We rebuild with our hands, not prayers

I RECENTLY received an invitation from a group of pastors to attend a “prayer session for the KZN floods”.

I firmly believe prayer brings significant changes in a variety of living beings, but I decided to turn down their offer because I was not as excited as the Hebrew poet.

I firmly believe that saying a prayer after a devastating disaster has occurred is counter-productive. Our priorities are misplaced, we pray when we are supposed to work with our bare hands.

Booker T. Washington observed the emancipated slaves in the US swapped manual labour for religion. The former slaves felt comfortable to rest under the religious cherry tree while avoiding every form of manual labour.

I mused a little over the invitation: Why pray for the KZN floods instead of working towards a restoration plan? I was also compelled to research the meaning of the word prayer.

What is prayer? “Prayer” comes from the Latin precarius, “obtaining by begging”, and precari, “to entreat” – to ask earnestly, beseech, implore.

I also went to my archives to retrieve an article I wrote for sheqafrica.com on September 1, 2014 after the Nigerian church slab collapsed and killed 84 South Africans pilgrims: “There is a misperception among some believers that religion and safety are incongruent. This is fallacy! Safety is an old-age management responsibility, as confirmed even in religious history. One of the human challenges is the ability to distinguish the essence of matter from form. The responsibility for safety is a human responsibility which cannot be delegated to God.”

Japan experienced the triple disaster of an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown on Japan’s north-east coast where 20 000 perished and there was extensive damage to infrastructure in 2011.

The Japanese government spent $295 billion on the region’s recovery, including the construction of roads, seawalls and houses and support for people’s livelihoods. No one organised prayer sessions.

The Direct Relief and Japanese American Citizen’s League (JACL) established the Japan Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund.

The Japanese International Voluntary assisted evacuees who were living in temporary shelters to regain their livelihoods after they were compelled to leave their homes due to high radiation level. Residents were also empowered and their mental health was attended to.

Trade unions forgot about their rights and thought more of their obligations with a view to restoring their country to its former glory.

I do not know how many South Africans, including faith-based organisations, are aware of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015 -2030. The SFDRR is a voluntary management agreement adopted in March 2015 by 187 UN member states with guidelines.

According to the framework, managing the risk of a disaster is aimed at protecting people’s properties, health, livelihoods, productive assets, as well as cultural and environmental assets.

Our participation in any disaster should not be about paying lip service but we should focus on rolling all the victim disaster uphill. We have heard about total quality management and it is time we introduced total restoration management.

Climate change is our new reality, we have no other option but to learn how to develop the speed of restoration as a new national value.