’‹”‹– ƒ––‡”•
Sir,
We copy economic policies from other countries without taking into consideration that our economic environment is obviously different. We keep discussing the issues with emotions while the solutions remain to rot in our minds.
We talk more than we think and never take any step forward beyond the political cacophony.
Our predicaments as a developing nation are not because of economic poverty but mental poverty because we fail to think about the future.
Blessed
As a country we were blessed with abundant natural resources but we have failed to utilise them to the maximum and only allowed such natural resources under the monopolistic manipulation of foreign expatriates yet we expect economic magic.
Our leaders lack the ability to plan.
We are overly dependent on the largesse of powerful economic giants that come with conditions attached.
What we need to do is to strategically plan and set up industries that can stand the test of time by having the marketing arsenal to stand global competitiveness.
This is particularly so, because most of our factories are now defunct because of the inability of these factories to break even.
Investment
Also, we need massive investment in primary production now as the fundamentals to facilitate rapid economic development through industrialisation.
Our primary production is largely agriculture and we all know that the unpredictable nature of rainfall and other climatic conditions affect agricultural production. How many irrigation dams have we constructed?
Do we train people to gain adequate skills to help our farmers to increase production?
Look at the hectares of unused farms; don’t you think that if we had the expertise, we could have struck the iron while it was hot?
Wasted
Monies have been wasted by government but the situation remains grievous. Many farmers are frustrated. The blame game continues yet the problem persists. We need to think outside the box.
It would be of help to all of us if our politicians stop the ‘too knowing’ attitude and allow those with expertise to help develop our nation.
National development cannot be grounded with political motives because it can’t achieve any goal in the long run. We need a more radical and truly national approach in tackling our national developmental challenges.
Anonymous
Sir,
Great minds of all time have attempted to partition the world we live in into two, spirit and matter. Spirit being what is not visible; the underlying stuff that gives life to the universe. Matter is the visible and tangible material we can see with our eyes and touch or feel with our physical bodies. Science calls this invisible life force energy. Philosophers call it universal intelligence. Spiritualists and other philosophers also call it God, while religion, particularly Christianity, calls it the Spirit of God or Light of Christ.
This universal intelligence is the law by which all things are governed in the universe. Nothing comes to life but by it. It is in all things and through all things, and round about all things. I believe it is through this spirit that we live, move and have our being. Probably Paul meant the same thing when he said; “In him we live, and move, and have our being,” Acts17: 28.
The mind, man’s mind, is part of this great spirit, whereas the brain is matter. Your body is matter, and what lives in the body and gives life to it is spirit – your spirit. This spirit is beginningless and endless. It has always been and ever will be. When it is united or is married to the body, it gives it life. Speaking of this union, some philosophers have spoken about ‘the ghost in the machine’.
Some great Greek philosophers have suggested that the body is limiting to man and ought to be escaped forever if we want to be free. In other words, death liberates mankind from the limiting effect of the body. But Christ teaches that the body is important for the eternal progression of mankind, hence He taught about resurrection – an eternal reunion of man’s body and himself (spirit), and never to be separated again, which gives man eternal and fullness of joy. We are made to believe that each of these two (spirit and body) cannot have the fullness of joy without the other.
In all of nature, living things have intelligence or spirit that gives them life. Both animals and vegetation are propelled by their spiritual self. It seems like even non-living things have a spirit too.
Nkambule