Introduction
As we match into the New Year with all the hopes and expectations, one or two will unconsciously malign the context with unwarranted uniqueness. At the individual level it may suffice but collectively some in the current and or previous generations have successfully overcome. Therefore attempting to re-invent the wheel as a New Year template may not be wise. The suggestion is clear eyed seeking for information even when the context seems too foreign to believe. A respected personality told me towards the end of last year that each person spends half his/her life sleeping. True! So waking up is crucial. Many of us are in deep sleep without knowing why or even dispute we are so. Our children and their successors must not.
Salient Points
Some examples can be found below.
· Allergic to village/origins – there is greater tendency that individual members of the current generation possess higher attraction to so-called cities/urban areas than the villages, their origins. Villages are now associated with the negative, unproductive and unsuccessful. Why is this? This is in part the result of formal education that at its heart dismantled and relegated our view of our collective origins. In the previous decades, these origins were condemned more for lacking infrastructure, restricted access to clean water, lack of electricity and lack of telecommunication. As many communities have achieved high penetration of modern facilities the winds starts blowing in another direction. Village then became the unsafe bastion of evil, unfit for children, destructive to young people, unfit for graduates, unfit for globe-trotters and a den of retrogression. Just a place to be buried! For those who claim to find ‘new faith’, their origins have become the point of separation between their old and their new. Even when there is agreement on safety insurmountable conditions are constructed before positive can be associated with the village. I must admit many of our sisters occupy high places here.
· University degree is ultimate – there is nothing wrong with formal education but for many those who lack it (villages and urban spaces) are inferior. In this view they cannot compete, have inferior opinions and deserve rear seat in public events. This is the new craze. Of course graduates can live in villages and do their business and professional affairs therefrom especially with electricity, water and telecommunication in place. Graduate can interact with non-graduates without problem and with spirit of humility share knowledge and wisdom instead of running away from one’s origin. There is increasing evidence that acquisition of more degrees doesn’t translate to access to expected destination. Many in Europe and Americas can testify. By the way many graduates have Europe?
· Thinking is vague, fear is not real – it is very clear that many of us accepted the conveyor-belt assembly line education system in our various countries without question. The main objective of these systems is to extract unalloyed submission and eliminate dissent. In a funny way, if one get all answer with As then he/she is top dog. There is nothing wrong with high grades but when you ask the same high flyer about applying the subject to local examples, he/she barks because one is fed on foreign examples. For example many like me received Comparative Advantage as conventional wisdom of Economics. So how can China be explained? Rostow’s stages of economic growth is another one. Lenin’s Imperialism, Last Stage of Capitalism is another as if any stage of imposed capitalism is not imperialistic. You marvel as some of us revel in their understanding of austerity. Should we be afraid of critical thinking? Should we be afraid to ask tough questions? Yes, raising hand in schools wasn’t seen as cool for many! Will the children be encouraged down that ugly line? Where will liberation come from? Eating and throwing to go back to it again? Of course in fear! Imposed education system will never encourage or teach thinking. Certificate and degree don’t make one, once a human being nothing else is required to be complete. No one is born stupid but on adulthood the right to build an altar to stupidity cannot be challenged.
· Leadership & management is hmm – conveyor-belt assembly-line education system is a followers game. Zombie a la Fela! Do as I tell you, absorb all you heard! So everyone is working hard to obtain the high grades and rush out to the best job in the best establishment. Fine. Our children are surely going through similar ropes. No one received lessons in leadership, provided with resources to manage expectations of other men and women. Probably one thought that degrees and certificates will take care of it. This is not just about promotions and pay rises. Not about Mandela style; leading from the front and selling out those behind or vice versa. This is the onus to accept responsibility that in your full consciousness you are sufficient and capable to take a giant leap in every situation. It is not about aggression and hard-power confrontation. You can reverse the trend that expects your submission and confront your ‘real deal’ in any establishment or institution. Not a submissive leader though. Self-employed or master-servant showpiece, it all applies. This is the fact that allows us to reclaim ourselves and our histories. It allows us to shine our dignity even when it is denied and also to anticipate new arrivals of imposition on the scene. Europe is no better than China and India. China and India will do no better than Europe.
· First language is not vernacular – many carry vivid examples of structural obstruction to speak their first languages in schools and on-going restriction to colloquium in the religious sphere. Classical example of continuation is prevention of children to learn/speak their parents’ language because ‘English is more important’. However when they are at school they easily pick up the local slang/dialects. This mean no stories, proverbs, poems and linguistic puzzle in the first language. This is called ‘development’ but to all and sundry it is ontological blindness. The breast that provided milk is responsible for delivering language(s). Matters will continue to arise! Please let stop killing our first languages with different convenient excuses.
· My neighbours are not tribes – without thinking we refer to our African brothers and sisters as tribes. Are they? Do you like to be referred to as a tribe member? Have you thought about it for few seconds? Why are Europeans not referred to as tribes? Instead nations? Nationalities? Hmm, my worry doesn’t mean that the trend will change positively tomorrow. It took a long time to arrive and will take more time to be dented. Interact with your neighbours seriously without supervision because you’ve much in common before the imposition, so says the laws of geography.
· Foreign Investment is the key to development – What does it or doesn’t mean? If I attempt to reduce to basics. How will it go for a family leadership to be overthrow by an external entity for a few extra currency? This new ‘investor’ will surely reconfigure his assets (human and inhuman) as he/she saw fit. Will the ‘investor’ reconfiguration of human assets/liabilities go down well with local observers/stakeholders if it include but not limited to ‘touching up’? What are the legal/actual limits? Where does the investment favour or empowered the seller post-sale?
· Church is good and indigenous laws/traditions are evil – if you are not a true reflection of your ontology, traditions and heritage; you’ll make not a good church person either. Trees don’t grow with roots in the air. Tell it to your children.
Like I stated, these are few example. Though points of contextual conflict but not for strategic condemnation. Hope is not a word, it is life. Life may be addictive, good health ever greater. Still an examined life is worth living.
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