This Week In The Khuta – Work for what you want
If there is one thing that I hate, it is hand-outs or donations. In my opinion, it encourages dependency and laziness. It still beats me why Namibia, with all its mineral wealth, still looks to Europe and North America and now even China to feed our less-than-fortunate citizens.
Looking at the size of our population, I think we are in a position to feed and care for our own people.
Every time I attend press conferences where the government accepts donor money, I become really agitated. Agitated because the money is often not used for the intended purposes and because such donations usually come with many strings attached. But do our government officials realise this? Judging from their beaming joy to be “helped”, I don’t think they do. How can we possibly rejoice at being assisted out of pity?
Whatever happened to the dream or our leaders’ notion that Africa must become self-sufficient – that Africa must also become liberated economically just as it became politically. In reality, Africa is still being colonised. What happened to us living off our land, off our own resources. There was and there still is more than enough resources for Africans to survive on. Back in the days, before the missionaries came with their so called civilisation, our people worked hard to feed themselves. But now, people are lazy and depend on others.
I daresay the more developed we become, the more we rely on outside help. If our ancestors could work hard and live off the land, why can’t we? One can be forgiven for thinking that with the sort of industrialisation taking place in Namibia, our government is fully capable of taking care of its people. However, this is not happening at all. Many people still live in abject poverty 22 years after independence. Most people do not have jobs and are going hungry.
I am fully convinced that with all the resources we have, each and every Namibian can live decent lives and government does not have to owe anything to either Europe, China or America. If our leaders just put their minds to it, we can achieve this.
Now I am not saying we should not import and trade with other countries, I am just saying maybe its time that we learn to feed ourselves. Some of the most economically advanced countries in the world do not have a variety of resources to invest in like Namibia, but they are still in the front lines in terms of development. Their governments and non-governmental organisations do not wait for other countries to donate bread to them!
Our ancestors never relied on donations and they got away with it, so why can’t we have some pride like a man who refuses to let another man feed his wife and children while he is fully capable of doing so.
I see our country as a very wealthy man with many resources in his possession, yet he allows another man from another village to feed his wife and children. Does that not go against the “inflated ego” of African men?
But I guess nothing will change as long as the old guard is in charge… Maybe Africans will no longer be beggars once the young male adult takes charge of his father’s household because young people do not feel like the “colonisers/imperialists” owe them anything. They are not bitter and their souls and minds are free. And perhaps when the old guard wakes up one day and sees how successfully young people are running the various countries, the example will be followed all over the continent.
I, for one, truly hopes that someday the wheels will turn and that we will realise our true wealth and make use of it. I hope that we will not wait for a foreigner to come and invest in our farm as if we are incapable. Maybe one day, we can even start giving donations to European countries.
I wish to be alive on the day when Africa regains its pride.
