A HUMAN being is a creature with the ability to be destroyed by his or her own choices.
It is ironic because man alone is the only creature blessed with the gift of choice. Animals and birds have no choices but subsist on instinct. Birds fly, migrate and reproduce. Animals live for food, breeding and hibernation, but man can choose to follow his or her on course and yet cannot do himself or his fellow human being any justice.
Choice in our language implies intelligence and wisdom. Sadly it remains true that the world is built on the sweat and blood of the innocent. Towers and castes stand tall. Mansions and empires sprawl along the plains of the earth, and as they do, blood soaks the earth! This is particularly the case in Africa; children of the soil till the land but they hardly enjoy the fruits of the harvest.
Five decades down the line from 1966, Lesotho is said to be independent. What is independence by the way? Is it right and proper to label ourselves independent when we fail to come up with strategies that nip the high unemployment rate in the bud? Perhaps one needs to examine this notion that has eluded our national consciousness without us realising it.
When a new government is elected, among the first issues it sets out to do is to deliver on election promises. Most political parties tout jobs and more jobs in their manifestos. I am puzzled as to why the successive governments have failed to achieve this objective in Lesotho. We witnessed the reign of the first government and all its wonderful achievements.
Despite all that it was able to achieve, it could not deliver the jobs promise.
The citizens waited patiently but eventually realised the previous government would not be able to provide them with adequate jobs.
Realising its failure, the past government sought to implement strategies of self employment. Many Basotho saw this as a beacon of light, but once again their hope for a better life was crushed when policies governing the self-employment policy became untenable.
One had to be educated up to a certain level, in a certain field. The struggling majority was thus sidelined and sunk further into poverty and despair. When the previous government was ejected from power, we again patiently waited for the coalition government to deliver on its promises.
New dreams emerged and new ideas were born. The change had come with hope for a better Lesotho.
New and fresh minds came into power. A new Lesotho was being born, which would finally get its feet off the ground and soar. Yet the unemployment beast remains alive and well.
I remain puzzled on why it seems so difficult to enact policies that will nip this high level of unemployment in the bud. It seems we are capable of achieving anything but that. The numerous graduates staying at home is proof of not only the government’s failure but that of the entire country. Perhaps we do not have among us intelligent people who can come up with a cure for this disease that is destroying Lesotho from inside. With all these questions racing in my mind, I wonder if the job market is already congested.
Self-employment could be a possible solution. If one person can succeed in establishing a business, then at least 10 people will be employed. Some would argue that the scourge of unemployment is caused by corruption and nepotism in which the immediate family get jobs while the neediest remain unemployed.
Blaming it all on corruption and nepotism would be clutching at straws, instead it’s wise to come up with solutions.
A few years ago, while I was still in primary school, I was told that Lesotho is a developing country along with many others. I went on to high school and I heard the same story: “Lesotho is a developing country.” In university I heard the same old song again!
Now I wonder if we will ever attain a different designation such as “Emerging Nation”? How many more years before we are finally there? If I recall precisely well, Botswana was also a developing country with Lesotho, but now the development Botswana has attained is remarkable.
Years of prudent socio-economic management finally paid off for other countries, but not ours. What is it going to take for our country to reach that level? It appears to me that instead of becoming better we are, instead, drowning further.
Ten years back one would get their passport in one month, then in the so-called development they adjusted that and now it takes two years for one to own a passport. Public service was no different; it was in rare cases that a government worker would be taking care of personal business during office hours, but nowadays, not only do they hold private meetings in their offices, they tell you to go back and come another day. In some cases they actually throw you out.
At the rate we are going, we will be singing the developing country song for another millennium because it seems we would rather sit and watch the world elevate than work on our own elevators. Our fellow African sisters and brothers are no better.
Why won’t Africans stand up and change Africa for the better? Why is it that Africans are so poor? We may wish to ignore this but it remains true.
Africa is one of the richest places on earth yet Africans are some of the poorest people on earth. An amazing fact is that Europeans got rich through Africa and other developing lands. Our soil and its minerals enriched westerners so much that we can never match up to them. African countries were colonised and their wealth stolen by colonisers as they left.
Today, many years after colonisation ended, African countries are singing the same song of being developing countries and now there is no more audience to hear them. Who will stop this tiring song and bring about such new melodies as “developed country”?
