It looks like this world is obsessed with negativity, and all we have done is negotiate an agreement with mediocrity, sign a contract with the average and pledged an allegiance to the ordinary.
Why we choose to value sensationalized drivel in the form of quarrels and imaginary differences conveyed through a polarized media beats me. I propose to the world an approach to sunshine journalism for a week, and bet all my nickels the benefits will outdo all the summits and junkets leaders have held to try and mend a working world.
Having wasted a great deal of my creative years in schools and colleges being drilled to be a loyal slave to the machinations of a stupidious system called democratic capitalism, I now rue the day Africans allowed themselves to be subjugated by our erstwhile cousins into abandoning our purportedly backward lifestyle.
With a head full of education and formulas that took a lot of effort to master, I can’t believe that after all the resources my parents wasted, I am as poor as a church mouse, with my existence tottering on the brink of insolvency and my ego bruised by a lack of necessities other people seem to collect and own.
The rat-race we were forced to join unconsciously is now haunting our collective conscience with debilitating consequences, and all we do is watch helplessly while life drifts by. Have we ever spared a thought as to why poverty seems part of our DNA? And have we pondered on whether that poverty is real ‘lack ‘or an illusion created by purveyors of anarchy to undermine our worth as human beings and create some kind of value for them?
Can we really value a person’s worth in monetary terms when the whole system of monetized economics is a charade played with figures and numbers and imaginary achievements made tangible by a people’s insecurities that continually get stoked by calculated propaganda that bind our minds from seeing the truth?
African currencies are not allowed to appreciate in value, lest they make exports uncompetitive rendering our real value obsolete and out of league with other nations. That school of thought is backed by our economists black brothers who were schooled in the art of deception by an education that was created to serve a certain race.
Some countries are not allowed to export what they produce because their system of government is not commensurate with the expectations of a certain nation. Every year that nation produces internationally accepted reports that condemn the same country of failing to run the economy, with the leadership being singled out for incompetence and gross disregard for laid out procedures of running economies. And then they forcibly prescribe and approve another loan with ten strings to the same country for another year, on condition that the funds will be administered by companies from their shores, ensuring total control.
And exports to the same rogue state are encouraged with aid agencies mushrooming to aid people in entrenching a dependency illness. Spare a thought for such countries, and realize that all the negativity surrounding their plights may be a result of this trick.
The material benefit of killing African countries’ economies is two-fold. It gives the killers a chance to plunder the same countries with impunity under the guise of international help.
The encouragement of non-governmental organization proliferation into the same regions helps seal the fate of locals into depending on foreigners for basics like food, and ultimately, political direction giving rise to regime change agendas.
Countries like Zimbabwe have seen their civil society taken over by these do-gooders who have all and killed rural agriculture. They hoard all the seed and fertilizer, purportedly intending to distribute it to the needy leaving shops bare. And whoever may have money to buy the inputs ahead of season won’t get anything.
Seed distribution shops are given moratoriums to give preference to NGOs when selling seed, and are usually paid cash upfront to withhold their merchandise. The distribution will then be done divisively when the season is halfway through, guaranteeing another famine up to the next season, and a chance for them to bring their own food as donations yet again and another round of good press for humanitarian philanthropy.
And should anyone cry out against this injustice to the spirit of self-reliance, he/she will be vilified as an unrepentant rubble-rouser, an ungrateful reprobate whose utterances are calculated to spread alarm and despondency, and worse still, an enemy of the ‘international community’. Spare a thought for the unfortunate peasants when you read stories of their plight even after a good season. They are unfortunate pawns in the political game, better used as shock absorbers to political egos.
When an international fanatic like Steve Cory of Survival International mobilizes the world to abandon Botswana diamonds for undermining Basarwa rights and culture, read between the lines. As former President Festus Mogae said, ”A life of poverty is no-one’s culture”, alarm bells should start ringing.
Telescopic philanthropy being broadcast from the towers of New York seems like an Orwellian Big Brother shenanigan, and Basarwa have their savior-cum-economy destroyer taking care of things. All the praise the country enjoyed for its adherence to democracy and good governance for decades has been forgotten.
Economic murder is in overdrive, and all the previous good no longer counts. Overtures are being surreptously made to cut the civil service through gloomy World Bank outlook reports, creating panic in the entire economy. Overnight, a role model has metamorphosised into a villain and has to devise new and quick methods to reclaim their position in the world.
And the agitator is miles away, directing his devious play by remote control, playing Russian roulette with a nation’s livelihood through a media conspiracy.
Spare a thought for Botswana as it enters the world of deception, sanctions and poverty. And feel pity for the leadership as they battle a war they have no ammunition for, nor have they the rules.
When unions get militant over mundane issues like invigilation of student examinations, and cause confusion in the actual running of tests, read along the lines. Another great country up north started its path to regression in the same way. Strikes, stay-aways and confrontation bring confusion to any country, and when leadership has to deal with these irritations on a daily basis, brace yourselves for the collapse of the state.
No amount of propaganda will sway the public. When all that you held dear for decades start crumbling, spare a thought for the country. Police officers have become the biggest robbers of all time.
I challenge this publication to run an opinion poll encouraging people who drive cars to open up on how many times they have paid bribes to traffic cops and the amounts involved, anonymously of course. You will be shocked how rotten our system has become.
Spare a thought again for foreign nationals from a certain country who endure the trauma of being reminded of their origins every day in the media and kgotlas. Get into their shoes and imagine what drove them away from their motherland.
Empathize with them when you continuously read negative stuff about their country and realize that all the problems are political, and those poor souls have no part to play in its resolution. The spirit of Africaness needs to be revived, and not segregation of our own brothers at the expense of certain races or colours from afar.
Imagine what would happen if we dedicate a week to writing and broadcasting positive content from our continent. A negative item ignored by the press is deemed to having never happened, and all we need is encouragement.
Spreading malicious falsehoods and trading accusations has been the press’s existential lifeline, and we have to change that mentality. Spare a thought for Mo Ibrahim and ponder were he makes his money, and compare the news items you read from that country.
Would you believe there are people existing there if you believe what you read? Spare a thought for sunshine journalism and judge its merit. Spare a thought for South Africa and what they did at the World Cup, against what was reported in the Western Press. Spare a thought on the merits of saluting our abilities instead of trumpeting our shortcomings.
Spare a thought for Americans who killed their own economy and have no-one to blame. Spare a thought and watch them attend to their problems while we sing about ours.
Spare a thought and watch our stupidity as we look up to America to save us while it is slowly sinking under the burden of its collapsed system. Spare a thought and watch your fellow African sniggering at a fellow African because he is Zimbabwean. Spare a thought and imagine the love of God vis-à-vis yours to a fellow human being.
Spare a thought when you read the Bible and realize that when Sarah gave Hannah to Abraham as a wife, her idea was to prove that maybe it was Abraham who was impotent. If not, then why did she banish her into the wilderness when she finally got her own child? Beware when Sarah hands you to Abraham. Rather be an end to a means than a means to an end.
Let’s reclaim our greatness once again and prove the power of unity.
