LOOKING AT TAGS, MIRAGES AND SUCH: HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW.

Tags get attached to or hung on things for various reasons. To identify them, to make them stand out, to advertise them or make them be recognized for what they are. Sometimes tags get hung on people to tarnish them, to diminish them or to totally change their reputation and thereby destroy their lives and families. Hanging tags on people have been around for a while in the form of stereotypes. Lately, hanging and sneaking tags on people to destroy them has reached a new level and defied age,status and wisdom which used to inhibit such misbehavior. A popular saying has it that a Canine sometimes get bad names tagged to it in order to hang him for being very bad and deserving to be hung. Very well is it known that an old dog cannot be taught new tricks but ugly horrible tricks can be tagged on a dog it is then paraded all over with much cacophony that before long, if nothing and nobody intervenes, the canine becomes lynched for being a terrible creature or worse than a grouchy vicious bitch.
In recent years tags and "chads" have made their rounds in the political arena. The 2000 elections which changed the course of this country for ever in its aftermath, featured chads of all kinds----hanging chads, pregnant chads and the rest of them. Millions of dollars in overtime money went to examining and re-examining chads in Florida in an attempt to determine which ballots should be counted as votes. The rest of the drama of chads are in the history books.
In the very recent past, hanging tags featured in a big way and sneaking tags or boldly slapping them on and making a lot of noise about them to make them stick became common place. Tags were even set up for victims to stumble into and wear to their own detriment and destruction of their lives, family and future.

The last presidential election had its share of tag hanging and sticking. Peggy Noonan's Latin editorial on the campaign rallies still stand clear in my mind where the crowds were stirred up to react to a tag craftily pasted on an opponent to tarnish his image and name for ever. A confused woman protested that the opponent was Arab because that was what she was fed and she ate it whole. As if being Arab is a crime on its own, but being Arab has been tagged with terrorism which is the biggest threat to the modern world. When the Arab tag didn't hang or stick, the tagging tactic took a leap to a new and more daring level----"He is palling with terrorists." Wow!!! That's even worse than being Arab. The crescendo of this new tagging was amazing and the taggers boldly hung on to their music and went from coast to coast with it. Logical people were alarmed by the new game of politics and warned of the dangers of it. Such warnings fell on deaf ears.
Did the tags stick or hang on? No.The tag stuck to the hands that made them as the target maneuvered his way through the slippery course to the prize, carefully avoiding the tags everywhere. He chose his words carefully, chose his friends carefully, trusted completely in Divine providence, and Divine protection from foes and unfriendly friends.

In the quest for the different purposes, gains and ambitions in life, the Igbo diaspora has as usual elevated the Igbo " O muta, O gbakaria" syndrome to a new level, perfecting the tag, smear and destroy weapon to a new lethal demolition derby. Organized tag, smear and destroy became a thriving enterprise. Like frenzied bloodhounds on a hunt, tags in hand and tags laid along the hunt, Igbo descend on Igbo to change their reputation and lives for ever and destroy them and their children.
Decency and etiquette and even personal safety are cast to the winds in this deadly pursuit. Loops are jumped to trap and snare and destroy and decapitate all in the presence of the whole wide world, like scenes from the shows during the reality shows craze, the tagging game is played in broad daylight with mirages created all over the place. Mirages created when people put their necks out to trap others, like the boar constrictor hunters who go deep down into the burrow to trap the monster by allowing themselves to be partially wrapped in a suffocating grip, only to be pulled up by their partners while the snake is killed. Real days of living dangerous lives to destroy lives and gain absolutely nothing from it are upon us.

When mirages which looked like sizable pools of water are reached, alas, there is no water at all, none whatsoever. All the hard work and planning to make what is not there as if it were there go up in smokes like the Coyote of The road Runner show fame. And typically like the Coyote, the taggers shift gear and get back to work to device a new tag which will surely or rather has surely blown up one more time in their faces and the road runner stops, looks back, and typical of the road runner, lets out the familiar '----Beep Beep, Vro-o-o-o-o- m-" and goes on to taking care of serious life's business which are all over the place waiting to be dealt with. The Almighty watches out for HIS own. Has never and Will never fail to do so, for HIS EYE is on the sparrow.

Nwada (Lady) Chinwe Enemchukwu
Onye Uwa Oma
na Orlando, Florida
March 15th 2009. ( The ides of March) and All is quiet on the Igbo front. Hopefully for good. Time for SERIOUS soul searching.