Festo Michael Kambarangwe

A SICK NATION & How To Heal It Festo Michael Kambarangwe

"A Sick Nation and How to Heal It" has been written with your aspirations, your child's dreams and the nation's prospects in mind. For a reader who on eyeing the title of the book exclaimed saying: "Ridiculous! This is a ridiculous title," here is my answer: It is not. Nations really get sick! Well' what is health? And what is a nation? There is no such a thing as a nation. We are rather a set of individual men and women-in our families. Consider a nation with enviable natural resources: gold' diamond' wildlife and bursting rich bowels of oil and gas slumbering under the feet of its youth and leadership-the youth and leadership-who loathe classrooms' professions and industry; in their place preferring quick fix' drugs' black-market' environment-endangering activities and "ambiance"! Who then, is responsible with the health of such a nation? Are we unconcerned about the fate awaiting such a nation? Didn't the recent Ebola pandemic' extreme impoverishment, insecurity, and therefore terrorism and mass emigration to the EU help to put that question into perspective? Can a nation break away from quick fix' and responsibly take charge of her affairs once again? How do we address fading loyalty to the family and nation, unity and harmony amongst mankind when sectarian sentiments' indolence and corruption choke the nation; when thousands of her youth drown in the Mediterranean fleeing seeking to reach Lampedusa or Malta? The chief task of a nation craving to progress' is to explore and develop its natural resources, which is impossible without first developing' yes' its Human Resource, i.e. work-skills; but indeed to address the character of its youth and especially the mindset of its leadership and policy-makers is critical if we have to restore a nation's ethos and ideals before we can actually think of development. Under the current circumstances' the time or set of resources one spends in learning dead subjects' is a waste of valuable resources down the drain. To turn our backs upon this challenge and instead to continue burying our heads in the sand fearing to face the facts is insanity; to exchange a goldmine for a "morsel of bread" is madness and thereof' the term "development" becomes a vocabulary to the future generations. To emerge out of unending infancy as a nation, to realize we have an empire to rise out of slavery are the challenges and priorities we must face-the core area our curriculum should address if we should expect as a society to produce people who are useful to themselves, their families, their employers and the nation; people who are resourceful and relevant to the challenges of our time, our dreams, and our hopes for freedom, dignity and prosperity. Less than that is to heap shame on a people whose weak shoulders are already over-burdened by extreme disgrace-which is the least the people expect from their leaders. A true leader appreciates already that the time now-or, NEVER! And this is not only about Africa! Tom Sharpe (in Vintage Stuff) was right when he wrote thus: "It is a functional fact that the under developed nations of the world have much to contribute on social' cultural and spiritual basis to modern thinking!"