Engr Mathias

Facebook Fisherman

Let me cast my net on this Oso and Amasiri matter

When a goat from the next village keeps straying into your cassava farm, the loud boys in the square will always shout first.

“Carry cutlass!”

“Show them we are not cowards!”

It is easy to shout war when your only battlefield is Facebook.

Some of you calling Edda weak have never smelt gunpowder.

You have not queued for bread in a country where the price changes before you reach the counter.

You have not watched a mother fold her wrapper tighter because her son has been sent to a front line that has no clear ending.

W|ar is not a wrestling match at the village festival. It is a long, hungry season.

When two brothers begin to exchange bullets, governments do not print peace.

They print taxes. Every bag of rice will carry a war stamp.

Every gallon of fuel will remind you that pride is expensive.

Even the small trader selling pepper by the roadside will feel the heat of “national interest.”

And let us not deceive ourselves. When leaders choose w|ar, it is the poor man’s child who stands in uniform at the border.

Those saying we should “use the same means the others used” talk as if retaliation is a proverb you can recite and move on.

But once you open that door, you cannot control what walks in. W|ar does not knock politely. It breaks the hinge.

The soldiers who allowed himself to be taken without firing recklessly did not act like cowards.

They acted like men who understand that one careless trigger can drag two nations into a fire neither can easily quench.

Sometimes choosing peace is the highest form of strength.

In the village, the elder who keeps quiet while the drunk youth shouts is not weak.

He is guarding tomorrow.

Yes, Amasiri has been testing nerves. Yes, our patience has been stretched like old rubber.

But diplomacy is not surrender. It is strategy without graves.

The loudest voices for war are often the safest from its consequences.

They will not bury the bodies. They will not rebuild the markets. They will not comfort widows.

We have been a brother in conflict before. We know what it means when peace becomes a rumor.

So before we beat our chests and demand fire for fire, let us ask ourselves one honest question.

Are we ready to pay the full price of the anger we are promoting?

It is easy to start a w|ar. It is hard to end one.

And sometimes, the bravest thing nation can do is to refuse to be dragged into a fight that will leave everyone poorer, bitter, and broken.

*In 1951 a politician bought a horse for a race at £50,000. The seller agreed to deliver the horse the next day.*

In the morning of the next day, he drove up and said: "Sorry son, but I have some bad news. The horse is dead."

The politician replied: "Well, just give me my money back then."
The seller said: "Can’t do that. I’ve already spent it." The politician said: "OK, then, just bring me the dead horse."
The farmer asked: "What are you going to do with it?"
The politician said: "I’m going to raffle it off to the people as a speed horse that can win a race"

The seller responded: "You can’t raffle a dead horse."

Politician replied: "Sure, I can. Just watch me. You don't know the people, l will post wonderful pictures of a horse, I just won’t tell anybody it's dead. I will market it with propaganda and present it as capable of chasing criminals away"

A month later, the seller met up with the politician and asked: "What happened with that dead horse?"

Politician replied: "I raffled it off. I sold 1million tickets at £2 each and made a profit of £2m.

*The seller was dazed and asked: "Didn’t anyone complain?"*
*Politician said: "Just the guy who won. I told him the horse died on our way to deliver. So, I gave him back his £2 with apology. I told him l have refunded everyone. He consoled me and told me to keep it up that I am a good man.’ That, after all, I have suffered (a lot of loss). He prayed for me and called on God to bless me. Telling me that the country needs honest people like me to come and run for office".*

LESSON

*The political raffle ticket will soon be back to sell to people another dead horse in 2027*