Dear Editor,
We can divide up the people of the world into various categories involving race, creed, geographic location, height, gender, etc. These are the easily recognisable categories. Lesser recognisable categories include entrepreneur and worker, the exceptionally gifted and the mediocre, leaders and followers, etc. Sometimes there are categories that are even more obscure to the point that these categories are transparent to the people to whom they apply (usually at a cultural level where such conventions are usually unspoken and unwritten and persons are immersed in from birth).
Is this the case with the sheep and the predators? Or as I prefer to refer to them as the General Public and Minibus Operators (i.e., the driver, conductor and owner) respectively?) Is it that fifteen (15) persons (the passengers) are being held hostage by two (2) persons (the driver and conductor) wielding a dangerous weapon (the minibus)? Where are the voices of the people? Why is there no solidarity of effort by the commuting public to control the behaviour of the minibus operators? Are we sheep? Are our lives and the lives of our loved ones worth the same as or less than sheep? Are we unable to address the root of the problem? I’m afraid that until this situation is reversed that persons will continue to be killed by minibus operators.
OK, so I’m just a guy with a computer doing the equivalent of flapping my mouth. But I would like to think that if enough persons flap their mouths in solidarity then something might happen that would benefit the commuting public.
To the Public (myself included): let us not quibble about the situation of the Police or the politicians. Let us do what we can – each and everyone (Is “each and everyone” even proper English? Oh well – it’s for emphasis – as is this diversion) take a stand and tell those minibus operators that we will NOT stand for overloading and that we will NOT stand for speeding and that we will NOT stand for dangerous manoeuvring. It’s not someone else’s problem – it’s OUR problem. Stop looking at others to carry the burdens of responsibility and blame!
Everyone is someone else’s mother or father or son or daughter or uncle or aunt or cousin or niece or nephew or husband or wife or grandparent or grandchild or inlaw or family friend or something. Persons should speak to their loved ones about standing up against dangerous practices, on the road or otherwise. Persons should speak to their loved ones involved in the business of public transportation and explain that their love for each other is just like the love other persons have for passengers in their minibuses, and that those persons in their minibuses are a trust unto them and that they should honour this trust and behave appropriately.
Then again there’s “village justice” (i.e., “justice” delivered with a 2×4). I hope it does not come to that.
Yours faithfully,
Ravindra Saul
