If you see a fat insect, just know that it was not born fat. Most probably, it grew fat because it eats other insects.
And that is how life is like. It gets along by eating others. Like what the professor in the Bollywood comedy Viru Sahastrabudhhe aka Virus says –
Life begins with murder. If you don’t compete, you will die.
And life does not wait for anyone. You too should not wait for life to happen to you. Make things happen in your life. Then you will be like the fat insect that knows that any delay in eating a possible predator will mean that it will be eaten.
I am saying this because most of us blacks wait for an invitation to the dining table. But no one will ever summon you to come and eat. If they do, it is because either they want to try you or that the invitation is half-baked.
There are so many opportunities which we pass by every day. But when someone comes by and sees the opportunities, then we start complaining.
The media especially is bent on watching what black people are doing. More often when you hear any one calling themselves an investigative journalist, make no mistake as who they investigate – their black brothers and sisters!
The common belief out there is that blacks cannot do anything without using dirty hands and dirty minds. It is as if blacks cannot think and initiate projects that can run and compete with the rest.
Here is the thing – one Namibian saw an opportunity in the desert and pitched the idea to the minister.
The idea has not taken off the ground yet but we have seen how wrong and bad it is. One would have understood if the idea was bad or wrong. Or if the idea was taken from another person.
So, what we see right now is not how the idea could work and help the battered tourism sector limp back to life.
There is no doubt that had this dude been ‘unblack’, then the media would have gone to town about how an enterprising businessperson from God-Knows-Where has come up with this brilliant idea to use cable cars in the desert.
There is no doubt that no one would be asking how that idea ended up with the minister. But because everything a black person does is suspect, then him too is suspect.
If we look around us today, how many projects have emerged and no one has asked about the process as long as it was an “unblack’ person.
This is why I am saying that we miss a lot of opportunities because we wait for them to hold our hands and lead us. It is because we focus on trivialities rather than on essentials.
We, as the media, has the tendency of pushing our people down even when they would not have done anything wrong.
Just count right now. Of all the stories about corruption apart from the Fishrot you have come across in recent times, how many of them involved “unblack’ people. Does it mean that ‘unblack’ people do not steal or that they are not corrupt?
One of the reasons why we are still here where we are is because of our blindness to opportunities. It is because of our attitude towards those who dare to change things by taking the initiative.
More often than not, those who are supposed to be proactive or whose standing in life is nature-given do not do much apart from what is given. This calls for those who are initiative and are ready to take the risk.
Make no mistake here, corruption should not be condoned. This means we need to understand what qualifies to be called corruption. Many a journalist these days call anything that involves money corruption.
This is why most headlines always carry some amount and once you see that, then be aware – corruption story ahead.
Again, I am not saying stories about corruption should not be covered, but honestly some of the stories are perceived corruption.
One good example is the debt the Prime Minister’s husband has with DBN. The fact that he has talked to the bank on how to pay back does not matter right now to the media. What maters is that he borrowed N$180m.
It is neither here nor there that those who owe less than he does have been prosecuted because people present their cases differently. It depends on how one says they will pay back – the plan. If you owe the bank N$50 000 and they want their money and you have no plan to pay back, then they sue to get it back. And if you the bank N$180m and present a payback plan, then the bank listens.
Bruuuurrr!
