By Malek Arol Dhieu
As Christmas approaches, an SSPDF soldier having children finds no rest between Bilpham Headquarters and his house.
Going to Bilpham to ask for the salary, the news is always that the salary is still, and as he comes home, he is always welcomed with gloomy eyes and closed arms. Neither his wife nor children pulls for him a chair to sit on.
Things are running oppositely! You know how people called children and women become so serious when they are in dire need of something? No table in front of the soldier, no water for drinking, a small resting bed for the soldier is detained, and finally, no food! The whole house is on fire! I mean the whole house is fighting in the bush! And the tragedy is that a neighbour expected to be a mediator to take this warring house to Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, for a peace agreement is unfortunately a soldier himself. He is in trouble in his own house just like his colleague is in trouble in his house as well. So, nobody helps one another.
As he tries to explain that the problem is not his, but his government, the children respond to him with tears while his wife threatens to leave the house. This is beyond what people call “dilemma”. As he shamefully escapes the drama to find peace in bed, his wife wakes him up at 2 AM and asks him whether or not he exactly has nowhere to borrow money for Christmas. The tone, the time and the position of his wife tell that something stupid may happen if he does not respond positively. But no space for a positive response as he depends only on the salary. Five minutes pass and no response released yet.
The woman bombards her husband soldier with insults, such as why are you not like other colleagues of yours who look stable and yet have the same rank with you. Why did God punish me like this to get married to a soldier? The woman continues…..these children have no difference from the children whose father has died………. The husband feels furious and slaps his wife and the fight intensifies. Elderly children join the fight and side with their mothers.
Injuries are sustained and in the morning, police officers knock on the gate, apprehend the soldier and report the case to the Gender-based Violence authority as a GBV case. The soldier is dealt with in accordance with the law and his wife and children accept the challenge of survival and celebrate Christmas normally with old clothes. At the end of the year, the headline of the GBV department report is “GBV cases are on the rise in South Sudan”.
Bullshit! The government has a hand in the rise of GBV cases because the civil servants go unpaid for a number of months, and as they go unpaid, issues develop at home and you all know how delicate is anger to handle. Because of the bigness of the government to fight with, the civil servants instead fight themselves, imagine!
If you want to see an unforgettable tragedy today, you borrow a telescope and direct it where many soldiers live. All you can see is one hand on the cheek for the case of those soldiers who promise to rot at home, and all you can see are fingers pointing in different directions and mouths uttering words which are not found in dictionaries, for the case of soldiers who promise to rot walking.
However, the Christmas problem is not for soldiers alone, but it is for everyone except those who have long hands to reach the salary before it comes out. As a message to those who are disadvantaged, hope rewards people! Who knows 2025 is the year you will just wake up and see everything on your table? Your questions are definitely going to be answered in 2025 and that, you will celebrate the rest of the Christmases in the sky.
Thank you for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.