Africans are notorious for copying strangers’ ways. For example they enjoy copying the ways of especially the so-called ‘celebrities’, there is the ‘ice bucket challenge’ craze. We know about it because of the opportunity of the Internet, international news outlets, and of course, Social Media. For those who may not be familiar with the ‘ice bucket challenge’, it was started last month by a former Boston college basket ball player suffering from a debilitating disease known as ALS who challenged friends and celebrities to raise funds for victims of the disease that attacks nerve cells leading to body paralysis.
The way this challenge works is by a participant by letting another person or persons pour freezing or iced water on his or her head for the purpose of raising money for the treatment of the victims of ALS.
Since the ice bucket challenge begun last month, about $60 million has been raised for this noble cause. With the challenge going viral, the real and the wannabe celebrities have been falling over themselves to get wet, on camera. Now we are hearing that the craze is being embraced by ‘our celebrities’.
Like earlier stated, it is always important when people offer to come to the rescue of fellow human beings. Nothing ever beats sacrificing to save a life. Our observation is that there is another disease that is more dangerous than ALS in the sense that it kills, it kills quickly, it is too infectious, it has no known cure as yet, and it is threatening our global village.
The killer disease is EBOLA. Ebola kills almost everyone that gets into contact with it. The most scaring thing is that among its first victims are people who are supposed to save lives namely, the Health providers. Doctors and nurses are known to have been among the first victims of Ebola leaving the ordinary victims helpless.
It is for this reason that we wish to call on all our ‘celebrities’ to begin their own challenge to raise funds for Ebola victims before engaging in the challenge for ALS victims. The last few weeks have shown that the treatment for Ebola victims is still far away from being found. We have seen victims being flown abroad for treatment yet dying soon after.
We strongly believe that the international community should be more scared by Ebola than ALS. We believe that the world should fundraise for both ALS and Ebola after all the citizens of the world are more likely to die of Ebola than to die of ALS.
Someone in India, realizing the effectiveness of the ice bucket challenge in raising funds, has launched a ‘rice bucket’ challenge to raise rice for the hungry in India and her challenge is said to be spreading like the California fire. Indians of all classes are said to have embraced their own challenge so much so that the initiator, a 38-year old journalist Manju Latha Kalanidhi based in Hyderabad, has become a celebrity overnight herself for championing a peoples’ cause.
Kalanidhi questions the wisdom of wasting water on people’s heads when many Indians don’t have enough clean drinking water. That’s why she chose rice instead of ice.
There are so many just causes in Uganda to which some people would be willing to contribute to. Issues of health and education are close to the hearts of many Ugandans. May the Champions please stand up, our crisis of trust notwithstanding!
