Africa’s sad story where life is traded for money
ALUTA continua was president Samora Machel’s mantra, which means the struggle continues. The entire humanity must now say aluta nova, which means the new struggle begins.
A new struggle against environmental degradation must begin in earnest. As South Africans, we must honestly acknowledge the country’s infrastructure could either be destroyed through catastrophic events such as the deluge in KZN or through civil hands.
The quintessence of destructive civil hands had been the torching of Parliament and the destruction of railway infrastructure by rogue elements, among others. The tempestuous waters in KZN led me to the Hopi prophecy: “When earthquakes, floods, hailstorms, droughts, and famine will be the life of every day, the time will have then come for the return of true path.”
In my view, the true path is environmental fidelity and respect for public goods. Both individuals and world corporations share the blame for the environment degradation. Corporations and communities have neither soul nor conscience. When will ensoulment for both corporations and individuals take place?
Human demands on the environment increased apace – forests are shrinking, water tables falling, soils are eroding, wetlands are disappearing, fisheries are collapsing, rangelands are deteriorating, rivers are running dry, temperatures are rising, coral reefs are dying, and plant and animal species are disappearing.
It is sad that after mines have been stripped of extractable minerals are left with a deadly legacy – holes in the ground from which river killing acids continue to drain.
Mine dumps have become new artificial hills. The mining corporations only zeroed in on the extraction of precious minerals. The rehabilitation exercise was relegated to the ground.
Our hard infrastructure is crumbling due to theft, vandalism and corruption. For example, the drainage network in many communities (rural and urban) is clogged due to the lack of maintenance and gross financial mismanagement.
This brings me to the Midas curse. According to Greek mythology, Midas was a king who ruled over the people of Asia Minor. The god Dionysus offered to grant him a favour. Midas asked that all he touched might turn into gold. His wish was granted, but when his touch turned his food, drink, and even his favourite daughter into gold, he realised his assumed blessing was, in fact, a curse.
The story has a profound but still-neglected message to those who are trading life for money. The state of our municipalities is in disarray due to incompetence and corruption, even RDP houses are of low quality with shallow foundations and damp walls.
On the African continent, the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals, primarily women and children, have already been taken by a combination of politics, social chance, and rogue weather patterns.
Global corporations and financial institutions have lamentably failed to drive sustainable development with success.
The Midas curse and environmental infidelity are upon our nation, and instead of prospering, we are disturbingly retrogressing. I hope that as humanity, we will realise that we have derailed, and we earnestly need to return to the true path of sustainable development for the common good of the earth.