Will Africa ever stop postponing development?
Housing for all by 2000! Electricity for all by 2000! Jobs for all by 2000!!!
Anyone who witnessed the turn of this millennium would have been so familiar with those noises, that they would have believed that by this time, the woes of Africa would’ve flipped away like a boring page.
But then the (much publicized) year 2000 came but quietly slipped away, and as usual, the general amnesia set-in and of course, we had to set another date to develop!
Hurray!!! The new destination is 2010!
What gets at me are not the failures (per se) that now seem imbedded the in various systems, but the alacrity at which these targets are changed; the swift repackaging of the same fundamentals. Basically, it is the bottle that changes; well, you know what happens to the content, they just pour it back in.
One would say; only time knows how to deal with us (not perfectly though)… because that too (2010) will be here in matter of months!
But come, African should be given some sort of award for ‘problems deferred’! Have we not already repackaged the same developmental issues for 2020!
What is really wrong with us, as a people, as a race?
You know, at first, I thought it was just a national problem, but a peep through other neighbouring windows has revealed the same procrastinating spirit, even at continental level.
We blame the colonialist for messing up our minds, but should that take forever to get right? Because if I am correct, the last time we saw these guys was decades ago. Maybe we should just skip the nonsense (even for a sec) and tell ourselves the truth! Why aren’t the Indians and Malaysians singing the same song?
For those of us who still believe in technology transfer, this is my way of saying SORRY to you! Nobody will develop ideas into industry and serve it to Africa on a platter of gold, just because we choose to be can’t-get-right!
These guys have jobbed the hard work to get where they are, and believe me or not, it is the same atmosphere we have – the same earth, sound and water…
We either wake up and start working on our minds and our environment, or seat tight and keep talking about episodes in human history the rest of the world don’t want to talk about, and how far we would have gotten ‘if not for.’
No matter how many agreements we sign with China or any other emerging industrial powers on techs and transfer, that won’t change thing! just like the others previously signed – if we don’t look for ours.
Because in the eyes of every industrialist; we are just straight throat consumers, renewed, every decade or so, into better consumers.
Nothing dey happen!
Anyone who witnessed the turn of this millennium would have been so familiar with those noises, that they would have believed that by this time, the woes of Africa would’ve flipped away like a boring page.
But then the (much publicized) year 2000 came but quietly slipped away, and as usual, the general amnesia set-in and of course, we had to set another date to develop!
Hurray!!! The new destination is 2010!
What gets at me are not the failures (per se) that now seem imbedded the in various systems, but the alacrity at which these targets are changed; the swift repackaging of the same fundamentals. Basically, it is the bottle that changes; well, you know what happens to the content, they just pour it back in.
One would say; only time knows how to deal with us (not perfectly though)… because that too (2010) will be here in matter of months!
But come, African should be given some sort of award for ‘problems deferred’! Have we not already repackaged the same developmental issues for 2020!
What is really wrong with us, as a people, as a race?
You know, at first, I thought it was just a national problem, but a peep through other neighbouring windows has revealed the same procrastinating spirit, even at continental level.
We blame the colonialist for messing up our minds, but should that take forever to get right? Because if I am correct, the last time we saw these guys was decades ago. Maybe we should just skip the nonsense (even for a sec) and tell ourselves the truth! Why aren’t the Indians and Malaysians singing the same song?
For those of us who still believe in technology transfer, this is my way of saying SORRY to you! Nobody will develop ideas into industry and serve it to Africa on a platter of gold, just because we choose to be can’t-get-right!
These guys have jobbed the hard work to get where they are, and believe me or not, it is the same atmosphere we have – the same earth, sound and water…
We either wake up and start working on our minds and our environment, or seat tight and keep talking about episodes in human history the rest of the world don’t want to talk about, and how far we would have gotten ‘if not for.’
No matter how many agreements we sign with China or any other emerging industrial powers on techs and transfer, that won’t change thing! just like the others previously signed – if we don’t look for ours.
Because in the eyes of every industrialist; we are just straight throat consumers, renewed, every decade or so, into better consumers.
Nothing dey happen!
So true, we keep procrastinating. When will we decide that NOW is the best time to act?
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