. Actually there are Basotho and even other natives of our beautiful continent who render that little piece of myth untrue because of their “gifts”.
Bona motho, not all male foreigners who land in our valleys and between our mountains are stinking rich. And they are not here to take your women.
I am sure you will agree with me that not all Basotho men are as many foreigners believe them to be, right?
And not all Basotho women are as beautiful as purported.
We all should at this time remember that there are exceptions!
Bona, I am not only on my fellow country-men and women: this thing is universal.
I am most definitely sure that some of our brothers and sisters, when they landed on the continent and, well, Lesotho, were pretty much surprised when they did not see monkeys and lions roaming streets like Kingsway, with us chasing after them — clad in animal hide loin cloths and bead skirt, wielding spears and sticks nogal!
Many Christians, if not all, are going to blow a gasket and deem this blasphemous, but I stick by it: if I could re-write the 10 commandments I would add “ignorance” as a sin.
“Thou shalt not be ignorant” has a ring to it, don’t you think?
Being this way (ignorant) is not confined to ignoring facts about other people. It even involves being oblivious about things that go on around you, that actually affect you.
I have countless times tried to differentiate between ignorance and stupidity and realised they somehow overlap even though they are not mutually exclusive to each other.
Look, in this day and age, we all know it is pure and simple stupidity to engage in sexual activity without protection.
However, it is ignorance (laced with some lack of something) to believe that when you are HIV-positive you will not pass it on to your unborn child without proper monitoring and medication.
Okay, I agree that may not have been the brightest of examples but I am sure you all get my point.
So, please bathong, let us try to appreciate and even be willing to learn what we do not know.
There is nothing as painful as getting out there and having someone say “Oh you are from Lesotho? That country is one of the . . . (fill in with some ignorant gibberish)” and not even being able to defend oneself by saying “Shut up you ignoramus!”
