The country lies in ruins, its citizens are dying from the cholera outbreak and hunger at an alarming rate. To say the situation is pathetic would be an understatement because it is more than that. It was with this situation in mind that I started analysing why the GNU leaders allowed the country to deteriorate to this alarming level without taking any action to stop the sorrowful state. The fact that the GNU leaders were concentrating on brokering an equitable power sharing deal and ignoring the dying ordinary people shows that they value power more than the lives and well-being of the people they want to lead. They should not use the fact that they haven't reached an agreement on equitable power-sharing as an excuse to ignore the plight of the people they want to lead. As aspiring leaders of this country, Zimbabweans expected them to run around looking for maize meal to feed the nation as well as medicine to fight and eliminate the cholera outbreak. It all boils down to their leadership qualities, that is if we can at all call the way they are carrying on leadership.
Mugabe is the type of leader that practises the blaming game. He always has someone to blame for everything that is known, believed, or perceived to have gone wrong, and thinks that by so doing he invariably distracts attention away from his shortcomings. It doesn't because people always question why he as a leader failed to see what was being done wrong and then stop it before it had caused any damage. This need for someone to blame always encapsulates an overwhelming lack of organisational and managerial integrity and is always recognised as such by most people. When he was in power this cholera was planted into our lives by the problem of water supply cuts which went on unaddressed for years and the hunger is partly because of the misuse of donated farming implements like seeds, fertilisers, diesel and tractors by the new farmers which went on unpunished for years. When the damage caused by all that had become prominent in the form of cholera & hunger he turned around and blamed it all on the imposed sanctions. He keeps on blaming sanctions for everthing and when he does that people look back to what caused the sanctions in the first place. It was because of his unfair and undemocratic practices during election times. What he doesn't know is that if you are a leader the only person to blame when things go wrong is yourself because you will be in charge of ensuring that nothing goes wrong. So the minute you open your mouth to blame someone you will actually be saying, "I am a bad leader."
Tsvangirai on the other hand is the type of leader that practises the "White Knight" method of leadership in which he allows problems to happen and then ostentatiously tries to solve them. This attracts attention to himself whereas he thinks that making sure the problems do not arise in the first place is likely to go unnoticed. He let the hunger and cholera reach unprecedented levels first before trying to seek help to eliminate these two scourges in the country. He is the man who campaigned for sanctions against Zimbabwe to the Western countries when he lost elections five years ago. A move that he thought would speed his ascension into power but is now backfiring on him because it is now causing cholera and hunger to the people he wants to lead. Because of sanctions the country is failing to get enough foreign currency to buy chemicals to clean the recycled water used in all towns as well as to supply electricity to the water pumps all the time, which explains the water supply cuts and the resulting cholera outbreak. Because of sanctions people are dying of hunger yet had there been no sanctions some Western countries who use maize meal (which happens to be Zimbabwe's staple food) as fodder for their cattle would have been willing to donate the maize meal to Zimbabwe. We all remember Tsvangirai five years ago when he unfairly lost elections saying, "Zimbabweans you think you are suffering now, well, you are not because you are going to suffer even more than you are doing now." That wasn't a prophetic statement, he was talking about the results he expected to get from sanctions he had asked Western countries to impose on Zimbabwe. He denies this but it is the truth. He probably thinks everyone else has got a short memory like his but some of us have got very sharp memories. Here is a man who is intent on using the suffering of the people as a leverage to get himself the Presidency post by blaming it all on the ruling party and not being honest with his part in it which is using the people he wants to lead as sanctions sacrificial lambs.
I have no idea what Mutambara is all about so I can't comment on his leadership qualities or lack of them all I know is that if he had some I would know about them. He just seems like a leader without "portfolio" to me, serving no particular purpose but to increase the numbers.
So honestly speaking with such a calibre of leaders trying to rule the country it is no wonder that nothing is coming out of the GNU equitable power sharing deal.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Peace, love & happiness unto the whole world is what I am expecting Obama to deliver.
As the title of this blog spells out, I long to see a world where there is peace, love & happiness engulfing everyone. When Obama won the election it made me realise that he just might be the man who will help me realise my vision for peace, love & happiness unto the whole world. Barack Obama will become the most powerful man in the world when he becomes president, and it's not just the US which is waiting to see what happens, ordinary people like me who are advocates of global peace are waiting eagerly to see if he will unite the world into one global peaceful village where love & happiness abounds.
Of course his first responsibility is ensuring that the American people who voted him into power are happy. So his first priority will not be international politics, it will be solving the economic depression & its domino effects. Then next probably will be restoring trust in the American government into the hearts of the American people by repairing the damage that the Bush administration did in that regard for the past 8 years. Next will probably be bringing the American people back to a sense of hope & safety that was lost after the September 11 attacks. Americans will be happy if in attacking the economic depression he lays out a template for the next fifty years during his four years in power like what FDR did when he was in power. FDR laid down the template of the modern social welfare state during the great depression of his time. His actions didn't immediately create prosperity, far from it but they expanded opportunities for millions of people, stripped the old elites of their absolute power, and gave Americans their first economic safety net in Social Security. Only after making the American people happy will he be able to look into the business of repairing America's image to the rest of the world. He could start by dealing with Islamic extremism in a good & effective way, shifting away from fossil fuels & attacking global warming with clear, vigorous policies. For many people accomplishing those things will be providing the change that he campaigned about but for us peace advocates it won't be good enough because it won't change the world to be a haven of peace, love & happiness. If he does nothing more, the world at large will not change, the underlying problems in the world like militarism & religious fractures will remain & fester into hinderances to world peace.
What would result in peace, love & happiness unto the whole world is if he implements the following:
1. Get the rest of the world not to fear & hate USA but to love & admire it, by getting rid of America's patronising attitude towards all the other nations in the world. That way he would have eliminated the chances & fears of a repeat of something like the September 11 attacks.
2. Stop dividing the world along ideological lines & religious factions. He needs to be a secular leader, friendly to all sides.
3. Speed up nuclear disarmament until all weapons stockpiles are gone in this generation.
4. Develop an economy that makes profit from peace instead of depending on arms & arms dealing like it is doing now.
5. Take the side of the world's dispossessed people, who only now are seeing the possibility of a decent life in India, China, southeast Asia, and much of Russia.
6. Help Africa obtain humane conditions through sustainable development & eradication of poverty & instill democratic principles into the minds of all African leaders. He also needs to help Africa bridge the digital divide.
7. Stop exploiting other nations' resources like oil, gold & diamonds whilst hiding under disarmament or peace keeping missions.
8. Stop considering himself like the President of the whole world like what other American presidents before him did because most nations will hate him if he does that. True by virtue of him being the President of the most powerful nation he is the most powerful man in the world but for global peace's sake he needs to set a precedent & humble himself & rule the world with love.
9. Restore ethics & integrity into the financial bodies like IMF & World Bank so that they don't employ economic hitman to exploit & destabilise other nations' economies.
10. Facilitate for peace in all the warring nations around the globe.
I hope Obama is thinking along these lines, because if he isn't, the best he can hope for is a prosperous interval in USA, like the Bill Clinton years, while there won't be any change to the rest of the world. Obama has got an opportunity to heal the world & I am praying that he grabs it & uses it effectively, I would if I had that much power bestowed on me.
Of course his first responsibility is ensuring that the American people who voted him into power are happy. So his first priority will not be international politics, it will be solving the economic depression & its domino effects. Then next probably will be restoring trust in the American government into the hearts of the American people by repairing the damage that the Bush administration did in that regard for the past 8 years. Next will probably be bringing the American people back to a sense of hope & safety that was lost after the September 11 attacks. Americans will be happy if in attacking the economic depression he lays out a template for the next fifty years during his four years in power like what FDR did when he was in power. FDR laid down the template of the modern social welfare state during the great depression of his time. His actions didn't immediately create prosperity, far from it but they expanded opportunities for millions of people, stripped the old elites of their absolute power, and gave Americans their first economic safety net in Social Security. Only after making the American people happy will he be able to look into the business of repairing America's image to the rest of the world. He could start by dealing with Islamic extremism in a good & effective way, shifting away from fossil fuels & attacking global warming with clear, vigorous policies. For many people accomplishing those things will be providing the change that he campaigned about but for us peace advocates it won't be good enough because it won't change the world to be a haven of peace, love & happiness. If he does nothing more, the world at large will not change, the underlying problems in the world like militarism & religious fractures will remain & fester into hinderances to world peace.
What would result in peace, love & happiness unto the whole world is if he implements the following:
1. Get the rest of the world not to fear & hate USA but to love & admire it, by getting rid of America's patronising attitude towards all the other nations in the world. That way he would have eliminated the chances & fears of a repeat of something like the September 11 attacks.
2. Stop dividing the world along ideological lines & religious factions. He needs to be a secular leader, friendly to all sides.
3. Speed up nuclear disarmament until all weapons stockpiles are gone in this generation.
4. Develop an economy that makes profit from peace instead of depending on arms & arms dealing like it is doing now.
5. Take the side of the world's dispossessed people, who only now are seeing the possibility of a decent life in India, China, southeast Asia, and much of Russia.
6. Help Africa obtain humane conditions through sustainable development & eradication of poverty & instill democratic principles into the minds of all African leaders. He also needs to help Africa bridge the digital divide.
7. Stop exploiting other nations' resources like oil, gold & diamonds whilst hiding under disarmament or peace keeping missions.
8. Stop considering himself like the President of the whole world like what other American presidents before him did because most nations will hate him if he does that. True by virtue of him being the President of the most powerful nation he is the most powerful man in the world but for global peace's sake he needs to set a precedent & humble himself & rule the world with love.
9. Restore ethics & integrity into the financial bodies like IMF & World Bank so that they don't employ economic hitman to exploit & destabilise other nations' economies.
10. Facilitate for peace in all the warring nations around the globe.
I hope Obama is thinking along these lines, because if he isn't, the best he can hope for is a prosperous interval in USA, like the Bill Clinton years, while there won't be any change to the rest of the world. Obama has got an opportunity to heal the world & I am praying that he grabs it & uses it effectively, I would if I had that much power bestowed on me.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Mugabe, not everything in Zimbabwe is about you
It was with profound sorrow that I learnt that the ex-minister of foreign affairs who is acting that post at present, Mumbengegwi, had snubbed the humanitarian elders, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter & Graca Machel who wanted to visit the country to assess the hunger, poverty & cholera pandemic so that they recommend the right humanitarian aid needed in Zimbabwe to some donor agencies. There is no way that Mumbengegwi could have snubbed these humanitarian elders without Mugabe's orders. Instead of welcoming the humanitarians with open arms since they were going to open doors of help for what he calls his people, he as usual thought their visit was about him and his governance. Could somebody please tell Mugabe that not everything that happens in Zimbabwe is about him. The man has become so paranoid that we are afraid that the paranoia coupled with senility might be bordering on insanity. These humanitarian elders represented hope for a troubled, hungry, sick & dying people, & to snub them or deny them entrance into the country is to deny the Zimbabwean people the much needed help that was going to make them survive the terrible & pathetic situation they are in. I personally think that by barring those humanitarian elders Mugabe has completely divorced himself from the needs of the Zimbabwean people & in the process officially lost the right to call Zimbabweans, "my people." Surely if we were his people he wouldn't be so indifferent to the hunger & cholera pandemic taking the lives of quite a number of Zimbabweans every single day. My heart bleeds for my fellow Zimbabweans who are dying from hunger & cholera & I get angry knowing that someone is barring humanitarians from coming in to help. It seems that, that someone has completely lost his conscience. How he can actually sleep peacefully at night without being haunted by such a decision that reeks of death from hunger & cholera for many Zimbabweans really shows how inhuman he has become. All Zimbabweans are not amused by his decision & are praying to God to make him see reason.
To my fellow Zimbabweans I say to you don't make this show of indifference by Mugabe & his former ministers make you loose hope, don't drown in despair. Maybe these words that Vuyisile Zenani, a South african friend of mine, living in Cape Town, who is an environmentalist & a theologian said to me to strengthen me as I go through life in a Zimbabwe that has collapsed will also strengthen you. He said that we Zimbabweans are like dough that God has put in the oven to bake. We can feel the extreme heat in the oven & are emitting an aroma that is screaming to God that we are done & he should get us out of the oven. But God will not be rushed, he is baking us for a reason & he alone knows the time stipulated in his recipe which is when he will get us out of the oven. When we have turned out into the perfect bread that he wants us to be he is going to get us out of the oven & we will have turned out to be the benchmark bread that everyone prefers to any other brand. So my fellow Zimbabweans somehow just hang in there in the extreme heat & know that when you are done you are going to be so full of substance that within a year you would have become the bread of choice globally.
To my fellow Zimbabweans I say to you don't make this show of indifference by Mugabe & his former ministers make you loose hope, don't drown in despair. Maybe these words that Vuyisile Zenani, a South african friend of mine, living in Cape Town, who is an environmentalist & a theologian said to me to strengthen me as I go through life in a Zimbabwe that has collapsed will also strengthen you. He said that we Zimbabweans are like dough that God has put in the oven to bake. We can feel the extreme heat in the oven & are emitting an aroma that is screaming to God that we are done & he should get us out of the oven. But God will not be rushed, he is baking us for a reason & he alone knows the time stipulated in his recipe which is when he will get us out of the oven. When we have turned out into the perfect bread that he wants us to be he is going to get us out of the oven & we will have turned out to be the benchmark bread that everyone prefers to any other brand. So my fellow Zimbabweans somehow just hang in there in the extreme heat & know that when you are done you are going to be so full of substance that within a year you would have become the bread of choice globally.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Weekend loneliness
Those are the lonely footprints I am making as I trudge through life alone in a world full of people. Loneliness knows me by name now and we actually call each other by our first names and have even given each other nicknames. We have become so close that we now accept each other and have learnt to co-exist with each other. When all my friends are busy doing their own thing with their partners and have no time for a single third party like me loneliness pitches up to keep me company. He just sits there watching me and doesn't say a single thing and then I feel his presence engulfing me and when that happens I have learnt over the years to welcome him (the loneliness) and put him to good use. I find a quiet place and start meditating about my life and God or I take a solitary walk in the park or in a safe bush or forest and listen to the birds singing while I admire nature.
Sometimes I tune into my passion for writing and start writing my thoughts on my laptop like I am doing right now. When loneliness visits me when I am very angry or when I am very happy about something it causes my artistic talent for prose and rhymes to come out and I start writing poetry.
This weekend like most weekends lately,loneliness visited me soon after I had woken up and today I chose to clean my room and bathroom, mop the kitchen floor, work on finishing my blog article entitled, "The Pursuit of happiness (Part 2) which I had started five days ago, while he (loneliness) just sat there looking at me. After doing a thorough cleaning of my apartment I then took a long luxurious bath listening to soft music, with a good book and a glass of whisky (the remains of the good old days in Zimbabwe when we could afford to buy whisky) on the bath tub side to keep me company as I soaked in the relaxing foam bath and bath salts.(this year's birthday presents from my friend Chipo) My unwanted friend Loneliness flew out of the window as soon as I got into the bathroom. Am still trying to figure out if the reason for his (Loneliness's) uncivil flight out of the window is because he is afraid to see me naked or he hates to see me enjoying myself alone. Wish i could stay in the bath forever but the water got cold and my skin was beginning to look over- moisturised so I had no option but to get out of the bath tub and start drying myself and then oil my skin and dress myself. As soon as I had finished all that loneliness came back and I frowned at him, you know the frown that says, "Why have you come back, I don't want your company." Dear readers that man Loneliness is sturborn and quite a dictator, he knows very well that I don't want him ruling my world but he stays put whether I like it or not, by ginya. I am sure he is related to Mugabe somehow, they seem to share the sturborn and by ginya hereditary gene. Anyway I decided to ignore him as I write on this blog right now and guess what, when he saw me smiling as I wrote about him he started sulking and couldn't stand the sight of me any minute longer, so he left, this time he made a civil exit and left through the door. I feel liberated and happy now that he has left me alone.
I guess I have to continue blogging about him so that he doesn't come back to keep me company.
I know I'm lonely when I check my e-mail, click on another site, and then check my box again to see if mail came in. Maybe I missed something. Sometimes I dial the voicemail on my cell phone to check for messages, even though the very colorful and accurate display screen reads "no new messages." Maybe the screen messed up. When I get home from work, my first question to the maid is, "Any calls for me while I was at the office". Trying to find out if anyone out there tried to relate to me, knowing someone did try eases the loneliness. I try to avoid these lonely moments as much as possible. But perhaps loneliness serves an important purpose. Adam felt incomplete before Eve, but it allowed him to recognize that God had more for him.
I know too many singles who pretend they aren't lonely and pretend they don't care about having a partner. At times, I fight the same temptation. It's easier to deny the angst of being without a soulmate than to step into the abyss of loneliness. Stifling a desire makes us feel in control; acknowledging a desire makes us vulnerable. Yet a desire that isn't open can't be filled. Adam's experience reminds singles that loneliness is normal and necessary. This is affirming to me, because often I grow weary of the single life. I want to throw in the towel because everything seems out of place in my life. I took a wrong turn somewhere. I need a new job. I need to change churches. I need new hobbies. I need new friends. I need to move to a new country. Yet when I calm down and take a good look at my life, I realize I actually don't like my job and but I like my church. I enjoy my reading hobby. I value my friends. I love where I live though I would prefer a bigger house with a garden. I'm just out of sorts because I feel unconnected. But it's okay; I should. Adam had the same feeling until God gave him Eve. We're made for so much more. Loneliness is the wailing siren that doesn't let me forget.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The person you are is a result of the questions you ask as you go through life.
Fairy tales like Snowwhite & the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast etc, where the first books that most of us read when we first learnt to read and understand what we had read. I remember bombarding my parents with a lot of questions when I first read Cinderella. There was something about that fairy tale that my small brain was trying to figure out.
Everybody knows Cinderella wanted to go to the ball, she made that quite clear. Everybody assumed she wanted the prince, but wanting a ball is not wanting a Prince. To think about a Cinderella who makes her wants and needs known beyond the intoxication of romance and magic is to wonder why no one ever bothered to ask her even if the glass slipper fit if she wanted to wear it. So I would ask my parents why no one was asking Cinderella what she wanted. Why was Cinderella not standing up against her evil stepmother and step sisters.? Why was the fairy Godmother no matter how well-meaning not asking Cinderella if she wanted to wear the glass slipper and if she wanted the Prince? Why was that at the ball the Prince did not ask Cinderella who she is and where she lives and then ask her out for a date? Then I would also wonder if Cinderella ever asked herself what she wanted besides going to the ball. Did she know what she wanted? If she knew what she wanted why didn't she save herself from the pathetic situation she was in instead of waiting helpless for the fairy Godmother and the Prince to save her without asking her what she wanted.
It was through these questions that I made up my mind that in my life I will be the only person who will figure out and say what the Cinderella in me wants and make sure I get what I want for myself in life. I somehow got the idea that if I don't do that I will remain bound in Cinderella rags or trip around in her silly glass slippers.
Through those questions I asked about Cinderella during my formative childhood years I became the person I am, who always asks herself what she wants and goes out to get it. I make sure that I write my own original life script and don't allow anyone (stepmothers or step sisters) to treat me like a doormat and hinder me from getting what I want. I don't allow any fairy Godmother to write my life script for me or any Prince to impose himself into my life just because I have danced with him at a ball. The Prince has not only to tell me that he loves me, he has to prove to me over and over again with actions that he does love me and ask me if I love him back. The Cinderella in me knows what she wants and will not let fairy Godmothers or a Prince (unless there is mutual love that has been spelt out and proven between the Prince and me) to dictate the path that her life takes, she dictates the path herself.
What questions do you ask as you go through life? It is those questions that shape you into the person you eventually become.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The pursuit of happiness (Part 2)
For those of you who follow my blog if you remember well this blog started with the article, "The pursuit of happiness" in which I thought my pursuit for happiness had finally ended.
For those of you who don't remember, this is the article I am talking about.
I have always believed that when God created human beings he made sure that each and every male will fit in perfectly with just one female and it is up to the male and female to find each other. In our lifetime we spend a lot of time searching for that special someone in our pursuit for happiness and if we are lucky we find him/her in the very first relationship that we embark on but in most cases we realise when we are already married that he/she is not that special someone meant for us. In which case we either stick to them out of mere concern for the kids or fear of the uprooting nature of divorce or we get the courage to break-up and start searching again. I also believe that when you find that special someone you experience pure bliss and you will know it deep in your heart and mind that he/she is the one, two hearts become one, two minds become one, two souls become one and two bodies become one. In other words the two of you will be compatible in all the real important issues of life so much that it seems like you are one person. And when you find that special someone you would have succeeded in your pursuit for happiness because you will be overwhelmed with love, peace and happiness. Many search for that special someone and die without finding him/her. For so many years I have been leading a very lonely life, waiting for my soulmate to find me and then realise that we are meant for each other. On the 26th of January 2007 my soulmate and I found each other and the intense love, profound joy & inner peace that is within me makes me speechless. My pursuit for happiness has successfully ended.
Well actually I was wrong, my pursuit for happiness continues. Sometimes life never turns out the way one wants it to as you learn that sometimes things are never what they seem.
"I'm done with you."
I thought I would never say that phrase, at least not to him but somewhere along the way I did. I won't go into detail as to what led me to say it, let me just say it was a culmination of events which built up and festered in my heart until I burst it out. Am still trying to figure out why true love is proving to be so elusive to me when love happens to be the thing I value most in life. So far I have come up with one theory which I think is the main reason why I am still single. Here is the theory.
I love myself so much and no one has ever loved me the way I want to be loved, which is as much as I love myself. My expectations of love always exceed the reality, in part because my expectations are both unconscious and ill-defined. I expect a person who loves me to measure up to my expectations of love which happen to be so great. I now wonder if to expect all those shows of love is to expect perfection from another, which is as disappointing and unrealistic as expecting perfection from myself. Perhaps the only person who loves me as I truly want to be loved is myself, if love is total affirmation and full acceptance of myself, warts and all, who better can I ask for such love than myself.
But then I need a man in my life to love me, comfort me, nurture me, support me, take care of my sexuality and be there for me when everyone else can't be there for me. Someone to confide in, someone on whose shoulders I can cry on when life gives me a heavy blow as it sometimes does, someone to walk with me through life's highway and hold my hand to stop me from stumbling and falling on rocky paths. Someone I can lean on and grow old with. My heart happens to be overflowing with love which is waiting to be unleashed to the right man for me so I don't only expect to receive love I am capable of giving the love I expect in its full measure.
I came to the conclusion that I will never find someone who loves me like I love myself because the only person who can do that is me and there is only one me in the whole wide world. So I have decided to relax my strict expectations from a man who falls in love with me. Maybe if I do that true love will prove not to be as elusive as it has been thus far in my life.
These are my new expectations from the man who loves me and whom I will pour my love on.
The man I choose is supposed to reflect the person I am so he should mirror my soul, should be like me, very loving and a hopeless romantic, huggy, philosophical, talkative and respectful of others and their views on life but most of all principled. Reality to me is more than what is visible to me, it is deeper than what I feel and see. That means, then, that a man is more than the sum of what I see and hear. In a sentence, I am an idealist. I look for the best in others; I am accepting of their shortcomings. (after all, I have some too, who doesn't have.)
The man should feel confident and comfortable with himself and not feel that he must prove himself to me. I want a man who is content and proud of who he is and always carries his head held high. I need a man who believes in love, peace, happiness and whose reality is neither confined to the material world nor influenced by fashionable trends. In the final analysis, we all come face to face with questions of our individual and corporate destiny. What shall become of us - individually and together, temporarily and spiritually - would depend on the choices we make in this life. As much as I would have no desire to hold the man to unrealistic standards of infallibility, I wish to be seen as an ordinary woman with flaws. The important thing to me is that we helpfully stick together always, and rise above the worst of experiences, despite ourselves. Does the above paint the picture of a soulless, serious, introverted woman? Far from it, I allow the ‘child’ in me to run free. I believe that life must be enjoyed to the hilt, albeit with responsibility and purpose.
Thanks to the amazing leverage of communication technologies, I have the whole world to choose from, can communicate with anyone anywhere in the world and communication is the cornerstone of all successful relationships.
If these new expectations don't lead me to the altar, then nothing will.
In the future look out on this blog for part three of the pursuit for happiness and find out what becomes of me.
For those of you who don't remember, this is the article I am talking about.
I have always believed that when God created human beings he made sure that each and every male will fit in perfectly with just one female and it is up to the male and female to find each other. In our lifetime we spend a lot of time searching for that special someone in our pursuit for happiness and if we are lucky we find him/her in the very first relationship that we embark on but in most cases we realise when we are already married that he/she is not that special someone meant for us. In which case we either stick to them out of mere concern for the kids or fear of the uprooting nature of divorce or we get the courage to break-up and start searching again. I also believe that when you find that special someone you experience pure bliss and you will know it deep in your heart and mind that he/she is the one, two hearts become one, two minds become one, two souls become one and two bodies become one. In other words the two of you will be compatible in all the real important issues of life so much that it seems like you are one person. And when you find that special someone you would have succeeded in your pursuit for happiness because you will be overwhelmed with love, peace and happiness. Many search for that special someone and die without finding him/her. For so many years I have been leading a very lonely life, waiting for my soulmate to find me and then realise that we are meant for each other. On the 26th of January 2007 my soulmate and I found each other and the intense love, profound joy & inner peace that is within me makes me speechless. My pursuit for happiness has successfully ended.
Well actually I was wrong, my pursuit for happiness continues. Sometimes life never turns out the way one wants it to as you learn that sometimes things are never what they seem.
"I'm done with you."
I thought I would never say that phrase, at least not to him but somewhere along the way I did. I won't go into detail as to what led me to say it, let me just say it was a culmination of events which built up and festered in my heart until I burst it out. Am still trying to figure out why true love is proving to be so elusive to me when love happens to be the thing I value most in life. So far I have come up with one theory which I think is the main reason why I am still single. Here is the theory.
I love myself so much and no one has ever loved me the way I want to be loved, which is as much as I love myself. My expectations of love always exceed the reality, in part because my expectations are both unconscious and ill-defined. I expect a person who loves me to measure up to my expectations of love which happen to be so great. I now wonder if to expect all those shows of love is to expect perfection from another, which is as disappointing and unrealistic as expecting perfection from myself. Perhaps the only person who loves me as I truly want to be loved is myself, if love is total affirmation and full acceptance of myself, warts and all, who better can I ask for such love than myself.
But then I need a man in my life to love me, comfort me, nurture me, support me, take care of my sexuality and be there for me when everyone else can't be there for me. Someone to confide in, someone on whose shoulders I can cry on when life gives me a heavy blow as it sometimes does, someone to walk with me through life's highway and hold my hand to stop me from stumbling and falling on rocky paths. Someone I can lean on and grow old with. My heart happens to be overflowing with love which is waiting to be unleashed to the right man for me so I don't only expect to receive love I am capable of giving the love I expect in its full measure.
I came to the conclusion that I will never find someone who loves me like I love myself because the only person who can do that is me and there is only one me in the whole wide world. So I have decided to relax my strict expectations from a man who falls in love with me. Maybe if I do that true love will prove not to be as elusive as it has been thus far in my life.
These are my new expectations from the man who loves me and whom I will pour my love on.
The man I choose is supposed to reflect the person I am so he should mirror my soul, should be like me, very loving and a hopeless romantic, huggy, philosophical, talkative and respectful of others and their views on life but most of all principled. Reality to me is more than what is visible to me, it is deeper than what I feel and see. That means, then, that a man is more than the sum of what I see and hear. In a sentence, I am an idealist. I look for the best in others; I am accepting of their shortcomings. (after all, I have some too, who doesn't have.)
The man should feel confident and comfortable with himself and not feel that he must prove himself to me. I want a man who is content and proud of who he is and always carries his head held high. I need a man who believes in love, peace, happiness and whose reality is neither confined to the material world nor influenced by fashionable trends. In the final analysis, we all come face to face with questions of our individual and corporate destiny. What shall become of us - individually and together, temporarily and spiritually - would depend on the choices we make in this life. As much as I would have no desire to hold the man to unrealistic standards of infallibility, I wish to be seen as an ordinary woman with flaws. The important thing to me is that we helpfully stick together always, and rise above the worst of experiences, despite ourselves. Does the above paint the picture of a soulless, serious, introverted woman? Far from it, I allow the ‘child’ in me to run free. I believe that life must be enjoyed to the hilt, albeit with responsibility and purpose.
Thanks to the amazing leverage of communication technologies, I have the whole world to choose from, can communicate with anyone anywhere in the world and communication is the cornerstone of all successful relationships.
If these new expectations don't lead me to the altar, then nothing will.
In the future look out on this blog for part three of the pursuit for happiness and find out what becomes of me.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Zimbabweans can no longer sit still and enjoy life
I was sitting at my balcony this afternoon, feeling the breeze that signals the coming of rain cool me up and seeping my boiled then refrigerated water and suddenly I felt anxious, I was actually doing nothing. I felt uneasy, how could I be doing nothing when maize-meal,rice, flour, sugar, cooking oil, soap and toothpaste was about to get finished in my pantry? If I sit and do nothing where am I going to get the US dollars or Rands or enough Zim dollars to buy all those things? Ok there are billions of dollars in my bank account that I could use to buy all those things but because of the RBZ stipulated very low bank withdrawal limits I can only withdraw $500 000,00 per day which is not enough to buy a loaf of bread. All this went through my head and made me feel uneasy about sitting still and enjoying my weekend. So I quickly stood up and went into town to buy airtime for cellphone users using my visa card. I could then send my maid to stand in the streets and re-sell the airtime at very low prices so as to get enough Zim dollar cash and afford the abnormally expensive prices in the shops. Alternatively I could use the cash I get from the airtime sales to buy foreign currency from those who have diaspora relatives and friends that send them US dollars or Rands and then use the foreign currency to buy the things I need that are priced in US dollars or Rands. Getting customers to buy the airtime is not easy because that is what most people are now doing in order to survive so the competition in selling the airtime is very high. Same applies to buying foreign currency in the streets, a lot of people are now doing that, so the competition is also very high. In other words the chances of having many people buy the airtime and someone selling his/her foreign currency are very slim but I still venture into the business because it makes me feel good that at least I am trying to do something to address my economic plight in this country.
I am not the only Zimbabwean who can no longer sit still and enjoy life, some venture into even more daring money generating projects in trying to make ends meet. The line between legal and illegal and ethical and unethical ways of making money is becoming thinner and thinner as Zimbabweans try to survive in the country's runaway inflation. Most Zimbabwean adults are now always busy doing something to the extend that there is no longer time to relax, no time for leisure, no time to play, no time to meditate.
Let me get back to the scene at my balcony before I started feeling uneasy about doing nothing. Emma, my eight year old daughter was sitting opposite me, studying a little flower and singing quietly to herself as she had been doing for the past hour. The art of having fun doing nothing and playing is one lesson our children can teach us, to set our own pace, to do what we feel like doing, to truly appreciate the "little" (but really important) things in life. Time is their friend and they won't be rushed. On the other hand we adults always have guilt trips about things not being done or not being done perfectly. We can't sit still and just enjoy the moment. We can't slip into our own minds for half an hour and concentrate on something as beautiful as a flower. By no means am I telling adults to do nothing all day long, (for one thing, if I did that we wouldn't survive in this hyper-inflationary environment in Zimbabwe) but I do want adults to feel less guilty about making time for themselves and sometimes even taking a day or a weekend to really do what pleases them. Really getting down and dirty while playing with your kids is a wonderful way to pass the time and do nothing. Most of the time what adults call doing nothing, is anything but doing "nothing" it is recharging your batteries which everyone should do every single day. Not doing so can result in stress, headaches, high blood pressure and heart problems. Adults should remember that yes they have to provide for their children but for them to do that they need to be alive so they should take time away from their busyness to maintain their health.
So my fellow Zimbabweans when was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing - just sitting and admiring a flower, watching the wind blowing the tree branches, waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park.
Random thoughts to inspire and motivate
Aspire to be inspired so that you reach greatness
Acoomplisment, the old saying has it, is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Yet without the 1%, the voice telling us it might be done if only we would believe in it, the 99% would never happen. It is only when we are inspired that we attempt to turn what we thought was impossible to be possible. Once we begin the attempt, solutions occur to us as if out of the blue. Ideas crop up faster than spring flowers, some of them dying as fast as they grow, others bearing fruit and before we know it we have achieved what we thought was impossible and all thanks to inspiration.
Risk taking
Timidity or fear stops us from taking risks but what we don't know is that taking risks can allay our fear.
When I am confronted with a situation in which I am afraid to take a risk, I imagine myself as a ball of wool, all tangled, rolled tightly haphazardly on myself. If only I could untangle this wool, I could weave a whole new jersey. Yet how am I going to untangle the wool when I fear that pulling one strand will unravel the whole into a hopeless mess. The first small risk is straightening out a small length of the wool. The more risks I take, the more untangled wool I have got. By the time we get into the habit of taking risks we will have a lot of wool to work with and timidity and fear would have run out of the window.
Obstacles in our path
Scarcely had our heroine scaled the mountain when she discovered that she was not at the top at all. The mountain magically seemed to grow higher as she climbed. We have all had obstacles in our lives that seemed to grow just as we thought we might surmount them. And haven't we all persisted in climbing without map or compass, sure that the top is just a step ahead.
To continue to try to overcome our obstacles, whatever they are, through sheer willpower using the same method that seems not to be working is stupid. Yet our stubbornness often prevails, mocking any urge to sit still where we are and admit that this method is not working and then think of a different solution. Obstacles in our path are usually an indication that we need to change the route so when you meet obstacles it is smart to stop and plot an alternate route.
Acoomplisment, the old saying has it, is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Yet without the 1%, the voice telling us it might be done if only we would believe in it, the 99% would never happen. It is only when we are inspired that we attempt to turn what we thought was impossible to be possible. Once we begin the attempt, solutions occur to us as if out of the blue. Ideas crop up faster than spring flowers, some of them dying as fast as they grow, others bearing fruit and before we know it we have achieved what we thought was impossible and all thanks to inspiration.
Risk taking
Timidity or fear stops us from taking risks but what we don't know is that taking risks can allay our fear.
When I am confronted with a situation in which I am afraid to take a risk, I imagine myself as a ball of wool, all tangled, rolled tightly haphazardly on myself. If only I could untangle this wool, I could weave a whole new jersey. Yet how am I going to untangle the wool when I fear that pulling one strand will unravel the whole into a hopeless mess. The first small risk is straightening out a small length of the wool. The more risks I take, the more untangled wool I have got. By the time we get into the habit of taking risks we will have a lot of wool to work with and timidity and fear would have run out of the window.
Obstacles in our path
Scarcely had our heroine scaled the mountain when she discovered that she was not at the top at all. The mountain magically seemed to grow higher as she climbed. We have all had obstacles in our lives that seemed to grow just as we thought we might surmount them. And haven't we all persisted in climbing without map or compass, sure that the top is just a step ahead.
To continue to try to overcome our obstacles, whatever they are, through sheer willpower using the same method that seems not to be working is stupid. Yet our stubbornness often prevails, mocking any urge to sit still where we are and admit that this method is not working and then think of a different solution. Obstacles in our path are usually an indication that we need to change the route so when you meet obstacles it is smart to stop and plot an alternate route.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Zimbabweans starve as its leaders and most of the world looks on with indifference.
The rural folk in Zimbabwe are now relying on wild fruits which are quickly running out. Quite a number of them have died from hunger and starvation. If only Mugabe had not banned the NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) who were donating food to the poor the number of deaths would not be that much. The townsfolk have not been spared from this hunger and starvation mainly because of the low bank withdrawal limits set by the Reserve Bank Governor which make it immpossible for them to buy the highly priced food items as and when they need them. The other reason why the ordinary townsfolk are suffering from hunger is because the Reserve Bank Governor authorised businesses to sell their goods in US dollars and Rands yet 95% of employees in the nation are paid in Zimbabwean dollars. Where does he expect the ordinary people to get the foreign currency from?
The Zimbabwean leaders, Tsvangirai, Mutambara amd Mugabe, instead of looking for maize-meal donations from other nations in order to feed the hungry, instead of ordering the Reserve Bank Governor to stop implementing policies that increase the suffering of the people, they are just looking on with indifference. The fact that they still haven't agreed on cabinet power-sharing should not be an excuse for them to just sit on their laurels and not do anything for the suffering people. If this is the calibre of leaders that are going to lead us in this nation then we are all doomed. We need leaders who have a heart for the people they lead, leaders who know that they are there to serve the people they lead and what better time to serve them than in their most hour of need which is now when they are suffering from hunger.
Zimbabwe is not an island, it is surrounded by countries the world over that even in this depression have surplus supplies of food and could have easily donated those supplies to Zimbabwe if they wanted to but all they do is feign sympathy for the plight of the Zimbabweans, if they had genuine sympathy they would have done something to help by now. Yes Zimbabwe is not an island but most countries are treating us like an inaccessible island by their indifference. It is in times of crisis that you get to know who the real humanitarians are and we Zimbabweans have just discovered that very few countries care about us and how can we blame them when our very own leaders don't seem to care about us at all.
This indifference towards starving Zimbabweans reminds me of what Elie Wiesel who won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom as well as in 2007 the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award,said on the 12th of April, 1999 about the perils of indifference. He was talking about the indifference he experienced when as a Hungarian teenager he and his father, mother and sisters, were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz extermination camp in occupied Poland where they and many others were treated inhumanely as slaves while the whole world looked on with indifference. His situation is completely different from our situation here in Zimbabwe but what he said about the perils of indifference also rings true for our situation in Zimbabwe. I have qouted parts of his speech on the perils of indifference that apply to the indifference we are experiencing here in Zimbabwe as we suffer from hunger and have also added my own thoughts to it.
So much hunger, starvation and poverty, so much indifference. What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means "no difference." A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil. What are its courses and inescapable consequences? Is it a philosophy? Is there a philosophy of indifference conceivable? Can one possibly view indifference as a virtue? Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one's sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?
Of course, indifference can be tempting -- more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction.
In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry people, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own. Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.
In Zimbabwe, society is composed of three simple categories: the leaders bickering over cabinet power-sharing and indifferent to the plight of those dying from hunger and cholera, the wealthy who have more than enough and are buying food with their US dollars & Rands and are so indifferent & selfish that they don't give to the poor , and the poor languishing in poverty, hunger and cholera . During the darkest of times, these poor obviously feel abandoned and forgotten by society, they all do.
If only their miserable consolation was that they believed that their plight was a closely guarded secret; that the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on in Zimbabwe; that they had no knowledge of the economic war going on in the country with them being the targets where the bullets of that war are aimed at.
If the leaders of the free world knew, they thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction and not only speak out but acted swiftly to save them from the hunger and extreme poverty. What makes most of them die is because they give up the will to live because they would have lost all hope. They loose hope because they know, they learnt and discovered through the media that the leaders of the free world and all nations know about our plight but are doing nothing about it.
What about the children? Oh, all nations do see them on television, they read about them in the papers, and they do so with a broken heart. Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably. When adults wage war, children perish. All you nations who see their faces, their eyes. Do you hear their pleas? Do you feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of starvation, hunger, famine, thirst, cholera or lack of treatment and medication. Some of those children could be saved -- so many of them could be saved by you if you decide not to be indifferent.
Rooted in our Christian tradition, some of us felt that to be abandoned by humanity then was not the ultimate. We felt that to be abandoned by God was worse than to be punished by Him. Better an unjust God than an indifferent one. For us to be ignored by God was a harsher punishment than to be a victim of His anger. Man can live far from God -- not outside God. God is wherever we are. Even in suffering? Even in suffering. PLEASE GOD HEAR OUR PLEA AND MOVE THE WORLD TO STOP BEING INDIFFERENT TO OUR PLIGHT AND SAVE US.
The Zimbabwean leaders, Tsvangirai, Mutambara amd Mugabe, instead of looking for maize-meal donations from other nations in order to feed the hungry, instead of ordering the Reserve Bank Governor to stop implementing policies that increase the suffering of the people, they are just looking on with indifference. The fact that they still haven't agreed on cabinet power-sharing should not be an excuse for them to just sit on their laurels and not do anything for the suffering people. If this is the calibre of leaders that are going to lead us in this nation then we are all doomed. We need leaders who have a heart for the people they lead, leaders who know that they are there to serve the people they lead and what better time to serve them than in their most hour of need which is now when they are suffering from hunger.
Zimbabwe is not an island, it is surrounded by countries the world over that even in this depression have surplus supplies of food and could have easily donated those supplies to Zimbabwe if they wanted to but all they do is feign sympathy for the plight of the Zimbabweans, if they had genuine sympathy they would have done something to help by now. Yes Zimbabwe is not an island but most countries are treating us like an inaccessible island by their indifference. It is in times of crisis that you get to know who the real humanitarians are and we Zimbabweans have just discovered that very few countries care about us and how can we blame them when our very own leaders don't seem to care about us at all.
This indifference towards starving Zimbabweans reminds me of what Elie Wiesel who won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom as well as in 2007 the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award,said on the 12th of April, 1999 about the perils of indifference. He was talking about the indifference he experienced when as a Hungarian teenager he and his father, mother and sisters, were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz extermination camp in occupied Poland where they and many others were treated inhumanely as slaves while the whole world looked on with indifference. His situation is completely different from our situation here in Zimbabwe but what he said about the perils of indifference also rings true for our situation in Zimbabwe. I have qouted parts of his speech on the perils of indifference that apply to the indifference we are experiencing here in Zimbabwe as we suffer from hunger and have also added my own thoughts to it.
So much hunger, starvation and poverty, so much indifference. What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means "no difference." A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil. What are its courses and inescapable consequences? Is it a philosophy? Is there a philosophy of indifference conceivable? Can one possibly view indifference as a virtue? Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one's sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?
Of course, indifference can be tempting -- more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction.
In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry people, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own. Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.
In Zimbabwe, society is composed of three simple categories: the leaders bickering over cabinet power-sharing and indifferent to the plight of those dying from hunger and cholera, the wealthy who have more than enough and are buying food with their US dollars & Rands and are so indifferent & selfish that they don't give to the poor , and the poor languishing in poverty, hunger and cholera . During the darkest of times, these poor obviously feel abandoned and forgotten by society, they all do.
If only their miserable consolation was that they believed that their plight was a closely guarded secret; that the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on in Zimbabwe; that they had no knowledge of the economic war going on in the country with them being the targets where the bullets of that war are aimed at.
If the leaders of the free world knew, they thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction and not only speak out but acted swiftly to save them from the hunger and extreme poverty. What makes most of them die is because they give up the will to live because they would have lost all hope. They loose hope because they know, they learnt and discovered through the media that the leaders of the free world and all nations know about our plight but are doing nothing about it.
What about the children? Oh, all nations do see them on television, they read about them in the papers, and they do so with a broken heart. Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably. When adults wage war, children perish. All you nations who see their faces, their eyes. Do you hear their pleas? Do you feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of starvation, hunger, famine, thirst, cholera or lack of treatment and medication. Some of those children could be saved -- so many of them could be saved by you if you decide not to be indifferent.
Rooted in our Christian tradition, some of us felt that to be abandoned by humanity then was not the ultimate. We felt that to be abandoned by God was worse than to be punished by Him. Better an unjust God than an indifferent one. For us to be ignored by God was a harsher punishment than to be a victim of His anger. Man can live far from God -- not outside God. God is wherever we are. Even in suffering? Even in suffering. PLEASE GOD HEAR OUR PLEA AND MOVE THE WORLD TO STOP BEING INDIFFERENT TO OUR PLIGHT AND SAVE US.
Obama’s win should cause Africa to stop and ponder
Right here in Africa we have our own Obamas, men and women who if you hear or read their thoughts you feel inspired to change all the wrongs in your nation. Such men and women if given the chance to realize their vision of Africa could change Africa to be a nation to reckon with. All that Africa needs to do is discover such charismatic leaders and groom them to takeover leadership democratically at a later stage. But then Africa, being Africa instead of supporting such people so that they can bloom to their full potential feel threatened by them and so frustrate them or spread lies that undermine them. Usually the end result is such men of potential deciding to immigrate to other countries were their intelligence can be appreciated. This explains the brain-drain Africa experiences, year after year.
One such inspirational and charismatic leader whom we can compare to Obama is Jeremiah Kure; he is a professional working in the corporate governance arena, based in Johannesburg. He is the founder of the Heights We Must Climb movement and a firm believer in a progressive Africa; an Africa not tied to her stereotyped past but one that is steadily reclaiming her dignity and potential in the global space. He is 33 years old. It is mainly Jeremiah Kure’s thoughts and those of a few other African thought leaders that are written below. I just thought I should share them with you readers who read my blog and show you that yes we have our own Obamas in Africa.
a) As we celebrate Obama’s win let us Africans mourn our struggling democracies and our numerous flawed elections as well as the floundering attempts to overcome the tradition of mediocrity, self-loathing and lack of leadership on the African continent. Africa should cut ties with its bond to apathy and mediocrity. We should shake free the hangover of inferiority. All over Africa the promise of change is often preached but has never been fully consummated the way it has been in this year’s US election, in Africa the promise of change is really and truly under threat up to the present moment. The irony of it is that those who threaten the promise of change in Africa are the very ones who fought for liberation. It is a sad pattern and one not worth repeating. We have seen it all time and again, in Zimbabwe, Kenya, DRC, Eritrea, Angola, Gabon and many other African nations, where the elixir of democracy remains elusive and where both its quest and suppression have caused untold suffering, claiming hundreds of lives every day.
b) Far too many Africans see Obama as the savior of Africa. This in my opinion might not happen because to turn the American economy around is going to take an enormous effort and if I read the signs on the various stock markets correctly investors are nervous because beside saying, ‘Yes we can’, Obama’s economic policies have not been spelled out as yet. Africans should remember that Obama is American, whatever his roots. He believes in accountability of leadership, hard work, fighting corruption, responsibility, democracy not communism or one-party states. If there is any African country out there that lives up to these beliefs to the letter then I am sure Obama will give that African country the support it needs, maybe not financially but in kind. If you saw the Kenyan High Commissioner to the UK, interviewed on BBC News; when asked what Kenya, in its rather special relationship with President-elect Obama might now expect, he said that he hoped there would be more aid to Kenya and that the US could persuade more donors to help Kenya. Now there’s a real example of how Africans instead of believing that, yes they can rely on themselves economically, they only think of relying on aid. Irrespective of what the Kenyan High Commissioner said, what Kenya will get - is one hell of a boost to their tourism industry, which is better than aid. You want to bet how many Americans will want to see Kenya? Instead of banking on Obama it is time for the African continent to pull itself up from the quagmire it finds itself in, instead of relying on assistance from developed nations. It is time to look to the power of our resources – both human and natural; to be drawn to our thinkers – black and white African; to be attracted to the best among us who can lead us honorably to our proverbial place in the sun.
c) If Africa can produce such great offspring as Obama I agonise as to why Africa continues to wallow in its sorry state. The reason is because the mandarins of Africa’s ruling elites and political opposition, with very few exceptions, do not love and believe in Africa. They believe in their own shrewdness to gain power for its own sake; amassing influence so that they can enrich themselves and subjugate the very people they should be serving. They believe in the supposed prowess of their tribes over others. They stake their fortunes in liberation credentials, which have poisoned them with a misplaced sense of entitlement to rule “until kingdom come.” This is precisely the reason why conflict rages on in the DRC, Darfur and many other spots too depressing to detail. It is part of the reason why the continent is still ravaged by disease and poverty. It is also explains why we continue to mortgage our resources in oil and minerals to foreign corporations. In short, it is the reason for the many things we still do not get right. If we loved ourselves enough, we would not be building personality cults. If we loved our people enough and placed the prosperity of future generations above ours. Indeed, if we held true to our self respecting values and realised the greatness accorded to us by those that fought so gallantly for our freedoms, we wouldn’t continue squandering every opportunity to reform and do better.
d) Africa should realize that their economies can not function on infrastructure built in the 1960s. Shacks still abound in Alexandra within spitting distance of Africa’s premiere economic hub in Johannesburg. The pungent smell of poor sanitation still fills the air of downtown Accra, in a country which was the first to gain independence. In Abidjan we drove through streets lined with rotting garbage on our way to a pristine beach. Our leaders’ investments in grandiose palaces and Swiss bank accounts say a lot about how little they love their own backyard. It is self hate when we don’t invest in infrastructure which can improve quality of life and eliminate our shocking infancy mortality rate. It can only be self loathing which endears our politicians and civil servants to the easy pickings of corruption and such other underhand deals whilst the majority of the people struggle to survive on less than one USD a day. It cannot be love for one’s country, when we seek to profit from the misery of others; when in the name of entrepreneurship we remain adamant to make dollars off the broken backs of Ethiopians, Zimbabweans, Congolese and others less fortunate than ourselves, without giving them a decent due for their contribution to our comfort. Indeed, it will be a sad indictment on all of us should there be an unprecedented surge in the number of Africans immigrating to Obama’s America. Those who cling on to power and arrogate themselves the right to rule with impunity have already devastated the hopes, dreams and lives of an entire nation in Zimbabwe. Those who seek self enrichment at the expense of their people have caused untold strife in lands where oil and diamonds abound, in Nigeria, Liberia, DRC, Sudan and Angola.
It is about time Africa stops and ponders about its self destructive attitude, it is time its leaders emulate the son of their soil Obama who has won the hearts & minds of many with his demeanour.
One such inspirational and charismatic leader whom we can compare to Obama is Jeremiah Kure; he is a professional working in the corporate governance arena, based in Johannesburg. He is the founder of the Heights We Must Climb movement and a firm believer in a progressive Africa; an Africa not tied to her stereotyped past but one that is steadily reclaiming her dignity and potential in the global space. He is 33 years old. It is mainly Jeremiah Kure’s thoughts and those of a few other African thought leaders that are written below. I just thought I should share them with you readers who read my blog and show you that yes we have our own Obamas in Africa.
a) As we celebrate Obama’s win let us Africans mourn our struggling democracies and our numerous flawed elections as well as the floundering attempts to overcome the tradition of mediocrity, self-loathing and lack of leadership on the African continent. Africa should cut ties with its bond to apathy and mediocrity. We should shake free the hangover of inferiority. All over Africa the promise of change is often preached but has never been fully consummated the way it has been in this year’s US election, in Africa the promise of change is really and truly under threat up to the present moment. The irony of it is that those who threaten the promise of change in Africa are the very ones who fought for liberation. It is a sad pattern and one not worth repeating. We have seen it all time and again, in Zimbabwe, Kenya, DRC, Eritrea, Angola, Gabon and many other African nations, where the elixir of democracy remains elusive and where both its quest and suppression have caused untold suffering, claiming hundreds of lives every day.
b) Far too many Africans see Obama as the savior of Africa. This in my opinion might not happen because to turn the American economy around is going to take an enormous effort and if I read the signs on the various stock markets correctly investors are nervous because beside saying, ‘Yes we can’, Obama’s economic policies have not been spelled out as yet. Africans should remember that Obama is American, whatever his roots. He believes in accountability of leadership, hard work, fighting corruption, responsibility, democracy not communism or one-party states. If there is any African country out there that lives up to these beliefs to the letter then I am sure Obama will give that African country the support it needs, maybe not financially but in kind. If you saw the Kenyan High Commissioner to the UK, interviewed on BBC News; when asked what Kenya, in its rather special relationship with President-elect Obama might now expect, he said that he hoped there would be more aid to Kenya and that the US could persuade more donors to help Kenya. Now there’s a real example of how Africans instead of believing that, yes they can rely on themselves economically, they only think of relying on aid. Irrespective of what the Kenyan High Commissioner said, what Kenya will get - is one hell of a boost to their tourism industry, which is better than aid. You want to bet how many Americans will want to see Kenya? Instead of banking on Obama it is time for the African continent to pull itself up from the quagmire it finds itself in, instead of relying on assistance from developed nations. It is time to look to the power of our resources – both human and natural; to be drawn to our thinkers – black and white African; to be attracted to the best among us who can lead us honorably to our proverbial place in the sun.
c) If Africa can produce such great offspring as Obama I agonise as to why Africa continues to wallow in its sorry state. The reason is because the mandarins of Africa’s ruling elites and political opposition, with very few exceptions, do not love and believe in Africa. They believe in their own shrewdness to gain power for its own sake; amassing influence so that they can enrich themselves and subjugate the very people they should be serving. They believe in the supposed prowess of their tribes over others. They stake their fortunes in liberation credentials, which have poisoned them with a misplaced sense of entitlement to rule “until kingdom come.” This is precisely the reason why conflict rages on in the DRC, Darfur and many other spots too depressing to detail. It is part of the reason why the continent is still ravaged by disease and poverty. It is also explains why we continue to mortgage our resources in oil and minerals to foreign corporations. In short, it is the reason for the many things we still do not get right. If we loved ourselves enough, we would not be building personality cults. If we loved our people enough and placed the prosperity of future generations above ours. Indeed, if we held true to our self respecting values and realised the greatness accorded to us by those that fought so gallantly for our freedoms, we wouldn’t continue squandering every opportunity to reform and do better.
d) Africa should realize that their economies can not function on infrastructure built in the 1960s. Shacks still abound in Alexandra within spitting distance of Africa’s premiere economic hub in Johannesburg. The pungent smell of poor sanitation still fills the air of downtown Accra, in a country which was the first to gain independence. In Abidjan we drove through streets lined with rotting garbage on our way to a pristine beach. Our leaders’ investments in grandiose palaces and Swiss bank accounts say a lot about how little they love their own backyard. It is self hate when we don’t invest in infrastructure which can improve quality of life and eliminate our shocking infancy mortality rate. It can only be self loathing which endears our politicians and civil servants to the easy pickings of corruption and such other underhand deals whilst the majority of the people struggle to survive on less than one USD a day. It cannot be love for one’s country, when we seek to profit from the misery of others; when in the name of entrepreneurship we remain adamant to make dollars off the broken backs of Ethiopians, Zimbabweans, Congolese and others less fortunate than ourselves, without giving them a decent due for their contribution to our comfort. Indeed, it will be a sad indictment on all of us should there be an unprecedented surge in the number of Africans immigrating to Obama’s America. Those who cling on to power and arrogate themselves the right to rule with impunity have already devastated the hopes, dreams and lives of an entire nation in Zimbabwe. Those who seek self enrichment at the expense of their people have caused untold strife in lands where oil and diamonds abound, in Nigeria, Liberia, DRC, Sudan and Angola.
It is about time Africa stops and ponders about its self destructive attitude, it is time its leaders emulate the son of their soil Obama who has won the hearts & minds of many with his demeanour.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
What is wrong with Zimbabweans?
I was watching South Africans on TV the other day demostrating
against Julius Malema, the ANCYL leader for uttering that he
would die for Zuma. Their argument was that he was regarding
Zuma like a little God and such over-zealous fanaticism from a
youth leader if allowed to take root threatens to encourage the
ANC youth league to oppose violently anyone who is against
Zuma and in so doing act against democracy.
I couldn't help but be impressed by these South Africans. Here
are a people who know what they want for their country, namely
democracy and are prepared to stand up bravely for what they
believe in (democracy) and not only speak out when it(democracy)
is threatened but also guard it (democracy) with actions.
How very different South Africans are from Zimbabweans?
Zimbabweans are just too passive, docile and cowardly
so much that they let politicians kick them left, right
and centre without uttering a word of protest or reacting
against the kicks. The man-made hyper-inflation that has
reached a world record high and caused an economic collapse
in the country is kicking Zimbabweans right there where it hurts
most and causing them to fly in the air from the kicks and then
land on hunger, starvation and poverty. Instead of speaking out
and protesting against the policies of the Reserve Bank governor
that have reduced most people to paupers with his unrealistic
bank withdrawal limits and his authorisation that businesses
charge their goods and services in US dollars and Rands, yet most
employees in the country are paid in Zim dollars, Zimbabweans just
allow him to do what he pleases. All you hear are useless reactions
like the Zimbabwean haves rejoicing over the fact that they can
now buy mayonnaise with their US dollars or Rands, whilst the
Zimbabwean have-nots cry wondering where they are going to get
US$10 or its Zim dollar equivalence to buy 10kgs of maize-meal.
This passivity and docileness really makes me wonder if we
Zimbabweans really know what we want for ourselves, our children's legacy,
and our country. If we did and really believed in it, why are we not
standing up bravely for it like what the South Africans do. Why are we
not speaking out for what we believe in, saying out what we want and
guarding jealously the legacy we can leave for our kids and our
grandchildren. Is this cowardice really lack of courage or it is a
cover of our selfish minds that can only think about what is good for
me and my family and not the greater good of the nation as a whole,
taking into consideration the disadvantaged.
Even if the Zimbabwean leaders agree on cabinet power-sharing there
is no guarantee that our lives will change to the better forever.
The change in our lives is only guaranteed if we learn to speak out and
stand up for what we believe to be the greater good of the nation. A
paradigm shift that kills passivity, docileness, selfishness and cowardice
is what Zimbabweans need.
I am going to post this article on the Motivated for Greatness social
network of mostly Zimbabweans of which I am a member and see if other members
are going to comment about it speaking out their thoughts concerning this
provocative and controversial article or see if they are going to passively
decide not to comment, afraid of saying anything political as usual.
Just wait and see if Zimbabweans on the Motivated for Greatness social network
are going to show their greatness by exercising their human right of freedom
of expression by responding to this article. If they do my article would
have managed to shift their minds, if they don't my article would have hit
a brick wall.
against Julius Malema, the ANCYL leader for uttering that he
would die for Zuma. Their argument was that he was regarding
Zuma like a little God and such over-zealous fanaticism from a
youth leader if allowed to take root threatens to encourage the
ANC youth league to oppose violently anyone who is against
Zuma and in so doing act against democracy.
I couldn't help but be impressed by these South Africans. Here
are a people who know what they want for their country, namely
democracy and are prepared to stand up bravely for what they
believe in (democracy) and not only speak out when it(democracy)
is threatened but also guard it (democracy) with actions.
How very different South Africans are from Zimbabweans?
Zimbabweans are just too passive, docile and cowardly
so much that they let politicians kick them left, right
and centre without uttering a word of protest or reacting
against the kicks. The man-made hyper-inflation that has
reached a world record high and caused an economic collapse
in the country is kicking Zimbabweans right there where it hurts
most and causing them to fly in the air from the kicks and then
land on hunger, starvation and poverty. Instead of speaking out
and protesting against the policies of the Reserve Bank governor
that have reduced most people to paupers with his unrealistic
bank withdrawal limits and his authorisation that businesses
charge their goods and services in US dollars and Rands, yet most
employees in the country are paid in Zim dollars, Zimbabweans just
allow him to do what he pleases. All you hear are useless reactions
like the Zimbabwean haves rejoicing over the fact that they can
now buy mayonnaise with their US dollars or Rands, whilst the
Zimbabwean have-nots cry wondering where they are going to get
US$10 or its Zim dollar equivalence to buy 10kgs of maize-meal.
This passivity and docileness really makes me wonder if we
Zimbabweans really know what we want for ourselves, our children's legacy,
and our country. If we did and really believed in it, why are we not
standing up bravely for it like what the South Africans do. Why are we
not speaking out for what we believe in, saying out what we want and
guarding jealously the legacy we can leave for our kids and our
grandchildren. Is this cowardice really lack of courage or it is a
cover of our selfish minds that can only think about what is good for
me and my family and not the greater good of the nation as a whole,
taking into consideration the disadvantaged.
Even if the Zimbabwean leaders agree on cabinet power-sharing there
is no guarantee that our lives will change to the better forever.
The change in our lives is only guaranteed if we learn to speak out and
stand up for what we believe to be the greater good of the nation. A
paradigm shift that kills passivity, docileness, selfishness and cowardice
is what Zimbabweans need.
I am going to post this article on the Motivated for Greatness social
network of mostly Zimbabweans of which I am a member and see if other members
are going to comment about it speaking out their thoughts concerning this
provocative and controversial article or see if they are going to passively
decide not to comment, afraid of saying anything political as usual.
Just wait and see if Zimbabweans on the Motivated for Greatness social network
are going to show their greatness by exercising their human right of freedom
of expression by responding to this article. If they do my article would
have managed to shift their minds, if they don't my article would have hit
a brick wall.
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