By Malek Arol Dhieu
From 2nd Jan to date, South Sudanese who had had what to celebrate the Christmas and New Year with are sickening of three major diseases, namely hangover, lapsus linguae and spendthrifty. Hangover; as celebrations for Christmas and New Year were hither and thither, people celebrated until the locks of their brains rejected their right keys, I mean until the threshold of their happiness refused to depolarize.
And as their blood was wholly replaced by happiness of reaching 2023, they celebrated it as if it was declared from heaven that 2023 is the last year to celebrate on earth, and that, it has to be celebrated crazily even if it means celebrating it to death. Because everything has an end, the celebrations ended and people began feeling hangover on the 2nd of January to date. Hangover, as far as this article is concerned, refers to an unpleasant relic left from prior events. If you want me to define it as an illness caused by a previous bout of alcohol drinking, then I’m also as right as rain.
Hangover is relieved by what alcoholics call “eye opener”, a process in which an alcoholic takes 2-3 cups of wine in the morning to become exempted from hangover during the working days. As other celebrations of equal statuses to Christmas and New Year are still far to open the eyes of those who celebrate them the most, people should adapt to the new normal.
Lapsus linguae; lapsus linguae is a medical condition in which tongues slip to make mistakes in speeches unintendedly. In a layman’s parlance, it is called slip of the tongue. As 2023 has not yet fixed in to people’s mouths and thumbs in speeches and in writings respectively, so many speakers have their tongues slipped to mention 2022, and so do many writers. Because of that, many speeches are dominated by one phrase “I mean” in an attempt to correct where tongues slipped to mention 2022, whereas many writers whose fingers slipped to write 2022 edit their writings to fix in 2023. Because people can never go back to 2022 and it is challenging for them to fit in the bucket of 2023 as early as the first week of January, people should adapt to the new normal.
Spendthrifty; spendthrift refers to spending of money wastefully. So many people overspent their money on Christmas and New Year clothes without taking in to their accounts that, January is a 40-day month because its salary was given out in December, and that, it has to be spent unsalaried. Because demands grow much taller and huger in December because of the preparations for Christmas and New Year celebrations, two months’ salary gets finished within the twentieth days of December as everything looks buyable as long as money to buy it is there.
As money finishes in December, people almost starve in January, and so, what dominates people’s minds is the blame that, if we had used the December’s salary providently, starvation would not have handcuffed us like this. Other starvers even swear by God never to prodigalize their money next December. It is normal, all it requires of you is to begin to begin adapting to it.
The author is a medical student, University of Juba.