Online Reporter
Most Zimbabweans have had a well-deserved break over the long Christmas weekend, with some managing to extend this for the fortnight that brings in Unity Day and New Year’s Day, but we should not forget the several thousand people who make it possible for the rest to enjoy the break.
For the police, the festive fortnight actually means more work. Besides ensuring that police stations are staffed to deal with crime and to suppress crime, along with the many social service aspects of helping victims of family assault and the like, there has also been a strong mobilisation of traffic officers to make roads safer and less lethal.
All this work, even the work in the police stations, tends to be intense when so many are on a break and have time to drink and brood.
And of course, the vast number of Zimbabweans who now own vehicles and want to travel around, sometimes on highways and sometimes just to see friends a short distance away, means that traffic patrols are desperately needed to prevent drunk drivers from plunging other families into mourning.
While some routine medical work can be legitimately postponed or was squeezed in before the holidays, there is a great deal of emergency work that continues in hospitals.
Casualty and emergency departments tend to find long holiday periods among their busiest.
Besides the normal medical emergencies, like heart attacks, strokes, and even babies who think Christmas Day is a good time to be born, there are the results of the sort of problems the police face.
Even when accident rates are pushed down, and patrols are a bit more active in calming down those who want to turn a bar into a fight ring, there will still be more injuries that need rapid casualty treatment, and that in turn means ambulance services need to be on standby.
The successes of upgrades in the public health system mean that we now have around 400 ambulances scattered across the country, and each needs a crew on hand, ready to respond at a moment’s notice to deal with the vast gamut of medical emergencies, having ensured that their ambulance is ready to drive off with all mechanical checks complete, all the way down to tyre pressures.
Besides these routine ambulance services, which at least stay at their normal bases, another 24 high-tech ambulances with trained crews have been moved to the worst highway accident black spots, sometimes far from base, with the crews basically camping out on unfamiliar premises.
They, in turn, are backed by helicopter ambulances in Harare and Bulawayo, and again crews have to be nearby on duty, ready to move almost instantly when an emergency call comes through.
In addition, there are other public sector staff.
The rainy season tends to see far more Zesa faults, and while outside perhaps a hospital these might not be life-threatening, they can certainly ruin a holiday.
Technical crews have been active, restoring power, and by working over the holidays, they ensure that customers at least have a decent holiday.
The private sector, including the informal sector, has been making sure that supermarkets and vegetable stalls are open.
Deep freezers and fridges are far from universal, so being able to buy fresh food is important; this means shifts in the formal sector and the informal traders, as usual, have to work their seven-day weeks just to earn a living.
Keeping a modern and complex society functioning during a break can obviously be done, but it does mean that a surprising number of people do not get that break; they simply have to be on duty.
We would hope that during the holiday festivities, many Zimbabweans are giving a thought to their neighbours, checking up on the elderly and the infirm, for example, and even taking steps to turn what can be a very difficult and lonely time of the year into something where they share the joys.
Christian leaders, from Pope Leo XIV down, have taken great pains this year, across a wide swathe of cultures, to note that the Christmas celebrations are in fact celebrating a birth in a stable because there was no room at the inn for a pregnant woman and her husband, forced to travel to a strange town.
When it comes to useful actions to relieve stress and suffering, not much is required.
The poor and the hungry may be with us always, but we need to see what we can do, one person at a time, to make life better.
Few of us can change the world by ourselves, but if one candle can create a pool of light, then a million candles can create a world of light.
We once again need to work together, to cooperate, and for everyone to show the same sort of care that we are all receiving from those who are working over the holidays.
