ARE HUMAN BEINGS REALLY BETTER THAN OTHER ANIMALS?

The Image by google

One day when I was in Tororo for my annual retreat, in one of the moments when I was meditating, I saw a cock chasing a hen for mating. It happened that one of my friends had seen the cock too. He said to me, “this cock is hopeless, it cannot even feel shy to chase the hen in front of us, it should have waited for us to go away at least” This is not only for birds (hens) but it is a habit of most animals. At Lavigerie house, I take care of animals; we have two pigs and a cat; when a she pig is in heat the male knows and they mate. When it is their proper time they do so regardless of my presence. This I guess is not an uncommon experience to many of us.

The experience that I get from birds and most irrational animals makes me, most of the time, say that we human beings are more advanced, intellectual wise, than other animals. In fact this is what even biology tells us, that man is superior to all other animals. I think this is very true and for so long this has been my conviction. But recently my conviction has been challenged so much by what I call inhuman deeds.

In our “modern world” it is an order of the day to hear about the issue of rape. I hear a lot about it and somehow many of us get used to hearing about it without doing anything to help the victims. Some may go to the extent of saying “it is normal” or “that is how life is.” And you know some even dare say that most women who are raped are responsible for that, for they “provoke” men. They provoke men? I have heard of old ladies some even of 80 being raped, and worse still , I have heard of babies of some few months being raped and yet some say that the victims provoke the “predators”?

Are we really better than the Tororo cock? September the eleventh is the day which will have a long life span in the memory of many people, not only Americans but almost everybody who came to know about it, not only people of good will but by people of “evil intentions” as well. One would have expected such an event, which has captured permanence in many peoples’ memory, to be of great benefit to many people. Instead, it is just the opposite. Even though the act is terribly evil according to moral standards, it is “good” to some people. It is good, of course, to the authors. I guess they look at the act as their masterpiece. “Some gentlemen” pretending to be passengers hijack the planes having many passengers, they take control of the planes and deliberately hit the planes against the twin towers; they know that the planes have many people on board and they know that the twin towers are buildings which have the capacity of having an enormous number of people at a time. They know beyond doubt that what they are doing will cause a big loss of human life and that they too will not escape death. But still they go on and do it…

In our modern “developed” world it is strange not to hear of a considerable loss of human life almost every day, and the agent in most cases is man himself. The events of September 11th, the suicidal attacks and many other causes of deaths of the same nature were and are being planned and carried out by an animal with the most developed brain – a rational animal. I wonder if by doing all such inhuman acts, even though they are rational, for they are “well” planned and “well” carried out, we still remain better than other animals!

Originally written by Martin Mandalu in the PCJ VOICES, Volume 11, April, 2002

SO BITTER ARE SEPARATIONS!

The Photo From a Missionary site

“...but Mandalu, why shouldn’t we have known each other deeper than we have done?” That was a question from a friend of mine known by the name of Tausi.

Previous to her question I had told her; it would have been better if we had not met and known each other. But why say this to a friend? If I said so, then it is because it was motivated by something serious. Yes, indeed it was pushed by the pain of separation.

So bitter is separation, it can be witnessed through our everyday experiences. The baby experience is very typical: an “infant.” When it has to detach from its best friend and best home for the past nine months, it feels the pain so much, indeed so bitter it is. But it can’t do much to express itself instead it resolves to crying. Yes so bitter it is.

I had to leave my friends for the first time when I was about five or six. I was still young but all the same I felt the pain for leaving them behind. The separation was caused by the move that my family had to make from one region to another in Tanzania. The decision followed a piece of advice from our family doctor, for my mum’s health was so poor because of the cooler weather in that region.

My second separation, which I remember, was when I finished my primary level of education, ready to join the secondary school level. Here I had to separate with my friends and yes, it was indeed bitter, I think it was so because I knew I would never see again many of those friends, and yes, I have not met most of them again.

Kirinya prison is a place where I go for my apostolate; I work with the prisoners who have not attended their trials yet. Some stay there for two or even three years, they get so much used to the place and the other guys that they find in the prison. Somehow, that becomes their home for the period that they have to stay in the prison, they make friends. When their time to go home comes, they have to go, I suppose under normal circumstances none of them would want to stay back, and yet the pain of separation is still there. In one incident, a prisoner was telling me “Ssebo, I have been her for three years, these fellows have become my brothers, but back home I have a family, I feel like staying behind but I just can’t help”

This morning, when I was contemplating on the subject, I learned that the intensity of bitterness in my separations has been increasing in direct proportion to the increase of my age and the increase of commitments in life. In the same contemplation, there came the idea of the coming separation, separation from friends of the PCJ. At first I did not want it to come to my conscious and so I was suppressing it. But I realized that suppressing it won’t do me any good, instead I should better let it come out and learn how to deal with it.

When I think of the many friends that I have and that when I conceive the idea of separation, that is,when the time for me to leave comes I will have to separate from them, then I feel so sad. In the course of my stay at the PCJ and Uganda at large, for about three years now, I have been able to meet with many people and so make friends from both the PCJ and outside the institution. I have come across friends from Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Cameroon, Burundi, Benin, DRC, Sudan, UK, Holland, Belgium, Ireland, USA, Italy, Spain, France, and many more. And yet I may never meet most of them again. Yes, this is what indeed makes me sense the coming pain so bitter…yes, so bitter it is. Separations are painful and yet inevitable. I know that relationships are very important for our proper growth and yet separations are so important for that proper growth as well.

When I was five, our family had to separate from many friends that we had in the first town. But it was because of “a higher good,” that is for the health of one of the family members we all had to leave behind our friends. Should we have clung to our friendship while one of the members in the family was suffering? No, we had to leave.

Should those guys in the prison remain with their friends and forget about their families back home? I do not think so. They must go and let life continue. Furthermore, separations have big benefits to us even though they are bitter. If a baby in the womb decided to remain in there (if that were possible), then it would not have developed, as it does when it comes out of the womb. The same applies to a pupil. If she or he decides to remain at the primary school level (for the sake of staying with the friends, whom I guess they too will have to move on) then the development of formal education and other disciplines would not be possible. Thanks to our faculty of memory that we can forget our past temporarily or even permanently, and so are able to live properly and make more friends again.

Indeed separations are so painful but so inevitable and important.

Originally written by Martin Mandalu in the PCJ VOICES, Volume 11, April, 2002