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A Wealthy Nation, Poor Attitudes - Part I PDF Print E-mail
Written by Namucana Musiwa   
Wednesday, 24 February 2010 00:00
Nathan Nyirenda, the sensational Zambian singer who last year produced a song entitled ‘Mwe Ma Kufi’ which played (and still plays albeit seldom) on all radio stations, in many vehicles, offices, discos, pubs and in most homes, in the country, like a National Anthem, deserves kudos for such a well-thought-out song which is rich in both melody and message.

Unfortunately, most Zambians took it as just another hit, listened to it, danced to it, laughed about it, joked about it and when a few weeks later there was another release by a different artiste, ‘Mwe Ma Kufi’ went into the archives and became part of Zambia’s rich history.  Even  I, don’t play it at all these days and in fact I don’t even know where my tape is but the message still lingers in my head each and everyday.

Every progressive Zambian who has love for this country should digest the meaning of this song and think long and hard about what he or she can do to contribute to the development of this nation or at least help restore its past glory.

Nathan, in his song, begs his knees not to get tired of kneeling while he prays and makes an appeal to his heart to be joyful.  Supposedly referring to bribery and corruption he says that contaminated morals and minds cannot conquer the will of our life-giving God.

Nathan laments our status and wonders whether we are where we are now because we are dark-skinned or have smaller brains compared to our white or light skinned counterparts.

He goes further to talk about the abundant resources that the country is endowed with such as minerals, land and water.  Nathan also states that we enjoy a great amount of peace.  This really is food-for- thought for all of us, as far as I am concerned.  With all the blessings that the good Lord has showered upon us, why are we still poor?  What really is our problem?  Yes, history and imperialism have a lot to do with our current state but then what is the way forward?  For how long can we continue to mourn and blame other nations for our predicament?  How much can we change on our own to raise living standards?  What can we do to transform our natural resources into wealth?  What can we do to bring about a paradigm shift?

A look at the difference between the poor and rich nations may help us answer these questions.

Michael Mbulo of Lusaka, sent me a power point slide e-mail sometime last year and requested me to, through our workshops and seminars, spread the contents of the e-mail that had been authored by someone whose name I cannot remember.  I have never stopped thinking about the e-mail message and I share it with workshop participants at every opportunity.

The e-mail challenges all those who love Zambia to reflect and act.
The author states and I quote;

“ The difference between the poor countries and the rich ones is not the age of the country.  This can be shown by countries like India and Egypt, that are more than 2,000 years old and are poor.  On the other hand, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, that 150 years ago were inexpressive, today are developed countries and are rich.

The difference between poor and rich countries does not reside in the available natural resources.

Japan has a limited territory, 80% mountainous, inadequate for agriculture and cattle raising, but it is the second world economy. The country is like an immense floating factory, importing  raw material from the  whole world and exporting manufactured products.

Another example is Switzerland, which does not plant cocoa but has the best chocolate of the world.  In its little territory they raise animals and plant the soil during 4 months per year. Not enough, they produce dairy products of the best quality.  It is a small country that transmits an image of security, order and labour, which has made it the world’s strong safe.

Executives from rich countries who communicate with their counterparts in poor countries show that there is no significant intellectual difference.

Race or skin colour are also not important: immigrants labeled lazy
in their countries of origin are the productive power in rich European countries.

What is the difference then?

The difference is the attitude of the people, framed along the years by the education and the culture.

On analyzing the behavior of the people in rich and developed countries, we find that the great majority follow the following principles in their lives:

1. Ethics, as a basic principle.
2. Integrity.
3. Responsibility.
4. Respect to the laws and rules.
5. Respect to the rights of other citizens.   
6. Work loving.
7. Strive for saving and investment.
8. Will of super action.
9. Punctuality.

In poor countries, only a minority follow these basic principles in their daily life.
We are not poor because we lack natural resources or because nature was cruel to us.  We are poor because we lack attitude.
 
We lack the will to comply with and teach these functional principles of rich and developed societies.”

I see a great similarity between what Nathan and the author of this
e-mail is saying as well as in what I personally believe in.

As a country we need to take stock of our wealth and come up with strategies of how we will exploit our wealth, if not for ourselves then for future generations.
 
Firstly, we have abundant arable land – 752,000 square kilometers of land in all.  We can use this land for agriculture and feed the whole country as well as earn the country foreign exchange through exports of food and horticultural products.  We enjoy good climate, on average.  Although we have floods in a few places, a few times and drought in a few places, there is nothing major to delay or indeed halt progress.  We do not suffer tsunamis, cyclones, earthquakes or volcano eruptions.  We produce some of the best coffee, rice, sugar cane, cashew nut, pineapples and watermelon in the world.

Secondly, we are rich in minerals and precious stones and some minerals are yet to be discovered.  Our very own Nchanga Open Pit was once the second largest open pit mine in the world after Chile, it may very well still be.

Thirdly, Zambia enjoys more than 60% of the fresh water in the Southern Region.  She has rivers and lakes and high tables of ground water.  It is difficult to understand how, with all this water, we should not have water flowing from our taps 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Fourthly, Zambia is home to people with some of the highest qualifications on the continent .   Zambian’s generally thirst for knowledge and strive to improve themselves academically.  The best brains, in the Region, seem to be products of schools in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.  In comparison with citizens of other countries in the Region, Zambians are extremely knowledgeable, extremely learned, well read and full of solutions for our economic and social ills. 

Fifthly, with a population of approximately 10.5 million people, our country is far from being overpopulated which means we have a lot of space to develop farms, build manufacturing plants, processing plants and other industries.

Country men and women, we have talked for too long.  It is time to ACT.  We are not a poor country.  Let us open our eyes, minds and hands and utilize what we have.  We are sitting on gold.  God bless Zambia.
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