Mfomfo on Monday 12 July 2010
The lack of unifying force amongst Swazi people is detrimental to their survival.
The Swazi people, from a distance, appear very united yet using a micro-scope to look at their ways of life look very much divided or a group of individuals with no values binding them together. We have one King, similar cultural upbringing and a little bit of similar educational system but very different in many respects. We are very good at treating visitors but not interested in learning thing or two from them. We are good at giving praise where it is due but can hardly do anything to show our innovation.
I have had the chance to visit a number of communities with a view of getting to know the different family values that may be keeping them going on daily basis and I have found very few if any. Before a nation pays any attention to the things that define it as a particular people, it must have its people address certain needs that are very key to their survival. Generally people need food, housing and education before talking about luxuries. In Swaziland we are all in agreement that there is not enough food for everybody. The lack of this essential need breaks down the Swazi people into many segments resulting in our failure to move in a preferred direction for our development and progress. The bulk of the Swazi people have to worry about getting food. This is why there is World Vision in Swaziland trying very hard to help in the procurement of food Aid as well as its distribution. Without this donor there would be hunger and starvation in this country. I think the presence of this donor organisation in this country is an admission in our own right that we have failed to look after ourselves and our children. Instead of being ashamed of ourselves, we have tolerated this situation up to a point where we feel there is nothing wrong with being indifferent to our plight.
Many years back our government started talking about food production but we are yet to see anything new to help us overcome this challenge. What is the matter with the Swazi people? I wonder why we are becoming experts at identifying a problem and then failing to do anything about it. I do not know the amount of resources we have used to get to address this problem but nothing seems to work. As long as we will learn to tolerate certain things that are not helping us to get many Swazis out of this hunger cycle, we will have few brains to help us move forward. A nation that has few brains available to look at existing problems will always have no economic growth and will develop a dependency syndrome. If there are more people in Swaziland who cannot use their brains profitably then we will always have many people making a lot of noise. This will result in the government wasting resources on people who are to maintain order. We do not need to have many Swazis making too much noise but they are becoming used to it because they do not have any hard thinking to do due to the fact that the environment is not conducive to hard thinking. Are the Swazi people so stupid that we do not know what to do in order to produce enough food for everyone in Swaziland?
The second need that the Swazi people need to address is Shelter. The sporadic mushrooming of huts and houses everywhere is a clear indication of desperate need for shelter. We have to define what a shelter is. If we do not do this then we will be a laughing stock to the civilized communities of the world. A house has to have running water and power. These must be affordable as they tend to have a positive spin-off on the lives of the Swazi people and their children. The education need is one that needs no emphasis because it is the backbone of all civilized countries.
The world cup is over and there is no denying the fact that those who participated for the first time, were able to gauge their performances against the world’s best. Uruguay was a revelation. They have deadly strikers. Luck was an element that was missing for some teams like Ghana. South Africa did very well and will always be remembered for the right reasons. We can now look forward to 2020 for the Olympics in Durban?
