Betty Makoni...The Saint I Crucified...

I have always felt some things do not need wading into. Some fights are not worth waging. Some things need not be spelt out. Still waters run deep and do not have to be noisy to show that within their wombs lie a ferocity that is incomparable with other form of catastrophe. But even then, such full bodied angry rivers have to get to a waterfall and declare their anger, make their sound known.

So should it be with me, i guess.

Now the big issue if Betty Makoni and her newly found International recognition in the CNN Heroes top ten list.

She has attracted a lot of negative vibes, ironically from her own nationals.

'Publicity monger, self glorifier' and anything nasty that can be thrown into that pot. All becaue of a simple nomination.

Yet it is i that has subjected her to so much hate and malice.

if anything, the wonderful woman was thrown into the hat of 9000 other entries while she slept nonchalantly in her sheets. She did not know a thing. But i knew how she had influenced my life as an everyday heroine. Rough around the edges, strong, principled, a survivor. That is how i knew her. someone had to honour her. Here was the perfect platform. so i sat down diligently to nominate her. Little did i now that with every letter i scrolled in the nomination, i would be slowly and gradually hammering the nails in Betty's flesh on a virtual cross. For all the good i saw in her, someone would want to make sure they tore off shred of her flesh for the recognition she would recieve.

maybe i should not have voted for her. Maybe my nomination should not have succeeded. But any adjudicator who has an eye for chivalry would not have missed her. N ow she is being persecuted for succeeding. Persecuted for rising above the rape and molest that she went through in her years as a little girl. 'Why did she rise? whye did she not remain a miserable rape victim and not the empowered survivor that she has become' seems to be the reasoning.

Yes, for all the blood and sweat she is going through ow, i am the direct instigator of all that. But i fear not, and hope she too plods on. What is life without a Pull Him/Her Down lunatic in the background? The only thing worse than being talked about however negatively, is not being talked about.

So hang on there Betty. Hang from your cross on which i have hung you. You deserve all of the pain...all heroes have to go through further probing and sadistic torture. Only then can you ressurect as a stronger character.

You are the Hero Betty. You are the Survivor. You and only you.

You are the social saint that i crucified. Now we await your ressurection. Yours is a good fight!