I choose Peace: My letter from South Sudan

I write this letter from South Sudan after a brief interaction and a work assignment in a country that has been affected by war; I hope it will be shared with my fellow countrymen.....

 

I have experienced first hand the effects of war on human dignity, human life, human development and all other spheres that make a human being be. I have met people who are barely 24 years old, married and with 10 children. I have seen 30 year olds who cannot read or write because they have spent their entire lives running for their safety which is a priority to education.

 

I have interviewed people who made tears well in my eyes when they recall how their mothers, children or siblings died on the way due to sickness, old age or exhaustion while running from war. I have seen really young girls barely out of the definition of a child, bearing children in what appear to be ‘marriages’ for their own security but not dignity. I have seen how simple sicknesses like malaria and conditions like malnutrition kill people in a flash. Last week I saw a young man barely in his mid twenties pass out right in front of me due to malaria fever.

 

All these are direct effects of war and I always read Kenyans writing on social media and speaking carelessly beating drums of war. Let those who think war is a better alternative move out there and begin the fight without a cause so they experience what I have described above in their own families, neighbourhood and even towns. That way, they will appreciate the value of peace.

 

War will make the PEV appear like a movie trailer; no one will sit down in their houses watching TV and commenting on the cops who shoot people or looters who take away property. There will be no TV nor a room to spectate from. There will be no pizzas to be picked from the outlets at the numerous malls all over. Many will be reduced to absolute dependants on relief food that will be dropped from the air. It will be real to run after humanitarian agencies’ vehicles to ask for water.  It will be real to watch another human being drop dead in front of you due to exhaustion, sickness or old age. It will be real to run for one’s own life and separate from his/her own family and lose touch almost forever.

 

I chose peace for the sake of the safety and dignity of my family, neighbour, daughter, wife, sister, you and I.

I chose peace for the sake of my county Kenya and all those within the borders and the surrounding countries.

I chose peace for the future generations of the country and the entire world.

I chose peace because it costs nothing to keep peace but costs a lot to have war or to reconstruct after a war.

 

I, Tom Arody chose peace. You too have the power to chose peace, what have you chosen?