By Pearson Mbendera.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South)- There once was a time when Zimbabwe was a great nation, a bread basket of Africa, our economy was strong and vibrant, people had jobs and everything,-well not everything but most things- were working well for us.
People had hope for an even brighter tomorrow, and that was a possibility. But now its all gone, and to talk about that period of time, seems more of an imagination, a hallucination than anything else. Equally so, is the thought that Zimbabwe will reach those heights again and even surpass them, because no one seems concerned about making Zimbabwe great again.
The Zimbabwe of old, that good Zimbabwe no longer exist, and in its place lies a shattered country of broken hopes and dreams, unemployed youths, a crippled economy.
The Zimbabwe of today, no longer resembles its former self. But what does it need to move forward?
The story of Zimbabwe is an interesting one, and over the last two decades or so, while our economy was taking a nose dive down, it seems as if, from every angle you can look at, there is a serious problem you can find. Be it unemployment, corruption, cash shortage, a leadership crisis. But what you won’t see are people coming up with solutions, it feels too good just talking about the problems.
We have fallen so far behind, and nothing much has been done to resuscitate this dying nation. In fact, it seems as if most people are actually rooting for the nation to die. The belief that we will have our once great status revived seems more farfetched and less believable than the story that God came to Zimbabwe, and met one of our local prophets.
But now it seems that people are more interested in who will lead Zimbabwe, than in what role, they themselves will play in ensuring that Zimbabwe prospers. It seems as if people have given up hope, that they would rather share scandalous stories on social media than get engaged in the rebuilding process. But that shouldn’t be the case, not if we want to succeed.
We all have a role to play. Great nations weren’t built by politicians alone, neither were the built by a few men, but by members of the society whose contribution, however minor, was needed to foster success. We have a saying in Shona, “Rume rimwe harikombe churu.” So why should the building of this nation be left to the few?
As for me, I’m tired of the negativity,of the constant bickering about what’s not working, what’s and who is wrong, about division, that has gotten us no where. Its time for solutions, for coming together, for being involved. Our passivity is killing us.
The more effort we plough into criticizing each other and pointing out at what’s not working, the less effort we put in building the nation. But does anyone really care? Or am I just crying for people to save a country they are just waiting to bury six feet under.
What we need is for everyone to step up, and start building this nation. Its ours after all, and no one will build it for us. If we were once great, what’s stopping us now? Things will never be perfect, that’s a guarantee, but if we work together as one, as a united nation,we might not make Zimbabwe perfect, but we just might make it great again. Only if we try. It’s high time we try.
And to steal from John F. Kennedy, I leave you with his quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,”
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