Oh Africa...

Oh Africa…

But is it just here? On the greater continent, other than Iraqis and Afghans blowing each other up daily, there are sporadic reports of the Basque uprising in Spain, Burmese people being squashed, Russia smashing Georgia, civil unrest in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, drug wars in Mexico and Columbia, to name but a few…yes the world and its countries have their issues aplenty, but this my continent is special, very special.

Hey peops, trust week 3 of the year is still providing the promise of a great and exciting year that day 1 brought with it. Can you believe it 20th of Jan already?! It reminds me of something I heard yesterday…or was it this morning “Life is like toilet paper, the closer you get to the end the faster it goes ☺

So back to my observation about this continent of ours… I seem to be constantly having this conversation with my pops or some mates about will this continent ever over come? Over come what you might ask? Every week there is something new. You lose an election which international observers that you allowed in have adjudged to have been free and fair, yet you refuse to leave office? Why cant you be like those forlorn looking people on survivor that when the presenter says ‘the tribe has spoken’ just packs their bags and leaves huh, why. Why must you insist on staying on like its your family business against which someone is attempting a hostile take over. Its not your bloody playground damnit! And its not just Ivory Coast, we have Zim who has had the same president for over 30 years, DRC where a president dies and his son takes over because that’s how it should be, yes same thing in Cuba with Fidel and his brother, Russia, Putin and his puppet, but we aren’t talking about those countries. I am talking about my beloved continent. So rich in so many things but very poor in this thing called common sense, because I guess its not so common.

Bless the Tunisians for showing us the way man, there was a dictator in power and the people stood up and sang…”we’re not gonna take it, no we not gonna take it, we not gonna take it…anymore!” bravo to them and I think even bigger kudos to the president who instead of ordering the military or the army to just kill the masses, decided to flee to Saudi.

But I guess leaders staying in power indefinitely and genocide etc is only but part of our problems, because the latter for example has its roots in religion and ethnicity. A problem that I grapple with a lot is ok so I am president X and everyday I drive to work in my bullet proof Mercedes benz on a pothole filled road that the drivers of the Dakar Rally would be more than at home on. I see gutters that are open on the side of the roads, I see little kids sitting there begging for pitons instead of being in class working. I see the road littered people who have no jobs. I get to the office and every 3 hours the electricity fails for about 2 hours and the water stops running frequently. I go to bed at night and I think woow what a good job I am doing….and you know what. I think a good lot of them do believe that they are doing a good job. I can hear some of them speaking now; “you know eh, when I was growing up, I would be up at 4.30am have to walk 5km to fetch water to wash before school, then I would walk 15km to school. You people eh, you are now living in heaven oh. Press a button oh and there is light, no candles…e-l-e-c-t-r-c-i-t-y…marvelous…turn this thing and water gushing out…so spoilt you out…this thing its ok!!!

NO its not Ok! Yes we are a little better in some ways than in 1957 but in a lot of ways we are no better off. You raise 100mil to build a road, 5 years later road isn’t finished 100mil is gone without a trace, its not ok. 2011 and fertile land aplenty yet people go hungry and its ok?! Nah man

Why is this? I am a proponent of remember the past but don’t let it hold you back, but I fear the Colonial rule that governed moulded the minds of Africa’s current leaders and to the detriment of this continent. The general mindset seems to be more of self and less of the greater population. Because I have lived a life of want or known a life of want, now that I am in power let me loot, but I guess in some cases this isn’t true because a lot of the leaders have had good schooling. But I do honestly believe that a lot of the continents current leaders carry the heavy burden of the past which manifests itself into pride and stubbornness and those that suffer are the self same civilians who elected this person into power because he promised better water, sanitation, jobs, you know the basics that would guarantee a better life for all…

I don’t know maybe I am clutching at straws, and looking for an explanation for this horror story that is Africa. I am in no way a politician, but let me take a country like Ghana for example. One of the largest producers of gold in the world, second largest producer of cocoa in the world, just found oil, huge timber producer, enormous amounts of fertile land, lovely coast line. Yes its been touted by the World Bank a few days ago as the fastest growing country in Sub Sahara Africa, but man but…we have a massively long way to go still. Something as simple as town planning is a mess. Simple things like street addresses is a mission. Identity numbers of the inhabitants of the country is a mission. There is a massive lake called the Volta lake which I am sure can harness enough hydro electric power to supply CONTINUOUS electricity to the whole of Ghana. There is enough rainfall to ensure that people have constant water supply. And how hard will it be to set up a water purification plant? But what are we doing?

People build massive houses in upper class neighborhoods, but the government is unable to provide a decent road network system to service these houses.

Will we ever overcome I ask? There are enough smart people on this continent to ensure that we do overcome, and I applaud institutions like the African Leadership Academy who from a young age identify youngsters with good leadership qualities and harness this, because that can only bode well for the continent, but in the short term, I think what we need are young less jaded people who have already made money to run our countries. The saddest thing though is such people I guess are smart enough to stay out of politics.

Birthdays
16th Ann-Louise, Yatin
17th Pongas
19th Priya
20th Natasha,
21st Christienette, Clayton
22nd Munier

More fun, more smiles if you do more of those then the world is alright with you not so.

Have a splendid weekend all

More peace and tolerance (but not of stupidity)

Yaw