By Pearson Mbendera.
Zimbabwe, Harare. (News Of The South) – It seems as if African countries cannot do anything by themselves, and Zimbabwe is no exception. We have been too busy looking one way or the other trying to find solutions to help our nations. But one way we haven’t looked at is in ourselves, we have been so distraught in our own woes that we have failed to look for home grown solutions hence the need to look East or West.
Eastern countries, particularly China, have been playing an active role in the economies of many Africans states. They fund projects, lend us money and in return, we give them minerals, government contracts (funded by the money they would have lent us, meaning it goes back to them). But these nations gain more from these deals than what Africa gets in the end.
The concepts of independence and sovereignty, much to their advertisement here in Africa are still quite misunderstood and definitely improperly used. How can we just preach the gospel of independence when we do not practice it, there is hypocrisy in that? Africa will never be the best it can ever be until we learn how to make the most of the resources the good Lord has given us and work in harmony, to make this continent better in our own terms, using African means to build a better Africa for Africans.
Recently, Alibaba, a Chinese based group of internet businesses launched the most successful IPO in the US, making its founder, Jack Ma, the richest Chinese person. In 1999, Jack Ma had one goal that he gave to his employees, beat the Americans and work harder. African companies should have the same goal; beat the west and the east and worker harder. Surely Jack Ma’s goal had paid off, having launched the most successful IPO in the US. We too can do the same, but the problem is, we are more interested in what they have, rather than what we could have for ourselves. We shouldn’t just look there for solutions; we should look there to see where they are and find ways to beat them.
Without clear goals and targets, wherever we will end up, it will be ok with anyone of us. We have minerals, arable land and the human resource to work and produce more than what we can consume locally. What we don’t have the mental aptitude to make the most of what we have.
Right now, the richest 400 people from the United States of America, own a combined total assets to the amount of $2.29 trillion, and yet, many African states’ GDP lie somewhere in the Billion dollar valuation, which at times is the net worth of just one US billionaire.
But the question is how can we beat the West and the East, and the answer is simple, let us stop doing things the way we have been doing all along. We have been playing to lose, and we have lost in spectacular fashion. We go to Europe, America and Asia and purchase their finished products, and never bring home the technology that creates the same products that we want from them.
We have minerals and oil in Africa, but how many African countries process those minerals or oil, we sell them in their raw state, which has less value than the processed and finished product, only to import the finished product later, and it costs us a lot of money. This type of deals will always put us at a disadvantage as we will always fork out more just because we can’t process things on our own. The day these resources will be fully depleted is the day we will realize how stupid we have been.
Even Hitler built Germany to be self-sufficient, after the Germany economy had been severely destroyed by the World War one and after effects that came partly because of the reparations payments required under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. It was the spirit that he had, that Germany could be a great nation again, despite the economic setbacks that had marred them leaving the economy operating under hyperinflation conditions.
We don’t believe like that, we believe that the West and The Eastern countries will come and help us out, for as long as I can remember, African countries have been singing the same chorus, pleading to the 1st world countries for aid. This begging mentality and lack of interest to build on our own is the reason we will always be poor and always looking out to the East and the West.
If you follow some international business news, you will hear about a lot of start-ups from America, china and India, and yet here we have nothing in comparison, just people learning how to use the technology they pass down to us. We have taken the end user role of the economic equation, and for that reason, we will always wait to be fed from their surplus.
What dream do we have for Zimbabwe, for Africa? Is it one that will see use dominating in the future or we will always extend our hands to beg from what they have? We have tried every other way and failed, let’s not just look East or West, let’s try to beat them, we have the resources to do so, question is, do we have the heart for it?
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