AFRICA IS VERY POOR
I will be quick on this..
It’s true; Africa’s
children suffer lack of almost everything - food, water in any form clean or dirty,
housing, clothing, healthcare, education, transport, infrastructure, and most
of the other basic human necessities that most people in the other worlds even
take for granted. Consequent to this, Africa has the highest rates of almost
every evil that can befall humanity – epidemics, infant mortality, maternal mortality, high
rates pf HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Population explosion, lack of basic infrastructure
necessary for living f.e. toilets, sewer lines, etc, garbage disposal systems,
schools/colleges and universities, jobs, etc.
The flipside is, Africa is very rich – excellent arable land, shocking endowments like wildlife, beaches, rivers and lakes, forests, mountains, mineral resources like gold, diamond, silver, prosper, two of the world’s longest rivers, wonderful rainforests, expansive beaches, …… but I know we are contradicting ourselves because very richis the direct opposite of poor. But I say Africa is indeed very rich NOT very poor although the fact is we still hurt. The question really is why, do we suffer, and not whether, we really are rich.
The way I see it though, Africa is like a Prince, sorry, no, we really are Princes and Princesses. We are the children of God the King and are heirs to his throne. He has bequeathed us all the wealth and riches deserved by our high status, so we really are rich. But,,,, when he gave us an instrument, say it were a type-writer just to be old fashioned, and we owned and kept it, we refused to learn how to type. If it were a powerful car he granted, we both feared it and refused to learn how to drive, if he gave us an airplane, asked that we get ourselves a pilot’s license we have said no, not now; we know where the mineral wealth lies but that is clearly too far for us to be bothered, too much work to get there, I think if were were the Israelites and he gave us the promised land we'd have told Him no we would not leave Egypt and go to the promised Land why don’t you he be God enough and bring the promised land to us, in Egypt - it was too much work to go there. Worse still, when he didn’t bring the Promised Land to us in Egypt, arrogant we asked the heathens and atheists in that land to go into it, farm for us and bring us alms, in Egypt. And I am not surprised they didn’t bring us enough or regularly – they obviously think and have reason to believe we are stupid. But we are not stupid, we sincerely carry the genes of God and he is not stupid by any measure. But we are different from our Him in that we have decided we don’t want to cut no sweat, not have to feel the pain of seeking and yet that is what He has told us to do.. We have let ourselves go, lay too long in slumber our bodies now refuse to move no more, we have preferred leisure and pleasure to the pain, hardship and commitment required for the achievement of our basic needs. We have established systems within ourselves purposely for longer down times than in labor. How can we find the time, when our brothers and sisters are are hurtung, in pain.. Why does philanthropy have to come from elsewhere? Why are strangers our brothers keeper and not we? Why does it all have to be done for us. Are we not men and women enough? Do we not insist we are equal, even sometimes better, we should not be looked down upn? Are just hot air in the end, or is there something we've got, something we can show - proof, a reality, not a fake? Are we rigging our place here on the planet? I am not, I wanna stand up and be counted, don't you? To rise and be the collosus I feel I am? Come with me, We have acted confused for far too long, acted ignorant, as though we do not see that what we are is a choice we have made. We have decided that it is OK to starve, to live in agony and anguish, in so semi-arid regions while our brothers and sisters in real deserts prosper and thrive. Is it really OK for example that a 'thriving' country like Kenya should receive food donations from Egypt which feeds off the River Nile which flows from in our backyard while our Tana River, Athi River, Ewaso Nyiro, River Congo; all the rain we receive every year, all the underground water we can ‘easily’ tap, and on and on and on accrue no benefits to our people. Don't we really have to ask ourselves why! why does north Africa never suffer hunger
and starvation when we on our turn can feed them. Well, I guess we couldn't it.
Because diminished
productivity in African is itself not the principal problem, but rather just but a
symptom of a far deeper malaise. The extremely poor or near complete absence of
productivity in Africa, or at the very least in the greatest majority of
Africans is a result of a lack of motivation, absolutely no drive, a complete lack of grasp of his/her loves, desires
and wants. It is not about what you see when you look at me, it is about what
you do not see. It has little to do my physical or mental power; it is about the
inner me, my heart, my spirit, the deepest insides of me, my very soul, of
every man and woman in Africa; it is about our socialization, our values, his/her driving force,
what he/she thinks, wants and believes in, what I desire and what he/she wants for their life –
and what he/she wants to do with all that. How do I feel... it does not seem to me as though he knows what he really needs, or if he does,
he does not need it badly enough to make even a token sacrifice for it, that it deeply hurts is
contradictory because then he should so want to deal with it he could die for it – but we've never know a thing so important it's worth dying for, not a philosophy or a value, or if we did, it was even worth it to be honest. I suspect
my spirit is confused, discouraged, broken, unbelieving, he does not think he can change
anything, probably because he has never changed anything – for himself, he is
passive, nature has control of him and fate is almighty, he does not try to control it, to manipulate it, take dominion over it
– when he hurts, and does nothing about it, he finds a reason, an excuse of sorts; it
could be the Gods, nature, it could be a witch, a bad omen, just bad luck, if only
he could do anything but unfortunately he cannot - it is never his fault, that one could never be avoided, could never be done, he convinces himself. He swears given a chance he
would do something, but God knows he has tried, but he has had every chance and he does not do
anything about it. He sits there, as his livestock and sometimes even his
children starve to death one year, and you will find him there
again another such time. It doesn’t matter a whole year will have passed, but
you will not find a little thing he did in the intervening time to minimize the pain
he previously suffered. It is mind boggling, it is incredulous, unbelievable. It makes
him look stupid and yet he is not, if IQ was the measure of intelligence he wouldn't be, but if
action and deeds were, then we have a big problem right there.
But a few of his and
her kin have been beseeched, persuaded, encouraged. They form the small
African elite that we see in leadership everywhere be it business, politics,
academia and many of them are to be seen out of the continent in the Diaspora.
Those ones and they come from every corner of the continent are our real proof
that the African man and woman are not under intelligent, that they have the
capacity to take charge and control nature and their own destiny. Great sons
and daughters of African like James Mwangi, Paul Kagame, Mwai Kibaki, Barrack
Obama, Yoweri Museveni, Nelson Mandela, Colin Powell, and many others have
clearly shown that the African ancestry Joe public posseses all requisite built-in
capacity to thrive and be great and so I surmise he can only be lacking in the
real drivers that direct such capacity to the realm of greatness.
We will discuss the drivers, see why they are missing... and how to get 'em on, kick-started..... join me.
